You are reading a single comment by @Miss_Mouse and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
@Miss_Mouse
I recently wrote a shirty email to TfL about the 'improved roundabout', changes to which the lorry driver who very nearly squished me failed to notice, and this is their latest reply -
Our ref: 1013868565/FK
Date: 31.03.2014
Dear Mr Crawford
Thank you for your recent communication with regards to the signals at Bow Roundabout.
We would firstly like to say that we appreciate your taking the time to bring this matter to our attention. In managing London’s very sophisticated traffic systems, we seek to balance the needs of everyone within a heavily over-subscribed road network to ensure safety of all road users while keeping London moving.
Bow Roundabout uses cycle gates to allow cyclists to get ahead of vehicular traffic when approaching from either the east or west.
Vehicles are held at a secondary stop line whilst cycles using the segregated cycle lane are allowed through the cycle gate ahead to the main stop line at the roundabout, which is held on a red signal. Cycles are stopped at the cycle gate several seconds before vehicles at the secondary are allowed to proceed, ensuring that vehicles and cyclists are not proceeding at the same time at this point.
At the roundabout, the signals display a green signal 2 seconds before vehicles at the secondary stop line. This delay and the travel time between the secondary stop lien and the roundabout is designed to give waiting cycles at the roundabout a head start over other traffic.
Low level cycle signals were introduced at the start of February on the east and west approaches to the roundabout. These were installed at the cycle gate stop line for cyclists and also below the normal traffic signals at the main roundabout stop line.
The low level cycle signals act as repeaters of the high level signals to give additional information to cyclists and change in unison with the high level signals. They have red, amber and green aspects with cycle lenses clearly indicating when cycles can proceed at each stop line.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Please contact me again if you need any further assistance, or if you would prefer to talk to us about this matter, please call us on 0343 222 1234.
Kind regards
Feven Kahsay
That is actually a far less generic and patronising email than the previous reply I got, but I'm interested to know what others think of Bow's main gyratory now? I'm by no means a timid cyclist, or indeed a slow through the lights one, yet I still find this junction almost as horrible as it was before.
Customer Service Adviser
Transport for London Customer Services