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Cyclists falling on 'greasy' cycle superhighway in Stockwell (+ video)
Cyclists have complained that a stretch of London’s Cycle Superhighway 7 (CS7) has been causing riders to slip over due to a ‘greasy’ surface. Dozens are said to have fallen on the link from Clapham Road to South Lambeth Road in Stockwell since it was opened just before Christmas.
The London Evening Standard reports that Transport for London (TfL) has launched an investigation “as a matter of urgency” following a slew of complaints.
Frequent reports indicate a persistent problem of the segregated lane n'bd by Stockwell station on CS7 being slippery/oily. Take care! @TfL
— Lambeth Cyclists (@LambethCyclists) January 4, 2017
Contractors visited the link on Thursday with initial tests proving “inconclusive”. Resurfacing experts are now due to carry out an inspection on Monday, but it seems the stretch has been gritted as an interim measure.
In the video above, uploader CycleGaz said his rear wheel slipped. However, he had just heard the man on the corner mention ice and so let go of the brakes, which allowed him to regain grip. He added that all of the cyclists standing on the corner said they had slipped.
On Wednesday, Millie Ross spent five hours at St Thomas’ Hospital awaiting an X-ray after falling at the same spot.
She said: “I noticed the path was open for the first time so I decided to turn left and my back wheel came from under me. I landed straight on my face.
“A guy cycling behind me stopped to help and so did a pedestrian. The guy cycled with me all the way to work to make sure I was okay. Then I decided to go to hospital. Fortunately I haven't broken any bones, just cuts and bruises, but I was in some pain.
“At first I thought it was just incompetence on my part but having seen how many people this has happened to, it does make me feel it wasn’t my fault.”
William Russell was another rider to fall. He said: “Before I had time to react, I was on the ground. It was very slippery but I don’t think it was paint, maybe oil or grease.
“Whatever it was it was lethal. I’m not a useless rider, I have been doing it for years and clearly other cyclists have fallen as well.
“It was the first time I noticed it was open. Sod’s law it isn’t fit for purpose when we can use it.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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23 comments
This thread is two years old?
the blue paint is likely to disguise anything that might have got onto it but should be obvious upon closer inspection. People saying the blue paint is grippier but if there isn't anything actually dropped oin then the only other thing left is the actual paint and a bit of dampness.
That should never happen at such a low speed.
I ride on a super highway most days and I have to say the blue paint seals the road and holds water on the surface. The blue lanes are wet long after the roads have dried off.
Would the molasses thing be the reason, now that I think about it, that I see less of the white road surfaces as I used to remember seeing?
The surfacing for the cyclepath isn't ideal, you can see that from CycleGaz's video. I live nearby but haven't ridden through that section since it was redone but I've driven past and did wonder why that material was used for the track. There are plenty of other surfacing types that would give far better grip in most conditions (except ice and snow). As other have commented, Cyclegaz is pretty experienced and if it caught him out, the average cycle commuter will struggle.
I'm an experienced cyclist and I've lost my front wheel and come off hard twice here. I now avoid it entirely and join the cars for this particular part of the cycle lane. In general, the blue cycle paths are fine (although pot-holey and never gritted), but this particular bit is like an ice rink. I will continue to avoid it until it is fixed - I value the skin on my elbows too much.
I withdraw my comment.
Hey CycleGaz, you make fine videos
Mungecrundle, not wanting to start any form of a dispute with you on this fine evening, he turned, they didn't, if his front had gone rather than the rear merely twitch we would have been seeing him go down?
Has anyone else noticed that the salt they put down to get rid of the ice makes the road a bit greasy?
Yes, it's because they put molasses in it these days, no seriously! Apparently it makes it stay put longer. That may actually be the"greasy sustance" on the cycle road in this instance...?
I had to buy a lorry load a few years ago for a job I was doing ( don't ask!). I was offered it with or without molasses. Molasses as you said helps it stay put longer, is also apparently more environmentally friendly, and less corrosive.
I have watched a fair bit of CycleGaz and respect his bike handling skills. If this caught him out, I'd hate to think what it might do to a less experienced city rider.
I suspect he used his cycling skills to make something of a worst case scenario of this. Not saying that he he is wrong to bring a defective surfacing to the fore, but it doesn't appear to be worrying the cyclists up ahead.
I wasn't aware that it is slippery at that section. I've been riding the straight ahead for several months and the turn I took opened in late december, which I took a couple of times at speeds similar to this video with no issues. Wednesday was the frist day that I rode it in January and it was slippery. I'm presuming that people rode it on the Tuesday and I don't believe there were any reports of people slipping then.
The funny thing about disel in the road (reports are suggesting as much) is you can't really see it coming, so of coruse the riders ahead of me aren't worried about it.
Haha thanks. I would say my handling skills are much higher than the majority of commuters (years of MTBing). And certainly from what I've heard it caught a lot of people out, all of the riders on that corner in the video had hit the deck and reports in the evening standard of one woman who was very badly hurt.
The segretated cycle lanes in London are even worse to ride on. There's little drainage, and it looks they've never been cleaned. Its probably because the street cleaning trucks are too big to go down them. And obviously no gritters either.
Seems like it has a lot to do with applying the rear brake pretty firmly whilst trying to perform a high speed direction change. All a bit of a last minute, panic manouevre from what I can see in the video. With pedestrians on both sides of the road. It's not like we dont all know the blue pain is slippy at this time of year. We do need to take some responsibility for what we do out there. Not everything is someone else's fault!
Watch the video again and you'll notice the slip happens when not braking. Reports have suggested that it is an oil based substance that is on the ground and that is what is causing the slip. Turning over that is what causes the slip.
As mentioned in another comment, the paint is not slippery. Ridden thousands of miles on it and I would argue that it has more grip than general tarmac.
snip a load of speculative balls
Who is this "we" of whom you speak? Are you talking about humans? Mammals? Your mates? Yourself?
In addition CycleGaz is someone with a reputation... one which suggests he knows what he's doing.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the blue colouring?
told not to ride on white paint and I avoid any paint at all ....
Sound advise, however this paint is treated to be grippy, I would aruge that it is gripper than unpainted tarmac.
The blue paint is not slippery. Ridden thousands of miles on it and if anything I get more grip from that than from unpainted tarmac.