No cycling signs in Holborn (including bus lane)

Some no cycling signs (red cirle with bike in middle) have been put up in the Holborn area on Monday,complete with police stopping and fining cyclists
A friend was done on the bus lane in Farringdon road and fined on the spot 50 squid...there was no previous warning that this was going to happen and the signs are misleading..anyone else have this happen to them....cheers

Jeez - At the risk of starting pages of debate, I actually think this is more the opposite. They appear not to want to spend the time or the money sorting out the cause of the problems. So they just eliminate the conflict with a blanket sanction. From the outside, it might seem a sensible option. But that's definitely not my opinion. I fear it's more head-in-the-sand mentality from Boris HQ and associates, ignoring that the design of some of the infrastructure in central London is poor at best and dangerous at worst.

What an eloquent response to blatant sarcasm.

So our previous relative sanctuary of the bus lane (which I believe we ARE still legally allowed to ride in) but we're always encroached upon by mopeds and taxis anyway, are now out of bounds too?

I'll cross my fingers when riding North-South South-North from now on then.

Another poor excuse for a fix(?) to a problem...

There must be a report detailing the rationale behind this curious decision.

Sounds like a job for

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/foi/

Are these over and above the contraflow bus lane that runs from the Theobalds Road/Procter Street junction westwards to the junction with Museum Street? I can just about accept the legitimacy (if not the sense) of that lane being off limits to bikes, on the basis that the road had already been made one way, presumably with due process and a chance to object.

I'd be seriously pissed off if orders (or whatever procedures are needed) have been made to restrict existing rights for cyclists. Or indeed if the signs have been put up with no legal authority.

Has anyone questioned the double-standard of one set of road users (such as on this particular route) being issued with £50 FPNs, but others (such as those encroaching into ASLs) being given nice, friendly advice and leaflets, which they will never read? Nice work this pick-and-choose policing, isn't it? Not confusing in the slightest?

Some no cycling signs (red cirle with bike in middle) have been put up in the Holborn area on Monday,complete with police stopping and fining cyclists

As Ludd asks, are these signs for the contraflow bus lane in Theobald's Road, Vernon Place, and Bloomsbury Way?

This has always been buses-only since its introduction. Camden Cycling Campaign campaigned to permit cyclists here, but to no avail. It was always completely predictable that this prohibition would be widely flouted, and the entry to the contraflow has been the focus for enforcement by police since long before the recent heavy police presence at all sorts of junctions.

A friend was done on the bus lane in Farringdon road and fined on the spot 50 squid...there was no previous warning that this was going to happen and the signs are misleading..anyone else have this happen to them....cheers

Which bus lane on Farringdon Road? Was your friend driving a private car in it or cycling? Unless there's been a recent traffic order change that I don't know about, those are bus-and-cycle (and -motorcycle-and-black-cab) lanes. Cyclists should not be fined unless they commit some offence unrelated to the bus lane, e.g. jumping a red light.

Has anyone questioned the double-standard of one set of road users (such as on this particular route) being issued with £50 FPNs, but others (such as those encroaching into ASLs) being given nice, friendly advice and leaflets, which they will never read? Nice work this pick-and-choose policing, isn't it? Not confusing in the slightest?

True, you do tend to get an imbalance in enforcement (although the police protested that a lot of drivers were fined in recent enforcement action, too). However, I wouldn't try to take encroachment into ASL boxes as some kind of tit-for-tat token to achieve parity in enforcement. People sometimes try to do that because it seems to them the most visible traffic offence committed by drivers, but it's the wrong target--by far the most prevalent and problematic kind of motoring offence is speeding, and enforcing that takes well-trained traffic police, who are in very short supply. There are only a couple of hundred in London, and they spend most of their time on collision investigation. I'd much rather drop any attention paid to ASL boxes in favour of training up more fully-qualified traffic police to deal with the real problems. (ASLs are essentially misconceived and not much use.)

Are these over and above the contraflow bus lane that runs from the Theobalds Road/Procter Street junction westwards to the junction with Museum Street? I can just about accept the legitimacy (if not the sense) of that lane being off limits to bikes, on the basis that the road had already been made one way, presumably with due process and a chance to object.

Oops, forgot--the bus lane was a retrofit. The streets in question have been one-way for decades. Generally, full two-way working is preferable to one-ways with contraflows (with a (very) few exceptions in response to specific problems).

I'd be seriously pissed off if orders (or whatever procedures are needed) have been made to restrict existing rights for cyclists. Or indeed if the signs have been put up with no legal authority.

As I said above, the prohibition to cyclists to use the contraflow was always part of the scheme. I suspect that they have merely put up more/different signage to make the traffic order clearer, or that the OP is mistaken in stating that 'no cycling' signs have only just been put up.

I was fined £50 on the spot last week as soon as i entered that bus lane. This was along with a friend who had only just had his new fixie built up that day, and a tourist on a Barclays bike. It's a very direct route to Oxford Street from East London/ Look Mum which i regularly take so i'm not surprised I missed any new signs.

The policeman said that there were at least 7 or 8 no cycling signs leading up to the bus lane and they were given strict orders from Boris to fine every cyclist and caution none, claiming they had spent all December cautioning cyclists. He also said that they were giving £100 fines and 3 points to any driver caught in an ASL although i didn't see any of that happening.

Not sure if this initiative is still going on, but the policeman listed about a dozen major junctions that they are being posted at everyday between 7am-9am and 4pm-7pm. Just a heads up.

wtf man, is there any information on which roads/routes have been made off limits to cyclists, I am going to be pissed if I get hit with a fine without realizing I am contravening some poorly publicized changes.

That route has been closed to cyclists for years, people need to know what signs mean!

when going westward it's generally okay to use the death curve of a road instead of the direct bus only lane if that traffic isn't too heavy

I don't really understand which road and which bus lane people are talking about. Farringdon Road, yeah? It's a long road. Which bus lane? I can only think of one bus lane on the whole of Farringdon Road and that's the one outside Mount Pleasant post office.

That route has been closed to cyclists for years, people need to know what signs mean!

This.

Symbol of a bicycle behind a white round sign with red outline = illegal.

AIUI cycling will shortly be permitted in the Vernon Place contraflow bus lane.
Where are these new No Cycling signs?

My mate got caught on one of these, no warning just a straight up £50 fine for not seeing a small sign.

spoke to the police officers standing there looking bored and they gave a list of the spots they were at and said to just avoid them between 4 and 7PM.

There was a warning, it's the small sign that she did not notice.

I've never seen any no bikes signs.

Catch me pigs, catch me!

I didn't word it very well but I meant the police didn't just say 'don't do it again' like they did to me.

Always obey the signs, people.

What could be clearer?

Haha

Vernon Place, Procter Road, Theobalds Road, what? None of these places are Farringdon Road. Are the signs on Farringdon Road or not?

NB: being somewhere close to the general vicinity of Farringdon Road is not the same as being on Farringdon Road unless they happen to be on Farringdon Road. HTH.

If we are talking about this stretch in Holborn the signs are pretty god-damn clear:
http://goo.gl/maps/bsWIW

Not only are there no cycling signs, there are 'local buses only signs'. If you can't understand those you shouldn't be on the road, as scoble and DJ said. They were not 'put up on Monday', they've been there for ages. That streetview I've linked to is from June 2012.

I don't know about Farringdon Road, would also be interested to know where we are talking about.