Gyratory traffic schemes, extended one - way systems etc

Merged hard, right in the face. Thanks hippy.

1. Oval Triangle [/stonedguy.jpg]
   

Bow is frapped up beyond imagination, difficult to see what they can do there, make the flyover cyclists only?

Miley Cyrus hasn't aged well.

Got pulled over by a police for an illegal right off Camberwell Rd towards Kennington at Oval Triangle (omg mindfuck etc) this morning.

Been doing it for years and although I'm aware it should be ahead only at those lights, they're configured so that traffic coming in the opposite direction is held back for a good 20 seconds as if there was a filter right light. That makes peeling off right totally traffic free and quite safe. Even if you miss that window of opportunity by arriving after the ahead traffic has been released, there's an island to pull over shelter behind, safely out of traffic from both directions.

Played dumb and was let off this morning. It's annoying though because without that perfectly safe maneuver, to stay legal I'll be forced to stay in traffic go straight on, all the way round the Oval before waiting in the middle of the road on a really busy congested corner with crap visibility to turn off and double-back round the Oval. The only other alternative is to continue on to Vauxhall away from my intended destination and negotiate that whole mess before doubling back again. Or I could get off and walk*.

Hurry up TfL

*not likely

Oh you mean Camberwell - Brixton - Kennington?

Aldwych somehow survives the cull.

You get left hooked like a bastard at Aldwych. That uphill bit at the bottom of Drury Lane.

Oh you mean Camberwell - Brixton - Kennington?

Jah. This: http://goo.gl/maps/bNqgi

No mention of Hanger Lane? Out.

My comiserations. New Cross is also ignored. Deptford Bridge
could do with a radical rethink as well. Disappointing that they seem to have announced some junctions, and ignored some other very obviously antisocial road layouts that patently need work.

Aldwych somehow survives the cull.

This too.

A horrible place to cycle*. Especially if you want to go to Fleet Street from The Strand.

*Except on Critical Mass night!

I wonder why it has taken them so long to redo Acton RAB? They've put a cheeky bike path on the left which is great for beating all the traffic but the works have gone on for ages which makes me wonder what they're actually doing. Get some Poles in there and it would've been done in an afternoon.

News about Elephant and Castle gyratory removal:

http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/7439

@Oliver_Schick thanks for telling me the good news about Stoke Newington Gyratory plans at Easts on Wednesday. Is there any online information about the proposals?

No proposals yet, it's much too early for that. You could go along to the Stoke Newington Ward Forum (although you don't live in the ward), where it'll be discussed how far they've got. It's on the 30th (September).

http://www.welovestokenewington.org/2014/09/stoke-newington-ward-forum-30th.html

Link for consultation on removal of Wandsworth gyratory:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/wandsworth-town-centre

To my uneducated eye it looks quite good. Might even help make the area back into a proper town centre.

And Archway: http://microcosm.app/out/ajUAg

And old street: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/old-street-roundabout/

Big changes afoot at old street roundabout, from gyratory to double T, protected seperate phase right turns for bikes... exciting.

Terrible news that there's been another fatality at the Aldgate/Tower Hill gyratory 'system'. It's one of the worst, IMO. Racetrack-like one way streets such as Leman St do not make good riding for us, I often feel I take my life in my hands on that circuit heading from Aldgate for Tower Bridge.

Leman Street unfortunately isn't included in the current Aldgate proposals (neither is Mansell Street). I think the City wanted to make at least one of them two-way but TfL resisted it. Speeding is often bad along Leman Street, and it is, of course, not a main street in character, despite being quite long and straight. Obviously, we don't know yet how the crash happened, and I don't mean to imply that the one-way operation there was a significant causal factor, but it is possible.

Fair point, I don't wish to jump to any conclusions about this poor cyclists' death.

I really hate the the feeder one-ways that are often nearby large gyratories. The aggressive or frustrated nature of some driving on the large roads often seems to carry through into surrounding streets, particularly the one-ways.

Yup, TB has just posted that apparently it happened on the two-way section of Leman Street. Obviously, that doesn't fully exonerate the one-way system, as it could have been a rat-runner coming from Goodman's Yard, but if these initial rumours are true, it certainly points to very serious driver error.

TFL are going with this for the oval area:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/cycling/cs-5-harleyford-road

Vernon Place/Red Lion Sq/High Holborn one way 'system' is obviously in dire need of re-design. The press reporting of the latest death at Vernon Place seems to ignore that the recent High Holborn death is part of the same traffic gyratory.

One way streets kill!

The flowers are close to the left turn from Vernon Place into Southampton Row where (I think) three people have died in recent years. I remember the names of Wan-Chen McGuinness (2008) and Francis Golding (2013). Dorothy Elder (2011?) was killed at the same junction, but while turning right. Alan Neve was killed in High Holborn outside the Tube station.

I think some years ago it was found that two thirds of the traffic in the morning peak in Theobald's Road consisted of people on bikes. It's good that the contraflow bus lane now permits cycling, but really, as you imply, the one-way system here must be returned to two-way completely.

Needless to say, plenty of people are killed or injured on two-way streets, too. The crucial difference here is that the traffic lanes are much too narrow (there are four crammed in and the carriageway should take three at the most) and the junction as a whole is too wide.

The problem here is that the problematic left turn looks 'innocuous'--there's nothing wrong with the kerbline design here at all. Tight radii on corner are a good thing, as they force drivers to slow down. However, the combination with the narrowness of the left turn (and straight ahead) lane means that HGV drivers will swing out to the right (or even be wholly in the central lane, which is straight ahead only) before turning left. That was what happened in Francis Golding's case. It is something that HGVs often have to do to turn under tight conditions, and is just not a manoeuvre that a cyclist is likely to expect.

We have no reliable information as yet whether Federica's death was caused in a similar way.

I normally caution against banning turns, but the problem here is so clear and specific that just as an interim measure and as a matter of caution it might be desirable to temporarily ban this turn while a better layout is conceived. This would, of course, make it very difficult for lorry drivers to find any other route, and might have a negative knock-on effect on other streets in the area as drivers might rat-run, but it might well save a life (not that anyone could ever tell whether it was being saved or not if it is).