Cycling London’s five most difficult junctions
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The minister for cycling, Robert Goodwill, says he wants to see more bike infrastructure on urban streets. Here, Peter Walker takes a bicycle tour of the worst that London’s roads currently have to offer those on two wheels. The cycle ride includes Hyde Park Corner, Victoria and Kings Cross
Click here for full Guardian article:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/video/2014/jan/16/cycling-london-five-most-difficult-junctions-video
well welcome to my tour of London’s slightly hellish Junctions so you do get thousands and thousands of people cycling around the castle every day and it’s really not much fun as round about to go at least you got a bus lane here I know you have to nip down this little side bit into the advanced stop Zone and amazingly there’s no cars or bus motorbikes in advanced stop Zone time for a quick start and we’re away now this is a really difficult bit you’re suddenly faced by about four lines of traffic some of which is a bus lane then turns into something else so you get cars coming past you all the time then pulling in to try and turn left like this imagine a novice cyclist having to cope with this it’s crazy you let me fast yeah thank you lad and there we go that was elephant and Castle here we go so there is actually a cycle Advanced stop Zone here which I can use to gain a little bit of a oh here we go and up and see look at at this it’s like five Lanes continuous traffic and I have to not take yes I have to go around these ones don’t I so here we go around here whoa traffic coming from all sides oh look a bike lane thank you very much right let’s go around here now there is actually a bike lane on the pavement but I’m not entirely sure how I meant to get on it now that is actually bike infrastructure but there’s no obvious entry and exit point and if like me you’re riding this route for the first time you have no idea how you meant to get on it and thus like me you end up stuck on here so yeah there’s bike Lanes here but it’s closed sight entrance cyclist Dismount that is brilliant and here we are so the one bit of bike infrastructure they have got is completely shut now look at this barriers buses cabs pedestrians making leaps for Glory wait for it people hello hello hello hello hello hello [Music] hello now I guess the question would be why don’t I just stop and let them through the worry is if you suddenly stop on a bike you’ll have someone in the car going right into the back of you now look at this now have a look at this does this invite you to go on a bike it kind of invites me to lie down in a darken room and have a good week here we go this advancy I mean I know this is partly road workor but still even before the road works it wasn’t much better and suddenly you’re in this straight up Sprint for the lights surrounded by traffic doing about 30 mph here we go this is a nice London view surrounded by buses and coaches boxed in at all sides I’ve got my own personal space of Road it just doesn’t feel particularly secure as to be said you wouldn’t think to know it that this is right in the center of tourist uh London doesn’t feel very human friendly does it now what is going on here I’m cly worried about you let me in thank you right some relief at last hide Park and here we are coming up to the glory that is the modern day King’s Cross Junction lots and lots and lots and lots of lanes of traffic all F filtering into a giant bottleneck and lots of tourists it’s a kind of toxic mixture isn’t it look at a woman with a baby sprinting across the road because it’s not very clear how she’s going to do it right what is going on here she’s about a millimeter away from the car in front so I can’t even get through that be through thank you it’s very kind up to a point she looks a bit grudging but I think that might have been her default facial expression right here we go and up to yor way this is actually oddly enough one of the more pleasant ways to approach yway if you’re coming from the top here we go tourist chaos wait for it wait for it wait for it wait for it cuz it’s a completely blind Corner the light sequence is incredibly long right now the final stretch up a thankfully quite quiet York way and we’re at the guardian
20 Comments
Yes, Yes very scary- ever walked the underpasses of the Elephant and Castle? Then you will know true fear.
To be fair there is a cycle lane at Vauxhal he just chose not to take it but yh tis horrible
At times I saw some pathetic painted lines. But in all of this 6 minute video I did not see a single bicycle infrastructure anywhere.
Greetings from The Netherlands.
The cyclist could have used his bell when those people were crossing the road on a green light.
4:41 you jumped a red light. Disliked.
The existing bike infrastructure is so insulting, like they're spitting in your face. Basically saying: "we know you're there but we don't care about you at all"
At least there is some infrastructure in London. In the north there is none at all
4:40 Perhaps if you are going to have a moan, its best not to show you going through red lights. Followed by "A woman sprinting across the road with a buggy because she doesn't know what she needs to do." What she needs to do is put that phone away and concentrate on her surroundings, then she would have seen the red man that every one else at the crossing saw and, unlike her, dint ignore,
Sheperds Bush / Hammersmith is still terrible
I love your bell….hello hello hello….Ebay purchase?
The only way to sort out the challenges is for the uk to adopt the Dutch methods of ‘Disentanglement’ into planning design
Otherwise it’s laughable for the whole country
UK infrastructure sucks. I plan to move to the Netherlands someday. I'll be dead by the time things start to improve to Dutch levels in the UK
you are riding very irresponsible, you really have to ride with you breaks : you have to slow down (if not full stop) when you see pedestrians, does not matter if it's your right to go or it theirs, at least ring a bell far before you see they pass the street.
My first time properly riding a bike by my self, got onto Vauxhall and still don’t know the correct way to tackle it, the adrenaline rush I got was comparable to trying to cross a busy highway
Ahahahahhaha I can imagine how much slower you are !!!! Buhahahha
As you are required by law to stop and let pedestrians cross i find your me me me I might be hit but I only care about me me me attitude discussing.
It's mental to see this video now, massive improvements at vauxhall and elephant and Castle. Kudos must go to tfl for implementing some fixes
London is a zoo.
4.43 did u run a red light?
I used to do Elephant and Castle twice a day on my commute, when it was just two big roundabouts with give ways.
I genuinely enjoyed it as the highlight of my ride.
Now I just have to settle for the others in this clip.