We all love our farcilities, don't we? Driving (sorry) eastbound along the Embankment in London the other day I spotted a cracker. Sorry no pictures. Just to the east of the railway bridge carrying the lines into Vicroria there is an on-pavement shared use cycle path. So far so good. Blue sign on pole has a left turn for Pimlico and Victoria, with a little cycle logo. The left turn is into quite a large street at a set of traffic lights. The traffic lights have an ASL box. Cycle lane dodges right, signed by a little painted arrow, into the ASL. Using the dropped pavement where pedestrians cross at the lights. So let's get this straight - Daily Mail style rants against pavement cyclists are common, and here we have Westminster council directing cyclists to barge into waiting pedestrians and use a dropped pavement provided for their use. And to add insult to injury, there is a little white line bending round which cuts off about a two foot wide strip of the dropped pavement as part of the cycle lane.
And dropping off a pavement suddenly into a stream of traffic if the lights are at green is IMHO dangerous. I'd guess the traffic engineers think cycists will all wait patiently on the pavement till the lights turn red then enter the ASL.
Just to the east of the railway bridge carrying the lines into Vicroria there is an on-pavement shared use cycle path. So far so good. Blue sign on pole has a left turn for Pimlico and Victoria, with a little cycle logo. The left turn is into quite a large street at a set of traffic lights. The traffic lights have an ASL box. Cycle lane dodges right, signed by a little painted arrow, into the ASL. Using the dropped pavement where pedestrians cross at the lights.
It's all clearly visible [if I've got the right place ;-)] via Google Earth at
If you get it the wrong way round you end up somewhere off East Affrica in the Indian Ocean. -- Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"
