Wednesday 17 October 2012

Lambeth Bridge Northern Roundabout

My response to the proposals
I have been reading the proposals for the Northern Roundabout at Lambeth Bridge and I wish it to be noted that I disagree with the fundamental principles of this redesign, namely that cyclists should either be mixing with heavy traffic or mixing with pedestrians. This is not an acceptable choice, providing proper segregated cycle lanes is the only rational choice at a roundabout as busy as this. Leaving cyclists on the road will inevitably mean someone will be killed here and the persons responsible for this design will be responsible for that death as they have the chance right now to prevent it.

Alternatively, putting cyclists onto shared used footways creates a conflict with pedestrians that will be the precursor to a thousand comments on the internet about ‘speeding cyclists’ ‘almost ran over my 80 year old grandma’. Pedestrians do not want cyclists on the pavement, motorists do not want cyclists on the roads, cyclists do not want to be on either, provide segregated cycle lanes and everybody wins.

PS. the design doesn’t make clear how you expect cyclists to get from the carriageway onto the shared use path, is it by entering the raised pedestrian crossing and then tuning on to the pavement and passing against the flow through the crowd of people waiting to cross the road?

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