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news
London Olympic logo.pngTfL to direct Olympic cyclists away from Bow Roundabout and CS2 next summer
Cyclists heading to the Olympic Park during next summer's Games will be "deliberately directed" away from Bow Roundabout a Transport for London (TfL) official said yesterday he also said that any design changes to the roundabout or the road layout recommended following the deaths of two cyclists there in the last 3 weeks would be undertaken as soon as possible and undertook that TfL would engage with the London Cycling Campaign over its proposals for the junction.
Speaking in response to question from Green Party Assembly Member Jenny Jones TfL director, Ben Plowden said that cyclists heading to the Games would deliberately be directed away from the roundabout if they are riding to the Olympic Park. Despite being the closest point on the Barclays Cycle Superhighway the roundabout would not be one of the preferred routes for cyclists heading to the Games from the west.
According to Mr Plowden the reason for this is not to do with the roundabout's dreadful safety record for cyclists since the installation of the Cycle Superhighway, but because using it to get to the Olympic Park would make it more difficult for cyclists to access the 7,000 temporary cycle parking places that will be installed for Games spectators.
The Olympic Games organisers and TfL have set themselves a target of 2 per cent of all journeys to the Olympics being made by bike – Jenny Jones pointed out that this was actually less then the current level of cycling journeys made in the area and wondered whether TfL was actually trying to discourage people from cycling to the Games. It certainly seems bizarre that one of London's major cycling routes which will deliver you from Central London to within spitting distance of the Olympic Park is not a preferred route, although were the current roundabout design still in place next summer sending thousands of extra cyclists down it would be a recipe for disaster. And while Mr Plowden did commit to implementing any changes required at the roundabout as quickly as possible he did also point out that if any major civil engineering work was required that might have to wait until after the Games.
You can order a copy of walking and cycling routes to the Olympic Park from the Transport for London website.
road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.
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18 comments
The concept of a coherent and co-ordinated transport regime for the events of 2012 is looking rather shakey.
Rail commuters are being asked not to travel in to London for the summer months, some lose their high speed services to St Pancras, so that the 7 minute 100+mph Javelin service can run to Stratford (with blacked out windows?) and then travel a further 20 minutes empty to Ashford, as it cannot turn back at Stratford (incidentally the direct 90mph local trains from Liverpool Street have been taking 7 minutes to get to Stratford for years, and they have more than 1 track in each direction .
Some stations are virtually losing their train services for the duration - just watch the discussions through @_Southeastern the commuters' own unofficial feed.
7000 cycle parking spaces - if its open sheffield stands then read 'cycle thieves warehouse' and all in the same place, with that place not connected to the TfL flagship cycle route network?
Cycle parking should be distributed, as peoiple will not cycle to a cycle park only to walk back in the direction they came. The games rightly recognise that to move large numbers you have to go for just one mode and one 'performance' envelope to move the maximum numbers of people and that means walking that last part, from consolidation/dispersal points, which may even than feed in to further interchanges for dispersal.
In some ways cycling could deliver an excellent intermediate detail moving people from dispersal points close in to the venues to rail, river and road transport at more distant points - eg South of the river rail routes without the congestion and delays of transferring to a cross-river bus or train for a cycle-able journey. But I fear that we may get 7000 bike stands in very few locations, and no prompts or provisions for say a dedicated bike shuttle fleet for individual station - venue links
The Cyclists in the City blog has more info on this, a link to a petition and details of a 'protest ride' next March:
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.com/
This is a great blog for anyone interested in what's happening with this subject. I don't live in London but I'm tempted to travel over in March to show support.
CRITICAL MASS GROUP RIDES TO ALL CYCLING (and other) EVENTS
Maybe Road.cc should organize a rideshare board on the site with meetup points so that people can ride with safety in numbers to the games, and make a statement at the same time.
Got to agree cat1 2per cent does seem pathetic and I reckon those mind you, I'm wondering what would happen if they exceeded their target - you could easily imagine that happening – I'd say those cycle parking spots would pretty soon fill up so there'll be nowhere to park either…
@botoxking yes it's hard to get away from the conclusion that the reason that hasn't been done is that it would require integrating cycle routes in to the road network with more than just paint.
You know whats going to happen now, lets just get a few hundred cyclists and hold a "go slow" and hold ALL the traffic up, I'll be down for that
There seems to be some momentum at the moment. The number of cyclists in the Blackfriars Bridge rides grew rapidly. I won the slow bike race on my Grifter at primary school. Perhaps there could be a slowest lap of the roundabout trophy?
I never even thought about that, no need to hold a go slow on the route, just get enough cyclist's going round and round the roundabout, there is no law against that is there?
As long as you don't stop on the round about you should be fine, get a constant stream of cyclists coming down and keep going for 24 hours forcing the people in power to most likely divert vehicle's away rather than bikes
Sadly there is a law against it: http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/the-right-of-peaceful-protest/us...
But a protest could probably argue "reasonable use".
Thanks for that, but if there was to be a route, say a mile, which you go round the roundabout twice and then cycled away off a side road and back again, get enough riders and you could conceivably block the round about while no one cycling would be causing the obstruction
Quite. 2% target is pretty pathetic. Since other means of transport are likely to be snarled up by Games traffic, getting as many people as possible onto bikes would free it up.
And I bet that their plan is that cyclists will immediately park their bikes as soon as they are on site, then walk. It would be much too convenient to actually cycle around inside the site.
Wow, this is descending into farce.
How could anything involving tfl not?
Rather than persuading cyclists to avoid cycling on the Barclays Cycle Super-Highway why don't they make the Barclays Cycle Super-Highway safe for cyclists?
Either that or they should change the same of the Barclays Cycle Super-Highway to the Barclays Cycle Super Death-Trap?
I wonder how the Barclays senior marketing team feel about cyclists being coaxed into a death trap of a roundabout? Maybe they could put some pressure on TFL and Boris and threaten to take away their sponsorhip unless it is made safe.
So, as usual, for drivers' convenience cyclists are directed out of their way, wasting their energy, while drivers are allowed the most direct route.
And note also that the Olympic VIP lanes, according to the Evening Standard (http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/gen/2011/11/olympic-road-sign-25994.jpg), will direct private motors and trucks into the bus lanes so that the Zils can use the outside lanes.
Delightful.
Wonder if the number of cycling medals we win will make up for the number of cyclists run over trying to get to the velodrome?
Amazing. Work will be carried out as soon as possible.. unless any work is required.
TfL will engage with LCC? "Oh, yes, these plans look reasonable. Well done. There's just one thing... will it affect the flow of traffic? Oh, right..."
Yes, I suppose it's all down to whether the work involves paint or not
Make yourself big, fling the right arm out and cycle over the Bow Flyover.
That way you not only avoid the roundabout and live another day, but at the top of the Bow Flyover you get the best view of the Olympic site.
Not having tickets, having a son at Lea Vally Youth CC and living in an Olympic Borough, it's the closest I'll get to the Olympics, apart from poxy football tickets.
Did you get any UCI tickets for February? I joined British Cycling and got some priority tickets... and then found out I could get priority tickets as I live in Newham.