Don't be a pussy, don't be a dick

interesting bringing back the first post Londonneur...and then linking road engineers with all this talk about primary position....

Based on my (admittedly not done too often lately) ride home the way road engineers do things they aren't actually considering the issue of primary position (or cyclists at all).

My example (and one that occurs everywhere):Church Road, which runs from Crystal Palace southwards, is wide enough to remain in secondary position the whole way along it - except road engineers have considered only pedestrians and so every 150 metres or so there are narrowings for pedestrians to cross the road in two parts. With speed (and perhaps slow moving traffic) you can hold primary the whole way down but out of peak time or riding slowly you constantly have to move between primary and secondary to avoid any conflict - this is a point just far enough out of central London that drivers expect to be able to go at speed without too much traffic or "obstruction". As an occasional pram pusher, i appreciate these islands that allow me to cross the road pretty easily, but London is full of examples of road engineers who are making life difficult for cyclists.

So....getting to my point....

*"A conference is planned later this month for London boroughs to hammer this out and to make recommendations for changes to the National Standard training syllabus."

*Why are "we" compromising and making the changes? Why aren't we hammering out changes to the Road Engineers Manual/national standards/roadfurnitureability or whatever? Is there anything Skywalker can put them that would make more fundamental changes than just some literature and photos? Is he in a position to make more recommendations than a slowly slowly "culture change" of a few photos that drivers never see/take notice of?

Just a thought...

*edit - further to that, Church Road is on the so called "London Cycle Network".