Changes to road sign rules should improve cyclists' safety says CTC

@karl_holland...hope you had your engine turned off?

I took this picture on Saturday in Bristol. I had been stopped at the lights for about 10 seconds and this guy pulls up here...

I was thinking to myself that giving fines to ASL invaders would be a little bit out of order in some ways because they might just be there because the light turned red and they either had to run it or stop in the zone.

But then I was thinking, if the car/van/bike were actually moving at the speed limit and not going way faster as people love to do then there's no real reason for it as you get the warning of the amber phase.

I know sometimes you have to jam your brakes on a bit for lights sometimes but if everyone drove with a sensible gap not tailgating it wouldn't be an issue.

I hope that some of detail allows cyclists to turn left at T junctions, when traffic is emerging from that direction. I think that this is not dangerous. I also would like to see regular warnings to motorists in rural areas on roads designated as cycle routes (with lower enforced speed limits) - perhaps on the same posts as speed limit signs?

I have seen some marked with a bicycle in a blue disc (Thanet - confusing), others with cycles in red warning triangles (Shepway - beware of cycles?) and a square blue sign showing a bicycle and a car with a warning message about speed below (in Seine-Maritime) - I like the latter, the message was clear and did not indicate any priority to one mode.

"Not sold on the usage of one way streets" - they don't just slap an "except cycles" 9or whatever) sign up. They have to do a proper survey of the street, for traffic volumes, width, obstructions etc, and some streets simply don't pass the test, either for being too narrow or being too busy, or both. The City is currently surveying 19 streets for permeability and if all pass, they will be converted over the next 2 years. If they fail (and perhaps some will) they won't be converted.

The 'No Entry except for cyclists' is a good step forward. In London there are plenty of routes away from main roads which could be opened up with two way cycling streets.
THe City of London has done a good job opening up some one way streets for cyclists in both directions. Meaning you don't have to contend with some of the worst one-way systems.
Current rules require that where there is a cycle lane, the cyclist is required to use that to access the ASL – a rule that few are likely to be aware of and we’d be surprised if it were ever enforced – but from now on, the ASL area can be accessed as the cyclist sees fit.
At last we might have some sense on this useless rule, which encourages inexperienced cyclists to go down the left side of vehicles when it might be dangerous to do so.
As a number of ASL/ASZs I know of don't have any entry pooint and so in theory can't be used.

Now they just need to change the law so ASL/ASZs can be enforced by camera.

Rightly or wrongly one of the reasons put forward for police being reluctant to enforce the rule on ASLs is the three points on your licence which many officers think is diproportionate for driving over a white line especially when the actual consequences of doing so aren't as serious as actual RLJing. I wonder if the penalty was a straight fine whether we would see it enforced more?

I'd like to see them enforce the rules on 20mph zones too, it only needs a mobile speed van to be parked up in a street every once in a while for the message to start getting though. Here in Bath I pass a mobile camera fairly regularly on my ride in, always in the same place on a hill going down in to town when it would do far more good either on the other side of the road going up the hill, which is where most of the dangerous speeding occurs and where vulnerable road users are much more at risk cos they are moving slower than the motorised traffic, or on the side roads which are 20mph zones limits which are almost universally ignored by rat-running motorists.

Basically I suppose I'd just like to see the people that enforce the rules enforce them intelligently rather than pretend to enforce them, or not even bother with the pretence

They already have numberplate recognition and automatic fine issuing capability for average speed cameras. They should just install them at ASLs. Stop in an ASL - £200 fine. Commercial vehicles, taxis, and Range Rovers get £500.

I'm not sold on the usage of one-way streets though - unless there's a marked cycle lane (like the one on Longacre in Covent garden). IMHO it's dangerous for the cyclists trying to skirt down tight roads against the flow of traffic, and also problematic for pedestrians who are trying to cross what they think is a one-way street.

And anyone running a red light, bike or car, should have their vehicle seized and crushed.

Quite. ASLs good. When rules enforced.

Head-starts for cyclists at traffic lights could be useful in reducing the problem of vehicles sitting in the ASL - if the cyclists are all safely down the road (where there's a chance for singling out) by the time the car lights go green, there's less of an incentive for motorists blocking the ASL in an attempt to stop cyclists from stopping in front of them. If it was combined with placing the traffic lights for cars behind the ASL, with the cyclist lights in front, it could be even better.