Category Archives: Infrastructure

‘Safe, direct and continuous’

London’s Cycle Superhighways are frequently referred to as ‘safe, direct and continuous.’ This was, for instance, the wording used in the Mayor’s Cycling Revolution document from May 2010 – London’s Cycle Superhighways will provide cyclists with safe, direct, continuous, well marked and … Continue reading

Posted in Cycle Superhighways, Infrastructure, London, Parking, Road safety, Smoothing traffic flow, Transport for London | 4 Comments

Cycling On Piccadilly

Just before Christmas, I had the opportunity to cycle along the new two-way layout on Piccadilly. This used to be a one-way street, with vehicular traffic only allowed to travel in an easterly direction between St. James Street and Piccadilly … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure, London, Road safety, Transport for London, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Just what is ‘smoothing traffic flow’?

In last week’s London Assembly motion on Cycle Safety (which you can view again here, around four hours in) Labour’s AM Val Shawcross made the following comments about Transport for London’s ‘smoothing traffic flow’ agenda, and how the policy is, in … Continue reading

Posted in 20 mph limits, Boris Johnson, Car dependence, Dangerous driving, Infrastructure, London, Road safety, Smoothing traffic flow, Speeding, Transport for London | 3 Comments

Is the bicycle being forgotten about in London’s new street designs?

Danny of Cyclists In the City has been tireless in documenting the increasing rash of widened pavements and narrowed carriageways that are springing up all over London. In his most recent piece on a location where a street has been … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure, London, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

How ‘smoothing traffic flow’ is needlessly causing death and serious injury

I am indebted to Olaf Storbeck of Cycling Intelligence for the background to this post. He has published an open letter, written to Camden’s Culture & Environment Scrutiny Committee, by Kenji Hirasawa, the boyriend of Deep Lee, the young woman killed … Continue reading

Posted in ASL Abuse, Boris Johnson, Car dependence, Cycle Superhighways, Cycling policy, Infrastructure, London, Road safety, The Netherlands, Town planning, Transport for London, Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Lethal drivers

On the 21st of November last year, Matthew Bailey, a 22-year-old scaffolder from Gosport, headed out into town for some drinks with friends. A few hours later, returning home, he was struck and killed instantly by a car as he … Continue reading

Posted in Car dependence, Dangerous driving, Infrastructure, Road safety, The judiciary | 2 Comments

Coned off

Heading back from an excellent Street Talks at Look Mum No Hands on Tuesday evening, I found myself cycling south on Blackfriars Bridge, on my way to Waterloo. This is the location of a disastrously poor cycle lane, the lethality … Continue reading

Posted in Infrastructure, London, Road safety, Transport for London, Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Cycling as a stress-reliever, in Sweden and Horsham

Here’s a good comment piece from the West Sussex County Times, published in last week’s paper. Curiously, the paper’s website suggests that it was written by Conservative Party Chairman, and local MP, Francis Maude – but that isn’t the case. … Continue reading

Posted in Car dependence, Horsham, Horsham District Council, Infrastructure, Safety | 2 Comments

‘A very safe activity’

David Hembrow has recently posted a piece about a family in Cambridge who are considering giving up cycling – this after a nasty incident on a roundabout, in which a van struck the mother’s bakfiets, with her baby in it. … Continue reading

Posted in CTC, Cycling policy, Cycling renaissance, Infrastructure, Road safety, Safety In Numbers | 23 Comments

Cycling on the pavement

I wrote a rather long piece a few months ago about a West Sussex County Times article entitled Councillor warns of road ‘peril’. This was an article that, for some reason,  decided to focus entirely on the dangers of ‘selfish cyclists’ who … Continue reading

Posted in Cyclecraft, Helmets, Horsham Police, Infrastructure, John Franklin, Transport for London | 16 Comments