Conservative London mayoral candidate claims "virtue signalling" cycle lanes are causing "gridlock" and "havoc", would review cycling infrastructure if elected to end "war on motorists"

Apparently what's happening in Ukraine is a war now. As Putin's spokesman Peskov explained at the weekend, it started out as a special military operation but became a war when the collective west became involved.

Poor old Putin.  The West keeps forcing him to invade countries whose governments won't abdicate in favour of Russian puppets!  Because after he does so they pre-emptively attack Russia - in the media or at the United Nations!  (They should try that in Russia - that's 7 years for a first offense!)

Being a former intelligence guy he's clearly pining for the heyday of the organs of state security.

Broadly that's because of competition for space but there are a couple of features of human psychology in play here.  People cycling and people driving are allowed to share (mostly) the same road space but THE CYCLISTS ARE NOT PAYING ROAD TAX!  Or rather - they're both getting in the way AND cheating.  Cyclists are not playing by the same rules because we can filter and indeed some road rules don't apply to us.

Another source of conflict is that sometimes pedestrians and cyclists share space.  Here cyclists represent much faster vehicles in my space.  Space where you can walk safely / casually is very often at a premium because cars.  Cycles are usually rare (not expected), less visible than cars, don't sound like them (indeed are very quiet) so can 'suddenly appear' and scare people.

People stuck in traffic do sometimes complain that people are walking faster - but don't tend to punch pedestrians because they are not directly competing for the space.  They understand they can't use that space and it's not the pedestrians getting in their way.

I suspect where there are actual separate cycle paths it works the same way - or like how people stuck in their cars probably wouldn't complain about people passing them on a train running parallel to the road.

IIRC the figures for 'Londoners who don't own a car' are quite interesting too…

The fact is, it's not just the people who cycle too in London it's that many people want to cycle even if they don't now. or they know friends, partners, family who do cycle. Would they want cycle lanes taken out and their loved ones lives put at risk?. She's so unbeleiveably out of touch it's laughable. Just systematic of the state of a dying party.

a1white wrote:

The fact is, it's not just the people who cycle too in London it's that many people want to cycle even if they don't now. or they know friends, partners, family who do cycle. Would they want cycle lanes taken out and their loved ones lives put at risk?. She's so unbeleiveably out of touch it's laughable. Just systematic of the state of a dying party.

Reminds me of comparing cycle lanes to a bridge crossing a crocodile infested river.

"Hardly anyone swims across that river, so we don't need a bridge"

it's just beyond parody now:

The video also warned of "squads of Ulez-enforcers dressed in black, faces covered with masks, terrorising communities at the beck and call of their Labour mayor master, who has implemented a tax on driving, forcing people to stay inside or go underground".

"Gripped by the tendrils of rising crime" it continued, "London citizens stay inside".

"The streets are quiet."

A while ago I used the cycle path from Cheltenham to Gloucester. I heard sirens as I approached a set of traffic lights. The traffic was completely clogged and I was greeted by the sight of a police car driving straight at me at speed probably about 20m away. The driver was using the cycle lane to get past the queueing vehicles and got back on the road as soon as he cleared the lights. Quite scary for a split second but it sort of contradicts cycle lanes holding up emergency vehicles.

Another of CycleGaz's clips, this one showing police using the cycle "superhighway" to get past motor vehicles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncH3j7Lto2c

Bungle_52 wrote:

A while ago I used the cycle path from Cheltenham to Gloucester. I heard sirens as I approached a set of traffic lights. The traffic was completely clogged and I was greeted by the sight of a police car driving straight at me at speed probably about 20m away. The driver was using the cycle lane to get past the queueing vehicles and got back on the road as soon as he cleared the lights. Quite scary for a split second but it sort of contradicts cycle lanes holding up emergency vehicles.

Maybe they should incorporate that usage into the design of separated infrastructure and make them wide enough for the most common emergency vehicles where practical. However, to make it workable they should also make it a specific offence to block those lanes with any other vehicle and preferably actually enforce it by towing vehicles parked there.

My first thought was how amusing but the more you think about it the better the idea becomes. Chapeau.

The figure for minimum width for emergency vehicle access seems to be 3.7m between kerbs (e.g. given here).  That would certainly make a good bi-directional cycle path by UK standards!  There are 3.5m 2-way cycle paths in NL although I think for busier ones / fast cycle routes newer builds are 4m or greater.

Article measuring these (from 2011 and before).

You could show her that but she's not listening.

She's not looking for solutions to transport problems, she's just looking for a new group to blame to help motivate her campaigne.

She's someone that doesn't want kids on bikes, doesn't want parents on bikes and doesn't want anyone on bikes.

Facts aside, which she has obviously chosen to ignore in the search of what she thinks is a polpulist vote, we need to aspire to a greater sustainable mode share to help to avert the climate emergency so not providing the infrastructure (or ripping it out) will have massive consequences