2011-02-16 - Rider Down, Elephant and Castle roundabout

According to: @dj_osiris / Simon Reeves
Just saw cyclist being treated by ambulance on elephant and castle roundabout, next to him was a car with a smashed back window, ouch!
Anyone heard any more?

Jeebs, is this 3 in the last 24 hours?
Just unacceptable.

coshgirl, putting the date in the header helps in this section.

Can confirm there is a grey Peugeot and a cycle behind Police tape outside the tube station. Bike didn't appear damaged unduley. Fingers crossed.

My facebook status, which was decided upon before I passed this incident, is currently 'Today, every chancer who ever blagged, conned or cheated their way through a driving test appears to be behind the wheel in London. Sheesh!'

The elephant and castle taken down another cyclist at 1pm this afternoon

cycled past and there were 3 police cars, and 2 ambulances. Guy was wearing a neck brace and being seen to, but making a lot of noise and wriggling his legs. (at least he was conscious) but he looked very uncomfortable.

Really hope he's ok

Im way over confident on that roundabout - I doubt i'm the only one who just sees it as another roundabout, but i'm certainly going to be more careful!

needs merging with this I guess.
https://www.lfgss.com/thread59761.html#post1959829

'Today, every chancer who ever blagged, conned or cheated their way through a driving test appears to be behind the wheel in London. Sheesh!'

+1. Unpleasant today.
Fingers crossed here too.

shocker of a road. get off and walk.

hope you pull through fella.

yea that one ^^ was me, i searched for 'rider down', didn't spot this one.

merge away

It's more than high time they got rid of that utterly stupid roundabout. Fingers crossed for the rider and that the brace is only a precautionary measure.

Part of the road about was closed this morning and there was a pump in the middle of one of the lanes... But that was at 8.30... Made me wonder when the next one would happen there...

Maybe I'm being thick, by why is that roundabout so dangerous?

Of course thoughts are with the rider, hope at least that he gets better soon.

If you combine poor poor driving skill with not being an assertive cyclist....

IMHO

Maybe I'm being thick, by why is that roundabout so dangerous?

Most of it is light controlled except the entrance/exits that actually need it i.e. the A3 north and south entrances, so you always have a wall of traffic waiting (or not) for any gap in traffic coming around from the other three entrances. Added to bus lanes that fade in and out.....

You have to go through it full gas in the middle of the lane making eye contact and checking behind you constantly. The irony is that area is so well covered by cycle paths there is no need whatsoever to actually ride a bike through the roundabout unless you really want to.

Maybe I'm being thick, by why is that roundabout so dangerous?

I don't know the roundabout too well, and I've never had a problem with it. However, there have always been crashes there, and it's universally unpopular. I think in design terms this is because of the very uneven geometry. Every junction with a feeder street is shaped very differently. Some are very narrow, some are very wide. There is a fairly strange signalisation scheme. There are far too many lanes in the circulatory carriageway, and they are strangely shaped, especially if you go northbound (from Newington Butts to Newington Causeway). Also, traffic (driving and cycling) volumes there are very high and you'd have to do a full analysis of crashes to get an idea of what has happened where and why.

A lot of crashes happen at roundabouts because many cyclists don't find it intuitive where to ride and ride too far on the outside. Many (drivers and cyclists) are impatient and push out into the circulatory carriageway too soon. Visibility is poorer than at conventional junctions because people have to look round bends (despite there being fewer possible directions from which traffic can arrive). Roundabouts are generally bad news for cycling and put many people off.

+1 to all of the above. I go through it twice a day and have been honked/shouted at several times for forcing drivers to slow down and wait on the run up to the junction. If you're not out and in the correct lane at the start then you'll be desperately trying to cross lanes of traffic to get where you're going.

Currently they're doing road works on London Road in front of the Bakerloo entrance (bus route). I've seen several people (myself included yesterday) cycling the wrong way up against the roadworks barriers and into oncoming traffic in the last two days.

It can get quite hairy.

If you combine poor poor driving skill with not being an assertive cyclist....

IMHO

i agree with that, i don't think that the elephant is any more dangerous than any other place, its just big and daunting, so the cyclists who don't assert their position on the road get pushed about (into the kirb/another vehicle)

This roundabout is also a headache for the drivers. I used to drive through it at least three times a day.
It's a mixture of cocky locals and unassertive commuters.

I use it semi-regularly and never had any problems, until today where a Fiesta suddenly started to change lane without indicating, luckily he wasn't going too fast so I was able to get past him, but it was a little hairy to say the least.
Wellington Arch at the top of Consitution Hill and bottom of Park Lane is much worse for me, although I suppose drivers aren't used to cyclists there as everyone goes straight through the middle.

i very rarely use the E&C roundabout.. but i was there saturday afternoon heading home from north downs via blackheath.. i always shudder when i reach that place.. i hate it, knowing what carnage it creates.. my thoughts with the cyclist.

where as wellington arch roundabout.. never a problem enroute to/from CP for me

I stood outside the bakerloo entrance for half an hour yesterday waiting to pick up a wheel (great wheel, thanks Angus) contemplating what we expose ourselves to, and then wished I hadn't. A shudder of horror reading this today.

Best wishes to all involved in incidents today.

I thought they had just done a lot of work redesigning the Elephant & Castle roundabout specifically to make it safer for cyclists?

I use it semi-regularly and never had any problems, until today where a Fiesta suddenly started to change lane without indicating,(...)

Here you go...

I thought they had just done a lot of work redesigning the Elephant & Castle roundabout specifically to make it safer for cyclists?

This is about the southern ex-roundabout. The original scheme planned for that location was watered down significantly, though. It's now a very wide junction which isn't really ideal for cycling, although it's probably better than what was there before.

The northern roundabout, where this crash occurred, is still there, and unchanged.

Hope the rider is OK (of course) but just in case you weren't aware, there are dedicated bike routes that run as as an outer concentric circle around the whole double-roundabout of the E&C and they work ok as a mixture of path and back street.Think of it as the Inferno with the bike route being mostly the domain of the bad poets (and students) rather than the road route with it's sublime potential for evil.

and if you're really interested

twitter.com/roundaboutnews