James Bond and cyclists

 (Above) Sean Connery on a bicycle


My current bedtime reading is Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, first published in 1953. And when I came to Chapter 15, where Bond goes on a high-speed car chase after the abducted Vesper, I was startled to read this sentence:

Bond’s mind raged furiously on with the problem as he flung the great car down the coast road, automatically taking the curves and watching out for carts or cyclists on their way into Royale.

James Bond watches out for cyclists!

This is very impressive. One does not associate 007 with a commitment to road safety.

The ‘great car’ is, of course, a modified 4½ litre Bentley.

I wish I could end it there but I’m afraid the paragraph contains two more sentences which rather take the edge off Bond’s concern for cyclists:

On straight stretches the Amherst Villiers supercharger dug spurs into the Bentley’s twenty-five horses and the engine sent a high-pitched scream of pain into the night. Then the revolutions mounted until he was past 110 and on to the 120 mph mark on the speedometer. 

So I’m afraid if Bond had met a cyclist, the miscreant would have just appeared out of nowhere.

(Below) The kind of typical cyclist who 007 might have encountered in France in 1953 if our hero hadn’t been racing around in a supercharged Bentley. Hard luck, James!

Speeding footballer update

The latest prominent footballer to be convicted after multiple speeding offences. And he didn’t even have to bother turning up in court.

Yes, it’s Peter Crouch.

Cycling noise: four new examples

Let me offer up a category: cycling noise.

Cycling noise is an initiative or campaign which purports to ‘encourage cycling’ or make it safer but which doesn’t reduce the presence of motor vehicles on the street, in terms of volume. The existing volume of motor traffic may be restrained or modified in superficial ways – by traffic calming, say, or a lower speed limit – but the volume and presence of the existing motor vehicles are not reduced, either in terms of traffic flow or parking. In other words, cycling noise initiatives are inherently rooted in vehicular cycling and as such ignore the core issue of subjective safety (on which topic there are interesting insights here). Or to put it another way, cycling noise campaigns never challenge the car-centric status quo.

1. Labour Party cycling noise 

This week Shadow transport minister Maria Eagle made a speech to the Labour party conference:

I congratulate The Times on their Cities Fit for Cyclists campaign. The Government should implement the campaign’s manifesto for change. In full. 

Ms. Eagle singled out

Separated cycle-ways. Redesigned junctions. Advance green lights for cyclists 

Whoever wrote Ms. Eagle’s speech for her plainly hasn’t read The Times Manifesto very carefully, since it nowhere mentions “separated cycle-ways”. If the Labour Party plans to make a manifesto commitment to the reallocation of road space on main roads through urban centres from drivers to cyclists through the medium of physically segregated cycle tracks, then that is very good news indeed. However, uplifting speeches made to enthusiastic party loyalists need to be treated with caution, or better still, extreme scepticism. I suspect it is nothing more than rhetoric.

If you have the stomach to read the complete speech you’ll see that Ms. Eagle also positions herself as the friend of the hard-pressed driver and wants cheaper motoring. Leaving aside the deficiencies of the Times Manifesto – you can find point-by-point critical analysis here, I felt that The Cycling Lawyer hit the nail on the head when he remarked a few months ago:

The trouble is that 'The Times' is not calling for infrastructure changes that may adversely impact motorists. 

In other words, the Times Manifesto is itself nothing more than cycling noise because it doesn’t engage with the basic reason why most people won’t cycle and it doesn’t campaign for the kind of cycling infrastructure that would. Instead it merely ameliorates some aspects of vehicular cycling.

And that brings us back to the core wisdom of Dave Horton:

We’ve got a cycling promotion industry in the UK which refuses to contemplate the act of deterring driving. It’s always promoting cycling around the edges, not seeking to dismantle the central system of mobility in the UK, which is the car. 

It’s also worth remembering the very long history of politicians pledging their support for cycling and promising to encourage it:

since Lynda Chalker’s encouragement of cycling in 1985 until 2010, [there has been] an increase in car, van and taxi vehicle passenger distance travelled of some 48%. All motor vehicle mileage (e.g. including lorries) has gone up by 57%. Cycling distance travelled nationally decreased by about 17%. 

Not very effective on the encouragement front. 


2. SUSTRANS cycling noise 

Among those overjoyed by Ms. Eagle’s slithery speech was this person:

Sustrans' policy adviser Joe Williams welcomed the commitment: "Slower speeds on our streets will make the biggest difference to getting more of us out walking and cycling. 

No they won’t.

As far as cycling is concerned the biggest difference can be made only through the principle of separation of cyclists from motor vehicles, particularly by creating bike grids in urban centres. That’s how the Dutch cycling revolution began. It did not begin with sticking up speed limit signs.

Everybody from car-centric politicians to the vehicular cycling campaign establishment loves ‘Twenty's Plenty’ because 20 mph zones in no way threaten to curb the presence or volume of motor vehicles on British streets. Obviously 20 mph zones are a Good Thing in so far as they reduce the seriousness of the consequences of collisions but they do not in themselves civilise streets. If you want to get more people walking and cycling you achieve it by creating a safe, pleasant walking and cycling environment. That’s what will make the biggest difference, not sticking up 20 mph signs in car-sodden streets. For both travel modes that means separation from motor vehicles, whether through pedestrianisation or segregated cycle paths. It requires a reduction in the presence of vehicles on our car-sick streets and pavements.

SUSTRANS more and more resembles an organisation which has completely lost the plot and exists only to perpetuate its own existence. It is quite literally a collaborationist organisation, which is happy to ally itself with a borough which is absolutely NOT a friend of either the cyclist or the pedestrian. Listen to this other fresh example of Sustrans cycling noise:

CYCLING shoppers who use their local high street will be rewarded in a new loyalty card scheme. Sustainble transport charity Sustrans has launched the scheme with Redbridge Council as part of the council's pledge to become a biking borough. 

More than a dozen shops in High Street, Wanstead have signed up to the scheme which rewards cyclists for shopping locally. 

Cycling promotion officer for Sustrans, Emilie Charlesworth, said: "Wanstead has got this local high street feel to it. Residents and shopkeepers want to preserve that feel. 

Redbridge Council is a viciously pro-car Conservative administration with an extreme reluctance to curb the use or parking of cars in the borough. It’s cycling modal share is risible. As for High Street, Wanstead. It’s about thirty feet wide and dotted with NO CYCLING signs. Redbridge Council could very easily create segregated cycle paths on the High Street, but as the council understands nothing whatever about cycling there’s little chance of this ever happening. This cosmetic scheme won’t get a single extra person cycling on the hellish roads which lead to Wanstead High Street, and for Sustrans to involve itself with this kind of fatuous and inane scheme shows that the organisation is not fit for purpose.

Footnote: Sustrans’s latest London Greenway is identified as being fundamentally misconceived.



3. Hampshire Constabulary and ‘road safety’ cycling noise 

In 2011, there was an eight per cent increase in cyclists as road casualties across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with 190 seriously injured and one cyclist killed. 

In 2012, there has been another death, and the levels of cyclists being injured or killed on the roads of the UK nationally are increasing. 

Since in the majority of collisions the motorist not the cyclist is at fault, will there be a crackdown on reckless driving? Er, no.

Officers from Hampshire Constabulary's Roads Policing Unit have created the Steer Clear campaign, which is being launched across the county on October 1. 

New signs will be appearing on the roads of Hampshire today (October 1) to raise public awareness of the dangers posed to cyclists. 

Throughout October, officers will be carrying out initiatives to raise cyclists awareness of safety on the roads including knowledge of the Highway Code, basic road safety, and traffic awareness. 

The police spokesman masterminding this cycling noise says:

Our message to cyclists is very simple; be safe and be seen. Our leaflet highlights key safety tips, and gives you some discount vouchers to help get yourself kitted out properly; think high visibility, check your lights, and remember the Highway Code, it is really important. Things like cycling recklessly on the pavement, having no lights on your bike, cycling and driving under the influence of drugs and drink, or more than one person riding on a solo bike. We will be focusing on encouraging all road users to grasp the concept of mutual respect. We want to foster a culture of mutual respect between all road users to create a safer environment on the roads. 

Apart from the conspicuity crap (all about cyclists doing their best to shine a bright yellow in the hope of being noticed by the texting driver), and apart from the reality that the thrust of this campaign is focused on cyclists not drivers, there is not a scrap of evidence that ‘ mutual respect’ campaigns or education have the slightest beneficial result. This is not evidence-based 'road safety'. Crap campaigns like this are a substitute for road traffic law enforcement in a vehicular cycling environment. If the police were at all interested in making the roads safer they could start taking driver crime seriously, since the latest figures show that:

47% of cars exceeded a 30mph speed limit in 2011, while 49% went faster than 70mph on a motorway. The proportions of motorcyclists breaking the same speed limits were similar, at 50% and 49% respectively. 

The figures for articulated heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) were considerable higher, with 71% exceeding the single carriageway 40mph limit and more than four in five breaking the 50mph limit on dual carriageways. 

The road haulage industry is out of control, yet there is no shortage of cycle campaigning which hopes to make lorry drivers nice people who remember to watch out for cyclists at junctions.


4. PACTS cycling noise 

It is reported that

Annual road casualty statistics showed that overall cyclist casualties reported to the police rose by 12 per cent between 2010 and 2011. While the number of fatalities fell by 4 per cent to 104, the number of cyclists who were seriously injured rose by 16 per cent to 3,085 last year. 

The number of serious injuries has increased every year since 2004. 

Commenting on this Times story

Robert Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said: “Both central and local government need to do far more to make our infrastructure more suited to cycling with dedicated cycle lanes where appropriate, better signed advance stop lines and campaigns aimed at getting car drivers to look out for cyclists.” 

Nothing but the same old crap. Leaving aside the fact that cycle lanes alongside or amidst motor vehicles have demonstrably failed to bring about mass cycling in Britain, that weasel phrase ‘where appropriate’ is a giveaway. Cycle lanes very often fizzle out just before road junctions, so they won’t get in the way of ‘stacking’ motor vehicles in two or three lanes (in central London sometimes even more) to ‘smooth traffic flow’. To allow a British transport planner to determine what is ‘appropriate’ for cycling is to surrender before the battle has even begun.

As for ‘better signed advance [sic] stop lines’. Yes, perhaps we could make them even more conspicuous.

Here is a helpful design showing a traditional cycle lane leading to an ASL. It also happens to exactly match this lorry driver’s rather substantial ‘blind spot’.

HGV driver news

A shell-shocked war veteran today avoided jail after claiming memories of the battlefield triggered him to roar along a motorway at 140mph. 

The plain clothes police officers were in an unmarked car and spotted Farnworth as he initially drove at up to 85mph in a 40mph zone. But as they began following him, Farnworth feared they were ‘men in hoodies’ and roared away as if he were ‘shaking off the enemy’ in battle. 

Even when the officers turned on their blue lights, Farnworth failed to stop.

He admitted dangerous driving and was today given a community order for 12 months. He was also sentenced to a supervision order for 12 months, banned from driving for 12 months and must take a driving re-test. Farnworth now works as an HGV driver.

Representing lawless drivers as victims

Many motorists believe they have been seen as an easy target in recent years. The industrialisation of speed enforcement over the past decade led to a flourishing speed camera industry. 

[ Some lawless drivers resent being caught ]

At its height, speed cameras earned more than £100 million a year from motorists, with the cash being reinvested in yet more devices by safety camera partnerships set up by police and local authorities.

[ Speed cameras revealed that the standards of driving on Britain’s roads are so poor that significant numbers of drivers even get caught by cameras in bright yellow boxes with advance warning signs ]

The previous Government tried to defuse their unpopularity by decreeing that the fines should be handed over to the Treasury rather than being spent on installing more cameras.

[ Speed cameras are not unpopular despite ceaseless attempts by the corporate media to suggest that petrolheads represent all drivers. But politicians have traditionally been terrified of the supposed influence of the Murdoch press and the Daily Mail ]

Then, in a move to appease motorists further, the Coalition stopped all central Government funding for cameras on taking office. Philip Hammond, the Coaltion’s first transport secretary, declared an end to the war on motorist within hours of taking on the portfolio.

[ "Motorists" =  the libertarian sort, who believe they should drive in whatever way they please, wherever they please, whenever they please, without any restrictions. But with free parking. ]

As for the war on the motorist...

War on the motorist update

The Daily Mail is usually exceptionally keen to kick out Johnny Foreigner when Johnny breaks the law.

But everybody knows that traffic offences aren’t really crimes, are they?

He has served in the British Army for four years with an ‘exemplary record’, but Poloko Hiri has now been ordered out of the UK – because of a speeding offence. The 32-year-old from Botswana has had his application for citizenship rejected by the UK Border Agency who claimed the single offence was a sign of ‘bad character’. The UKBA rejected his bid because he had received a £100 fine and five penalty points for speeding on the M1. He had been doing 81mph in a 50mph roadworks zone at 1.30am. 

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: ‘Each claim for settlement is considered on individual circumstances and in line with published policy.’

One driver in seven speeding is OK with the cops – that’s normal

People living on Hillside Avenue, in Woodford Green, slammed a recent police evening operation which found only 14 per cent of drivers were speeding along the street.

Six officers checked the speed of 253 vehicles on the road on Friday, July 22, between 5pm and 7pm, but concluded that “Whilst speeding was detected it was not found to be prevalent, was below expectations, and equivalent to problems on similar suburban routes.”

But residents raised several complaints with the operation itself. They told the police they were stationed in the wrong parts of the road, wore high visibility jackets which alerted speeding drivers to their presence, and should have done the speed checks at night on the weekend.

But police said safety reasons stopped them from performing these operations at night and doing it on the weekend would have damaged other priorities.

There are no safety measures to control speed on the busy road.

Child pedestrian knocked down in Chingford

RESIDENTS say a road bend close to where a 12-year-old boy was hit by a van yesterday is dangerous due to a lack of warning signs and traffic calming measures.

The collision which took place in Larkshall Road in Highams Park, near the junction with Coolgardie Avenue, left the boy with head and leg injuries. Witnesses said the boy got off a bus just after a bend in the road and as he crossed in front of it, he was hit by the van.

Carmel King, 63, who lives close to the scene of the accident, said: "This road is a nightmare. "Years ago there was a petition to get a crossing put in but it was put in further up the road.

"The speed that drivers come round at that corner makes the road very dangerous and they may not get to stop in time if something is blocking the road.

"When I get of the bus sometimes I have to stand on the side of the road for about ten minutes before crossing.

"They should have cameras here and signs because it might make people slow down."

cycling in Dorset

It's the fastest way to get from one side of town to the other, it's cheaper than driving, better for the planet, healthier, more fun and it reduces congestion. Hurrah for the bicycle!

However, apart from not reading the Comments box (crammed with the usual hysterical cyclophobia – add murdering dogs to the inventory of cycling sin) you may wish to avoid busy roads, since

MOST of Dorset’s fixed speed cameras have been switched off, leaving just 15 to snap offenders.

The majority of the yellow boxes alongside the county’s roads are now empty.

But the casing will remain as a deterrent and cameras could be re-installed if a risk to public safety becomes apparent.

[Doncha just love that ‘if’.]

The news comes as figures reveal just £851,000 has been committed to Dorset Road Safe by Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset councils compared with £2 million two years ago.

British policing: car-centric and unaccountable

Oxford:

A COUNCIL call for police to enforce Oxford’s 20mph speed limits has been rejected. A senior officer spoke out after Oxford City Council passed a motion urging Thames Valley Police to crack down on speeding drivers.

Liberal Democrat Alan Armitage, who put the motion, said: “It doesn’t say much for the police that they don’t give a damn what the people think.

“It is a high priority for people in Oxford who are worried about protecting themselves and their children.”

Labour leader Bob Price said Beaumont Street and Park End Street were among roads which would benefit from enforcement.

He said: “We don’t expect police to focus all their attention on the enforcement of speed limits but, where you have places where it happens, there is a strong case for them using a short, sharp period of enforcement.”

In April, a police check outside St John Fisher Primary School in Sandy Lane West, found 44 of 110 cars over the limit.

This echoes what happened in York back in March:

City of York Council agreed to introduce a 20mph limit on a section of Fishergate which passes two primary schools,

The Fishergate scheme was opposed by North Yorkshire Police, who said it could make the area less safe and warned its officers would not enforce the limit.

Meanwhile in London, apart from episodes like this, which tell you everything you need to know about how far the rot has gone inside the Metropolitan Police, there’s this:

Dutch towns don’t have tens of thousands of uninsured drivers on their streets and unlike Newham, they don’t have to cope with a quarter of road casualties involving a hit and run driver.

In the nineteen eighties and nineties, the number of traffic police in London was halved. Some senior people within the Met even discussed closing the unit altogether.

The Met’s traffic unit has become very effective as a result of this close scrutiny of their work. One estimate shows they make seven times the number of arrests as the borough police. Given the historic decline in their numbers and the proven efficiency of the section, it is one of the last places the Met should be looking to find savings, yet Traffic is now dealing with a 10% budget cut compared to most sections of the Met who have a 5% cut.

At the last meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority the Commissioner defended his decision to cut traffic police as the right one, as all sections of the Met were being asked to make savings. This simply isn’t true. The public affairs section, for example, has been given around a £1m of extra funding this year.

Ah, so! The money was needed to pay the sort of guy who earned

more than £1,000 a day to work two days a month as a public relations adviser to Sir Paul.

Sir Paul is a hero of the self-styled Association of British Drivers and Safe Speed (sic). The ABD identifies him as one of the ‘good guys’ (gals naturally don’t come into this masculine topic). Both cite his reluctance to take speeding seriously.

“There is a perception that people who commit criminal offences and who, quite properly and according to guidelines, get a caution, get an easier ride than those who speed at the lower end. Whilst clearly the comparison is not a helpful one, I do nevertheless have some very real sympathy for this perception. Any criminal justice system to be effective has to be seen to be fair. It just cannot be right when people feel that our response within that system is disproportionate.”
Paul Stephenson
Chief Constable
Lancashire Constabulary
2004-03-11

And ‘Safe Speed’ (sic) gloated:

Lancashire's chief constable Paul Stephenson has announced plans for a review of the way motorists are punished. The moves follow a lengthy campaign by the Lancashire Evening Post against the excessive use of speed cameras which won the backing of hundreds of readers.
Authorities in the county, which has more fixed speed cameras than any other in the North of England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, will now operate a "three strikes" rule, where instead of being hit with a £60 fine and three penalty points, motorists who breach the limit only slightly will be cautioned.
A second minor breach would lead to another caution and the offender being asked to attend a speed awareness course.
Only on the third occasion would a fine and points be handed out.
Drivers caught excessively flouting the law would still be subject to the normal punishment.
Mr Stephenson made the announcement yesterday at a meeting of Lancashire Police Authority. He said this system would allow more "discretion" and added: "My post bag is filled and lots of other post bags are filled. Many motorists who have committed offences at the bottom end of the spectrum do feel they have been punished too harshly."

Where does the Met Bus stop, apart from the Town Square Walthamstow yesterday?

Sometimes it's The Dot Stop and sometimes it's here!

Evening all.

Blackfriars Bridge: it’s war

Boris Johnson and TfL are not going to budge an inch:

"My information is that the general speed [on Blackfriars Bridge] is nearer 12 miles an hour, therefore a speed limit of 20 mph isn't necessary and could be a serious impediment to smooth traffic flow," said the Mayor.

Ms Jones pressed the Mayor on why he was ignoring the findings of the report prepared by TfL in 2008. The Mayor replied: "I am told that it does not represent the best advice and therefore I am not pursuing it".

Let’s be clear that this is London cycling’s Tahrir Square moment. And its ramifications are much greater than simply cycling.

Blackfriars is about fighting the dirty, noisy, unpleasant and dangerous car-culture entrenched in our streets and in the minds of our city’s transport policy-makers.

If we win at Blackfriars, it can affect a lot more than just one bridge.

This is a test for London’s cycling community in all its manifestations, because whatever all the other differences are I doubt if there is a single cyclist in London who thinks that raising the speed limit here from 20 mph to 30 mph is a good idea.

I hope the CTC will get involved in this struggle and not just leave it up to the LCC. And also Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. And Living Streets and Climate Rush and all the other campaign groups.

In the meantime, don’t neglect the conventional channels.

The deadline for responses to Transport for London’s consultation Draft Network Operating Strategy is Friday. This is the document which sets out London Streets’ overall approach to the management and operation of the road network in London… as well as providing a framework through which to prioritise capital investment and ‘business as usual’ operational expenditure decision-making across the road network.

At the moment the strategy is all about cars, vans and HGVs, so it really is important that we get as many responses as possible from people interested in making London’s streets cleaner, more sustainable, more pleasant and less dangerous.

It Was An Accident

PHOTOS of a collision between a bus and a car at the junction of Hollybush Hill and Snaresbrook Road outside the Eagle Pub show the full extent of the impact.

Three ambulances attended the crash at around 1.50pm last Thursday (June 23).

A pregnant woman was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital with neck pain, while several passengers on the bus were treated for minor injuries.

Ken Wright, 70, of Malcolm Way took photos of the scene.

He said: “I was in my garden when I heard a massive thump.

“Police and ambulances were there very quickly and the road was closed for quite a while.”

Police are treating the incident as an accident.

But as someone remarks in the Comments box under the story

What is the car doing on the wrong side of the road? Looks like the car was trying to turn right, and underestimated the speed of the bus.

This is an extremely plausible hypothesis. The bus was heading north along Woodford Road (A11). The car driver appears to have been turning right into Snaresbrook Road. Provided that the bus driver was not exceeding the speed limit, the car driver was at fault, if this was the manoeuvre. In which case the driver was guilty of a calculated recklessness and should have been charged with a road traffic offence.

Of course if one of the drivers was taken ill or there was mechanical failure, then this was indeed an accident. But I think we can be reasonably certain that those were not the causes. One or both drivers did something wrong; the fault was probably entirely the car driver’s and the bus’s CCTV should have established the circumstances beyond reasonable doubt.

This crash happened not far from the spot where Barry Mannakee died. Although that death has attracted conspiracy theories, the circumstances were unambiguous – a motorcyclist who was speeding collided with a woman driver who emerged from a side road without first properly checking that the road was clear. If you think that such episodes are choreographed by MI5 you need to try cycling. You will then discover that although the roads are full of assassins it’s not personal – they are just people in a hurry.

A much more interesting issue than conspiracy theories involving MI5 is why the security services have never taken any action against ‘Captain Gatso’ and the people behind the Motorists Against Detection website, dedicated to petrol bombing speed cameras. Something which is apparently going to get worse now that Mike Penning, the ConDem Minister for the Slaughter of Vulnerable Road Users, is ordering that the figures for speed camera enforcement be published:

'The police are concerned that certain cameras may be vandalised more than they are now, but that's not a reason not to do it.'

160 mph driver shown mercy

A businessman who reached the take-off speed of a passenger jet in his sports car to outpace police chasing him was spared jail yesterday.

Officers estimated that during a chase on a wet dual carriageway at night, Tobias Baker, 34, drove his Aston Martin Vantage at 160mph, the take-off speed of a fully loaded Boeing 757.

But after Baker admitted dangerous driving yesterday, a judge showed mercy on him after he claimed he would be unable to care for his sick wife if he was jailed.

Judge John Devaux told Baker:

“Happily there was no accident as a result of your driving and there was therefore no actual damage or physical injury to anyone.”

So that’s alright then…

The sentence has outraged road-safety campaigners, however.

Caroline Perry, of road charity Brake, said: “This person has shown a blatant disregard for the safety of others and could easily have killed someone.”

Chief Inspector Andy Dawson, of Suffolk Police, described Baker’s speed as “quite extraordinary”.

He said after the case: “It is disappointing to see that this man drove in such a hugely irresponsible fashion. It is lucky that he did not seriously injure or kill himself or others.”

However, if you are a male defendant appearing before Judge Devaux having been convicted of an offence which would normally result in imprisonment, it helps to have a wife who really needs you.

BMW hit and run killer driver will soon be back on the roads

Elizabeth Beach-MacGeagh, 20, was knocked down as she crossed a street in Barnet by a BMW doing 45mph in a 30mph zone. The driver, Aryeris Angelis, sped off without stopping.

But Angelis has some very powerful friends, which is why he was only banned from driving for two years.

Bollard horror

Personally I think they’re kinda cute… But it seems unlikely they will ever be installed, since reaction has been adverse.

What is striking about this scene is its barbarism. If you build a long straight road like this you should not be surprised that drivers will speed. Putting up a crappy little sign that reads SCHOOL will not affect their behaviour (even if they notice the sign, since some drivers will be concentrating on sending or reading a text message).

The pedestrian crossing consists of a traffic island, which doubles as a pinch point for cyclists.

This is a road designed to prioritise fast, smooth, convenient driving at the expense of safe, convenient walking and cycling. Few parents will want to let their child cycle to school on a road like this.

The final insult, evidently, is that parents doing the school run park on the pavement, which is what the bollards are primarily designed to deter. The local council could, if it wished, obtain powers to hand out tickets to drivers who park on the footway. But Conservative councils in particular are on the side of anti-social behaviour when the offender is a motorist. The police could take action but British policing has long been institutionally car supremacist.

In any case, debates about bollards entirely miss the point. Cosmetic additions to car-centric streets never address the core issues.

And if you design cars with a top speed of 146mph, you should not be surprised if journalists on major national newspapers get caught driving them at 40 mph in a 30 mph zone – nor that this criminally dangerous behaviour in the vicinity of a local cycling blogger is turned into an occasion for some laddish just-having-a-larf humour. From his article it seems that this is not Wollaston's first speeding conviction. And see if you can spot the difference between the headlines in the website version and the hard copy:

welcome to the Stratford Soviet Olympics

I presume this banal Soviet-style sculpture which has manifested on the roundabout outside Maryland station in Stratford forms part of the ‘Olympic legacy’.

I expect its name is ‘Spirit of the Olympics’ or some crap like that, though I prefer to call it 'Another empty bubble rises in the twisted mind of the arrogant and anti-cycling Newham leader, Sir Robin Wales.'

As the implications of the Olympic Route Network (ORN) sink in, unhappiness is spreading.

I’ve noticed that one of these exclusive ORN lanes runs across the end of the Greenway from Becton, where it connects with High Street, Stratford. If cyclists aren’t allowed to cross the road here – and this aspect of the ORN seems currently unclear – the implications are, well, interesting.

The removal of pedestrian crossings to accommodate the smooth traffic flow of limo-lifestyle layabouts from the corporate marketing industry is causing distress in some quarters. But large parts of Stratford won’t be affected at all, because under Sir Robin’s inspired leadership, pedestrians have traditionally been fenced in and prevented from crossing the road.

Just down the road from the new sculpture of Sir Robin’s brain is this imaginative road layout (Maryland Point), where the problem of drivers ‘losing control’ on the Stratford urban speedway system is addressed not by traffic calming or speed cameras but by crash barriers. It’s always comforting to cycle alongside crash barriers, is it not? And clever of that BMW driver to find a way along the pavement to a nice safe car parking spot.

Blackfriars Bridge walkout: Boff biffed

Mr Boff's claim that the Tories have been excluded from committee chairmanships is wrong

Walthamstow pedestrian killed in hit and run crash

On Wednesday evening the emergency services were called to

the junction of Markhouse Road and Markhouse Avenue in Walthamstow following reports of a collision.

A female pedestrian was taken to an east London hospital with serious injuries.

The car involved in the collision, which is believed to be a dark coloured Mercedes C-class, failed to stop at the scene.

The woman, who was Vietnamese, died the next day but has not yet been formally identified.

Police want to trace the driver of the car, thought to be a C180 or C220 model, which was driven away from the scene towards Blackhorse Road.

This seems to be the first hit and run killing in the borough since a cyclist was run down and killed on Forest Road in 2007 (the driver was never traced).

The victim, whose identity is now known but which has not as yet been released by the police, was apparently in her twenties.

The crircumstances of the collision currently remain obscure. BBC News says she was run down on Markhouse Avenue, whereas the local paper says Markhouse Road. The local paper is more likely to be right, and indicates that the collision occurred somewhere between the traffic island by the Presbyterian Church and the junction with Markhouse Avenue. Four days after this fatal collision the Metropolitan Police have yet to put up a sign asking for information from any witnesses.

On the very limited information available at present it seems likely that the victim was crossing Markhouse Road when she was hit by the Mercedes, which was being driven north towards Blackhorse Road.

Markhouse Road (aka the A1006) is a lethal and barbaric road. It seems to have a massive crash record (I’ll use FOI to find out the details). It’s featured on this blog on a number of occasions. It has two schools on it (you can see the primary school playground behind the bus stop in the first photo above), churches and a leisure centre, as well as terraces of residential housing, yet the through-driver reigns supreme.

A major problem is speed. It is nominally a 30 mph road but many drivers are plainly exceeding that limit. The crap council’s idea of traffic calming is putting in traffic island/pinch points, which are no use to pedestrians (try getting stranded on one with two small children, or if you are old and walk with a stick), and which force even normal size cars into the crap advisory cycle lane.

The solution? It should be a 20 mph road, backed up by speed cameras. That’s the only way to do it. Unfortunately the idea of reducing speeds below 30 mph on an ‘A’ road is anathema to Britain’s car-centric transport culture.

At the very least the council should be ripping out those lethal pinch points and replacing them with zebra crossings. The council has a lot of latitude as this is not a road under the control of TfL.

Markhouse Road is the kind of road which deters all cyclists but those who are confident enough to cycle in such conditions. Me, I would always prefer to cycle on crap Hoe Street, where in daytime the congestion ensures much lower vehicle speeds, than on Markhouse Road, where vehicles travel much faster and come much closer.

(Below) The junction where the crash occurred.

(Below) The crash site. Which is also an example of how to design road infrastructure that forces drivers into the cycle lane.

(Below) While I was taking photographs a cyclist came by - on the pavement. If you don’t provide safe, convenient infrastructure for cyclists, some people will decide to find their own.

Update

TWO arrests were made yesterday following a woman’s death after a hit and run crash.

A woman in her 20s was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and a man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after the collision in Walthamstow.

A dark blue Mercedes C200 Kompressor, believed to be the vehicle involved in the crash, was also traced after the fatal incident occurred at 10pm on June 1, at the junction of Markhouse Avenue and Markhouse Road.

Miscellaneous news

Children MUST wear helmets when crossing the road (see below)

It’s a sin: “cyclists weaving their way through traffic.”

Meanwhile, in a vicious trick designed for no other purpose than to steal from innocent road-tax-paying drivers Camden Council has put up signs on one road which read:

No motor vehicles between 07:00 - 10:00 and 15:00 - 19:00 except bank holidays.

This is totally baffling and you would need to be Einstein to understand it. Yes, shockingly,

Motorists have been fined a staggering £5 million for driving down a quiet residential street which has been dubbed ‘Britain’s most baffling road’.

You like zee statistics?

Brake said that in 2009 cyclists made up just 0.5% of traffic but accounted for 5% of road deaths and 11% of serious injuries.

It added that while road casualties overall had decreased, cyclist deaths and injuries had not.

Road safety. A cycling Nottingham University professor is encouraging all cyclists to wear helmets and high visibility clothing

And

A cyclist who was able to walk away from a head-on collision with a car is urging other bike riders to wear a helmet.

More road safety tips. This initiative demonstrates how children should cross the road: heavily supervised by adults; wearing crash helmets; carrying hi-viz signals; and tied to each other.

A pensioner driving a sports car mounted a pavement and slammed into a group of pedestrians killing a three year old child. The driver was arrested.

Meanwhile

THE driver of a people carrier that hit and fatally injured an elderly pedestrian told an inquest she did not see him at all before the impact. Great-grandfather Leslie Young, 86, of Fitzpaine Road, had sustained multiple injuries, including fractures to his skull. He later died in hospital.

He had been at the back of his parked Vauxhall Cavalier. The Chrysler then collided with the rear offside of the Vauxhall, pushing it into the back of a parked Renault Laguna.

District coroner Sheriff Payne noted that there were no direct witnesses and recorded the verdict that Mr Young’s death was due to an accident.

War on the motorist news. A “Traffic reform campaigner” has been cruelly persecuted: I wasn't doing 91 mph all the time, just to avoid delay down the other side of the hill..

Shock horror – some council car parking ticket machines don’t give change - huge frothing in the Torigraph (“This is absolutely outrageous).

The only speed camera on the southbound M11 is a cruel trick, impartially described in the Daily Mail as “infamous” for its success in catching out innocent drivers who can’t see a series of signs bearing the message 50 mph and SPEED CAMERA AHEAD, followed by a bright yellow object half a mile ahead on a straight road.

Britain’s poisonously car-centric cyclist-hating Department for Transport is exposed as trying to block a European ban on oil derived from the carbon-heavy tar sands of Canada.

By the way, the planet is fucked.

Greenpeace says “It will now be up to us to stop them.”

It’s common sense!

A new survey by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), a body highly regarded for its continual push for better driving standards, says 70% of UK drivers want the national speed limit increased from 70 to 80mph.

Common sense in action here, and nothing less than we would expect from the IAM.

The IAM has also had the good fortune to be able to draw on the expertise of a leading figure in UK cycle campaigning for some common sense advice for cyclists.