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?

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is it trying to stop people turning left immediately after the light, i.e. on the ped crossing?

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

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?

Yeah, it's TFL's slightly bodgy attempt at dedicated cycle turns. They still lack the political will to eat into junction time and so turns are made with traffic from the right.

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.

‘A rubbing noise, on the front wheel, you say?’

One week of accumulated field from round here.

Also, I have a lodger in my front lamp.

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Where is this?

South Oxfordshire ditches. I mean lanes.

Jamaica Road, junction with Abbey St.

Ah the classic two phase left turn @Mickie_Cricket

The same turn exists opp of TFL HQ as well. They should make the cars and cabbies do those two phase turns and give bikes a priority IMO.

But as others mentioned; lack of political will in local government.

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.

Or just ignore the stupid smurf runway and ride in the road. Like a real fixie skidder.

Tsk.

@not4sale:

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

@nankatsu Oliver :)

Oops, sorry. Edited. I think I've confused you before when not looking properly.

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

Jingle Jangle may well have got his junctions confused, but he went back to check this evening, and there ain't no warning sign to be seen.

I think the time has come to get a front camera given the amount of lunatic incidents I've seen during lockdown.

Ideally I want something that auto-wipes at the end of the ride, and is easily mountable to bars. I see Mobius Action Cam getting good reviews, any others I should look at? Budget up to £100.

Mobius (v1, since about when it first came out) user here, I still use it from time to time as a back-camera if I have the mudguards mounted and commuting (so basically up until the lockdown v1.0). Little bit fiddly with the configuration and not water resistant, both points especially after using Cycliq cameras (with the app). I don't know maybe the newer models are better.

The developer of the cam actually hangs in the Mobius threads in rcgroups forums which is a good thing. My biggest concern is GPS interference with Wahoo when mounted directly underneath, but that's down to Wahoo really, as it happens with GoPro and Cycliq too.

Parts available (although it's getting less and less common) so far I've changed battery twice and motherboard once. Used it (same camera) as a dashcam back when I lived in Cyprus too.

Ah it does sound more or less what I'm after, and the price seems reasonable.

The Cycliq looks great though, and doubles as a light - though I already have a lot of lighting.

Now wondering if I should just stump for something like that given the water resistance etc.

Would feel like I needed to make a bunch of boring audax videos if I shell out that kind of money though...

Cycliq videos aren't particularly good to be youtube-worthy though, if you're after that get an older version GoPro. Mobius is better in terms of video quality than my Cycliq Fly12CE front cam, I've even sent this as feedback to Cycliq. Which they responded by exchanging my camera with another one, but same mediocre quality unfortunately.

Here's a nighttime video from Mobius: https://youtu.be/xXfrtajcJQQ

There are some daytime commute videos in this channel as well (just go back through the "back catalog" as they say) the rear camera footage is strictly Mobius.

Nice one, plenty of food for thought - will have a dig. Thank you!

Church roof entirely ablaze on commute home. Mackworth Village, Derby.

Jingle Jangle may well have got his junctions confused, but he went back to check this evening, and there ain't no warning sign to be seen.

Perhaps they expect people to know about this by now.

I'm sure, when I checked the forecast this morning, the BBC said there might be the odd light shower.

I'm equally sure I got completely soaked twice.

BBC. Twats.