thetrafficengineer

Most recent activity

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  I was in Amsterdam last week. It's the same as Berlin, a car will overtake to your left and wait before turning right so cyclists carry on before the cars turn. I saw no conflict in either city. Where are you a traffic engineer please?
  Yes I know they do. Thats the culture and law at play, not the physical infrastructure which is the point I'm making. London

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  ah, what rubbish. at junctions, you separate in time when you can't separate in space. that's what signals are for. you're as much a traffic engineer as i'm boris johnson.
  I was responding to the request to "physically" segregate....

  Anyway a couple of points on signals:

  1. I'm afraid cyclists don't always adhere to red lights
     
  2. There's nothing to stop cyclists using the traffic lane (as happens frequently on torrington place and bow). Unless of course you are also calling for a ban on cyclists using the road? Would require enforcement and fines too, you up for that?
     
  3. Most side roads don't have signals. Unless of course you are calling for every single junction to be signalised? Good luck with that one
     
  4. I know many cyclists don't care about causing gridlock, but most junctions in London are already running to capacity, time is a valuable commodity. We cause extra congestion, we get mass complaints from other motorists. We get issues with buses, with contracts, with the many thousnads of bus passengers, with taxis etc
     
     

  So you see, its not that simple

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  Not the segregation we get over here, but the segregation they get over there (points to most of europe)
  You need to design to the standards of europe, not the bollocks we get in the UK
  In suburban areas, brilliant. But in urban environments in Holland and Copenhagen they still have the right hook conflict everywhere. Unless you're talking about over and underpasses at every junction, you cannot physically segregate at junctions. Only on the approaches to them. The difference is cyclists have legal priority to pass on the inside and vehicles must give way, combined with strict liability and a culture to boot. Also cyclists are banned from using the road when they have an adjacent facility. Are you aware of that? Would you be happy for that here too? Cyclists have the ear of the press and now is the time to sieze the moment and lobby the DfT for these changes, not Boris. Even if you still want the infrastucture, bare in mind it's been built up over decades over there. But segregation without the law change IMO in many urban situations is more dangerous.

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  All the talking points are out there percolating, and sooner or later they'll be adsorbed by the people who actually design this stuff.
  I design the stuff and we know about the constant cry for the magical solution of segregation. Apart from the practical difficulties, there is no evidence that segregation is any safer than blue paint

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  CSH2 has some appalling road layouts, it's reasonable to criticise Boris when the inevitable fatality takes place.
  No its not reasonable to criticise someone when the full facts are not known. After the inquest if the layout is blamed then yes but not before. And even then do you think Boris designs every junction!? Another inquiry is needed to see who exactly is responsible within TfL

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  CSH2 has some appalling road layouts, it's reasonable to criticise Boris when the inevitable fatality takes place, but it's simply not true to say boris is blamed for every death, anywhere, that makes no sense, nobody's done that.
  There's protests against Boris after deaths, there's a protest at the recent deaths outside TfL next week, there's a online petition against him referring to the recent deaths, the papers are full of cycling groups blaming him after every death. We do not know the full circumstances for each death until there has been an inquest. Yet each death is immediately used for political campaining against Boris and it's disgusting.

  Like I said, its right he gets some flack for raising expectations about cycling and safety and CS. But he is not the messiah, he is not going to keep you safe when a lorry turns left, he is not the 'only one' with the power to keep Londoners on our streets safe. Anyone he thinks he is, and signs up to a campaign saying he is, is sorely deulded and likely to end up us another statistic.

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  Good design can help to reduce human error. You, as a traffic engineer, should know this.
  Yes it can help, but the statement "only you have the power" sums up the ludicrioulsy of the cycling lobby. Every time a cyclist is killed in London, no matter where or what the circumstances, they blame Boris. Let me tell you there is no magical design that can keep cyclists 100% safe 100% of the time. The only thing I will agree Boris is to blame for, is stating that he can make cycling safe, and saying cycle superhighways are safe. He's built up an expectation amoungst his loyal followers and dug himself into a hole thats why he's feeling the pressure. But please be under no illusion, Boris is not God.

  One key thing that would help is a change in the law that gives legal priority to cyclists over turning traffic, and assumed liability on vehicles that hit cyclists and pedestrians. This has to be done by the government, not Boris. Therefore the campaign should be directed at the DfT

• Die-In and Vigil at TfL HQ. Public

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  Sick now of every campaign saying not only do we need to highlight these issues and work towards a solution, but that the ONLY solution is SEGREGATION.

  I don't think segregation is the answer in London, and when you only have partial segregation it just makes things worse with left hooks being the biggest killers..
  Exactly. First of all I think I am missing something with these constant calls for segregation by LCC and the other cycling "community leaders". It is impossible to physically segregate at the conflict point in a junction.

  Secondly, segregating on the approach to a junction, isolates cyclists and takes them out of the motorists mind, before spitting them out at the key left hook point, putting them in more danger, possibly as we have just seen with the recent death at the end of the westbound segregated section at bow

• Cycle campaigning

  in General • 11 years, 1 month

  

  Good to see markbikeslondon in an extended report on cycle safety on BBC London news tonight.

  LCC is urging everyone to email the Mayor NOW to stop cycling deaths.

  It takes less than a minute.

  "Mayor, only you have the power to keep Londoners on our streets safe"

  Is this a joke!? I know Boris is pretty good but the idea that he can stand on every junction corner at every minute of the day telling cyclists to stop going up the inside of left turning lorries and for lorries to look out for them is pretty mad