This morning's commute and other commuting stories

Can somebody please explain to me what is going on here?

The sign on the light cluster clearly indicates that cycles must not turn left at this junction.

At the same time, the sign painted on the road appears to indicate that this junction is exactly the point at which cycles should be turning left.

Have I gone mad? Or is this yet more evidence that Jeremy Starmer is not a fit man to lead the Conservative party?

You've gone slightly mad in that you've misidentified the junction. It's actually the junction of Jamaica Road and Bevington Street, looking west. :) (St James's Road is opposite on the south side of Jamaica Road.)

@jackincaves and @ric_a5 are correct:

Does it mean you can move into that filter lane, but not actually turn left? i.e. it's a two-stage turn and you have to wait for the lights to go green for traffic coming from the right of your picture?

As people have said already I think it's you can advance through on the green and wait in that box, then look for the next light to change so you can go forward, a bit like a hook turn in a way. Whenever I've seen similar around London though it normally has something before the junction that says 'No Left Turn Except in Two Stages'. Not sure if there is something similar around here before this.

Well, Jingle Jangle may either have missed that warning or it may not be there.

As you can see in the picture, when the cycle track is at green, traffic along Jamaica Road is also on green, so that cyclists can't turn directly in the same phase and have to wait for the next phase. That the track and Jamaica Road run concurrently is accomplished by means of banning the left turn from Jamaica Road into Bevington Street, as can be seen in this consultation drawing here (from 2018):

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/dca770f8/user_uploads/cs4-section-2-drawing.pdf

If you didn't have this banned turn, left-turning drivers would be in conflict with riders using the cycle track. (Banned turns are generally evidence of bad design or bad area-wide planning, i.e. where bad design creates a problem that engineers then try to solve by means of a banned turn, in this case that they didn't want to incorporate a full phase for the cycle track, with all turns permitted, into the light sequence. Arguably, this wouldn't have worked well, either, as the junction is over-complicated as it is, but it could have avoided a banned turn.)

As you will still get drivers turning left across the cycle track here on occasion, because they are unaware of the banned turn or because for some reason they decide to ignore it, it's best to be cautious at this point.

@nankatsu:

This set of lights doesn't control left hand turns for cyclists?
But cyclists are allowed to turn left so is there another set which does control that sequence?
Bit confusing

It's intended to be a common feature that designers expect frequent cycle track users to recognise. As @amey says, there are other examples elsewhere, so the general idea is that with a bit of getting used to it, riders should no longer be confused. It's all extremely bad design, but what can you do.

amey:

Ah the classic two phase left turn @Mickie_Cricket

I expect amey is being ironic here, as the 'classic' two-phase left turn is usually found in Copenhagen, where, of course, you have right-side traffic, and the more difficult turn to make is a left turn, not a right turn. Here in London, it should be the 'classic' right turn, but with two-way tracks you get bizarre left 'turns', too.

Anyway, as above, be careful at this point. It's not a sound design.