Monthly Archives: April 2013

Bollards

After writing recently about gryatories and one-way systems – and how they can actually be beneficial for cycling, if applied judiciously – I thought I’d turn my attention to another piece of much-maligned urban infrastructure, the humble bollard. Frequently impugned … Continue reading

Posted in Bollards, Cycling policy, Infrastructure, London, Permeability, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 7 Comments

Who is dying while riding a bike?

Some interesting statistics have just been released by the Dutch statistics bureau – their road deaths for 2012 [Translated here – thanks to Mark Wagenbuur]. I’ve presented here in chart form the age range of those dying while riding a bike … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure, Road safety, Subjective safety, The Netherlands | 9 Comments

Conflict between lorries and bicycles

To add to the distressing news of the death of the climatologist Kat Giles on Victoria Street two weeks ago, a young man on a Boris Bike was seriously injured in London last Friday in what seem to be very … Continue reading

Posted in Go Dutch, Infrastructure, Junction Review, London, Road safety, Subjective safety, Transport for London | 15 Comments

A bicycle lost control

A selection of recent news items in 2013, concerning bicycles losing control. In Hull – Police said the bicycle lost control, span round and hit the lamppost opposite the Holiday Inn. In Croydon – The London Fire Brigade told the … Continue reading

Posted in Road safety | 13 Comments

A failure at Aldgate

I recently attended the first seminar in a new LCC Policy series, at which the Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan addressed an audience of about a hundred people, discussing in detail the future plans for cycling in London. Gilligan made it … Continue reading

Posted in Andrew Gilligan, Boris Johnson, Gyratories, Infrastructure, Junction Review, LCC, London, Subjective safety, Transport for London | 8 Comments

Pointless infighting

I spent an interesting hour or so yesterday discussing cycling in London, and the potential implications of the new strategy appearing from Transport for London, with Jack Thurston of the Bike Show, Bill Chidley, and Trevor Parsons of Hackney Cycling … Continue reading

Posted in CTC, Cycling Embassy Of Great Britain, Cycling policy, Hackney, Hierarchy of Provision, History, Infrastructure, LCC, London, Promotion, Subjective safety, The Netherlands, Transport for London | 10 Comments

Compare and contrast

Exhibition Road – Exhibition Road – The top picture is taken from this flyer, advertising a talk given by Ben Hamilton-Baillie, entitled New Directions in Street Design, Safety and Movement. It was taken in early August last year, when the street was closed to … Continue reading

Posted in Shared Space, Street closures | 5 Comments

The revenge of the inanimate object

Last year I wrote about the mysterious case of a bollard in Wimbledon that had the temerity to make drivers crash into it. Almost unbelievably, the council had placed a bollard in a position where drivers cutting the corner, driving … Continue reading

Posted in Dangerous driving, Inanimate objects, London, Road safety, Transport for London | 24 Comments

Sustrans’ “Connect London”

There was some excellent news over the weekend, with the opening of the Two Tunnels route in Bath. The huge turnout, with people bikes and on foot eager to use this excellent new route into the centre of Bath, demonstrates … Continue reading

Posted in Boris Johnson, Cycle Superhighways, Cycling in parks, Go Dutch, Infrastructure, LCC, London, Subjective safety, Sustrans, The Netherlands, Transport for London | 8 Comments