Prudential Bike Road Closure Fail

Prudential Bike Road Closure Fail

Author
Discussion

jagracer

8,248 posts

235 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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SixPotBelly said:
London is gridlocked because of cars. Cars almost invariably carrying just one person. They take up, what, nine times the road space that a bike does.

More people riding bikes rather than driving is a solution to London's congestion, not the cause of it.

And I'm speaking as a diehard petrolhead, not just a cyclist.
While I agree about the excess amount of cars on the road, I see line after line of trucks stuck in traffic heading into London daily and we can't manage without them at all. It's a bit of an exaggeration to say a car takes the space of nine bikes, more like two or maybe three. As for getting rid of the cars that commute into London, how would these people get to work, remove every car off the road in the rush hour and there wouldn't be the capacity on public transport, the trains are full to overflowing with no room to fit more trains on the tracks, add more buses and the roads would be even more gridlocked.

One thing I have noticed is that the councils and TFL are making pavements wider, corners tighter and squeezing all of of us into narrower and narrower roads, take Ruckholt road and Eastway by the park as one of many, the pavements and central reservation are far wider than the road and you never see a pedestrian, it's a recipe for disaster.

I'm speaking as one who has a nice bike and would like to cycle more but am too scared to do so, which reminds me I must fill out that witness statement for the prick in the white van that knocked a cyclist off her bike a few weeks ago.

Ponk

1,380 posts

191 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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Both the A12 and M25 have had warnings about this weekend on the signs for the last week or two.

You must live in a bubble.

Blaster72

10,772 posts

196 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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I see you said last year and the year before. Is this now happening every year? I only really remember the Olympics doing the same route (which by the way was well organised and notified in my local area with proper diversion routes in place).

Maybe last year I was at work on day shift, as I wouldn't have noticed at all if I was.

whatleytom

1,272 posts

182 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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Yes its a yearly event. Sad that people can't just celebrate an international sporting event with some of the worlds elite coming to compete in London. Rather they just moan that 10 fking minutes have been added to their likely to be pointless Sunday drive. Get a grip.

cheddar

4,637 posts

173 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
davepoth said:
I knew it was on, and I live in Somerset.
I knew it was on and I live in New Zealand

Blaster72

10,772 posts

196 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
whatleytom said:
Yes its a yearly event. Sad that people can't just celebrate an international sporting event with some of the worlds elite coming to compete in London. Rather they just moan that 10 fking minutes have been added to their likely to be pointless Sunday drive. Get a grip.
Pointless Sunday drive, what a load of drivel. My round trip took around 90 minutes longer than normal and if you read the post you would see people are mostly complaining about the woeful traffic management rather than the event itself.

Daveyraveygravey

2,018 posts

183 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
SixPotBelly said:
London is gridlocked because of cars. Cars almost invariably carrying just one person. They take up, what, nine times the road space that a bike does.

More people riding bikes rather than driving is a solution to London's congestion, not the cause of it.

And I'm speaking as a diehard petrolhead, not just a cyclist.
+1

SixPotBelly

1,922 posts

219 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
jagracer said:
While I agree about the excess amount of cars on the road, I see line after line of trucks stuck in traffic heading into London daily and we can't manage without them at all. It's a bit of an exaggeration to say a car takes the space of nine bikes, more like two or maybe three. As for getting rid of the cars that commute into London, how would these people get to work, remove every car off the road in the rush hour and there wouldn't be the capacity on public transport, the trains are full to overflowing with no room to fit more trains on the tracks, add more buses and the roads would be even more gridlocked.

One thing I have noticed is that the councils and TFL are making pavements wider, corners tighter and squeezing all of of us into narrower and narrower roads, take Ruckholt road and Eastway by the park as one of many, the pavements and central reservation are far wider than the road and you never see a pedestrian, it's a recipe for disaster.

I'm speaking as one who has a nice bike and would like to cycle more but am too scared to do so, which reminds me I must fill out that witness statement for the prick in the white van that knocked a cyclist off her bike a few weeks ago.
Nine was a guess. How wide is your car? Three times as wide as a bike? Four? How long is is? Twice as long? Three times? Multiply the first figure by the second, and that's how much more road space a queueing car needs over a queueing bike. I think nine times is a good guess, but it could be eight and it could be twelve.

The idea is that people get out of their cars and onto their bikes. For every driver that does so that's one car fewer holding up the others. But to encourage people to use their bikes more they need to feel safer, hence the effort going into segregation that is the Super Highway project.

But this is a debate really for another thread. The only link is that RideLondon is an event that helps promote and encourage cycling in London. We need a sea change in attitudes to get people to consider leaving their cars at home for all but long journeys, but it's a wave in that direction.

Schmy

162 posts

105 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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Blaster72 said:
I know you're into your cycling so it stands to reason you would be well informed.
There's a big running event that happens every year called "The London Marathon"

I suppose you'd have to be into running to have heard of it though.

croyde

22,701 posts

229 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
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I got stuck in this the first time they did it as a practise for the Olympics. It was 2011.

Drove to work from Wandsworth to Bayswater at 5am on that Sunday. Didn't see a single sign of what was to come.

Took me 15 mins to get to work where I was until 1230.

Started heading south and hit gridlock in both directions. Everyone was confused and as it had not been long since the riots we all thought it had flared up again. That or a terrorist attack.

Eventually came across the numpties that were manning the road block who just gave loads of disinformation ie Ya, I think Albert Bridge is open.

So tons of traffic head off to a dead end.

Finally found a copper who told me to give up. I dumped the car, had a couple of pints in an empty pub, watched a film at a cinema in Fulham and then sat in my car for another hour.

When the roads reopened I headed home. Got there 5 hours after I left work.

Cut to today and after studying the road closure maps I worked out a route home from the same job. No mention on the website of what was open, just what was closed.

Thus the only way south in the west of London was via Hammersmith Bridge. The Broadway wasn't moving nor was the A3 heading to Wandsworth but this time I was prepared. I was on my just purchased Vespa.

On the whole route I did not see a single sign advising what was occurring or which was the best route to take.

I defiantly think a lot of people avoided London this time but it was still a fekin shambles unless you were well prepared.

Blaster72

10,772 posts

196 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Schmy said:
Blaster72 said:
I know you're into your cycling so it stands to reason you would be well informed.
There's a big running event that happens every year called "The London Marathon"

I suppose you'd have to be into running to have heard of it though.
Don't be so stupid

Silver Smudger

Original Poster:

3,292 posts

166 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Black can man said:
Silver Smudger said:
I have had several staff that have abandoned their cars and travel in the last chunk of their journey into the office by Tube or DLR, so they were all late in as well, and now we can't get vans out to Central London because of the chaos in all the rat-runs around the main closures.

s!
So you run a company or manage some drivers that travel into central London & you didn't know this was on ?


Jesus dude ! You suck at your job man.
So someone runs a cycle event and didn't put any notices up on any of the main dual carriageway A-roads or tunnels, or bridges - Or notify businesses that would be surrounded by closures completely?

Some-one definitely sucks at their job.

Silver Smudger

Original Poster:

3,292 posts

166 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Blaster72 said:
Nothing in my area, no signs - f all.

Total flippin shambles, hope its not now going to happen every year.
You, me and twenty miles of traffic, brother

Silver Smudger

Original Poster:

3,292 posts

166 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Blaster72 said:
whatleytom said:
Plenty of signs out in West London. Can't see what more organisers can do besides mailing all of London. You've done well to avoid hearing anything about it.
Sadly they didn't put an signs out in my area of Surrey before cutting off the only two river crossings in the area for the whole day. They should have had some diversion routes up rather than just closing the roads and saying tough luck.
Definitely poorly organised for such a massive disruption

Silver Smudger

Original Poster:

3,292 posts

166 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
whatleytom said:
Yes its a yearly event. Sad that people can't just celebrate an international sporting event with some of the worlds elite coming to compete in London. Rather they just moan that 10 fking minutes have been added to their likely to be pointless Sunday drive. Get a grip.
I have no issue with all the thousands of cyclists having a great day out - Ten minutes delay I can live with - TWO WHOLE HOURS at 6 am on a Sunday is a royal pain in the arse

Silver Smudger

Original Poster:

3,292 posts

166 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Schmy said:
Blaster72 said:
I know you're into your cycling so it stands to reason you would be well informed.
There's a big running event that happens every year called "The London Marathon"

I suppose you'd have to be into running to have heard of it though.
The London Marathon road supervision is orders of magnitude better than this shower - And more well known I suspect

Silver Smudger

Original Poster:

3,292 posts

166 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Ponk said:
Both the A12 and M25 have had warnings about this weekend on the signs for the last week or two.

You must live in a bubble.
Nothing on the A2, M20, A20 or Blackwall Tunnel - Massive great bubble in fact

mr pg

1,947 posts

204 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Signs have been up on the M1 for the past week. It's likely to be an annual event now to match the marathon, London to Brighton, etc, so best to put a reminder in your calendar to check for details.

Black can man

31,816 posts

167 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
Silver Smudger said:
So someone runs a cycle event and didn't put any notices up on any of the main dual carriageway A-roads or tunnels, or bridges - Or notify businesses that would be surrounded by closures completely?

Some-one definitely sucks at their job.
Even the chap in New Zealand knew about it,


Would you like me to PM you for next year ?

SixPotBelly

1,922 posts

219 months

Sunday 2nd August 2015
quotequote all
OP, you may also want to avoid trying to drive through Notting Hill and nearby parts of west London this coming Bank Holiday Monday. HTH