More thin stuff on CS7

Final preparations for the launch of the first two Superficial Cycleways, CS3 and CS7, are moving on apace. And it's good to see forward-looking, pro-bicycle facilities such as this, on Keyworth St at the back of the Elephant.

The mandatory cycle lane - which drivers are not allowed to enter - has taken up most of the space here, leaving only 60cm for motor vehicles. Perhaps it was laid out with the pencil-thin electric solo transport vehicles of the future in mind.

Meanwhile, luckily, no driver of a conventional width vehicle is going to ignore that by, say, swooping into it when forced to do so by a car coming the other way.

Elephant soon to be only half as lethal

Work has started remodelling one of the notorious twin roundabouts at the Elephant and Castle, here in south London. By early 2011 the southern roundabout should look like this, reports the SE1 website.

At the moment, the gyratory is a horrible experience for cyclists. It's especially dangerous for those heading south (from the bottom right of the picture to the top right). Buses in the left-hand lane on the approach to the roundabout force you into the middle lane (where the grey car is in the illustration of the future layout). Fast traffic intending to turn left (to the left of the picture) comes up behind you, overtakes you and then cuts across left in front of you, usually hooting, and swearing in some of London's hundred-odd languages in daily use.

There is a so-called Elephant and Castle cycle by-pass, but it's incomplete, slow, narrow and hard to follow. It's quite fun tracing it all the way round if you have an hour to spare one day and want to visit nooks and crannies of south London you've never been to before, though.

Anyway, the new layout should be a massive improvement. Even if a better option was vetoed by TfL because it would have reduced traffic flows. All we need to do now is deal with that lethal northern roundabout...

Trunk route: Collect elephants on a jumbo bike tour

Any excuse for a ride around London... 250 life-size baby plastic painted elephants have been placed around the city, each painted individually by various artists. A fine bike tour in the making.

They're on display until until mid-June, and are there to raise awareness and money for conservation projects aiming to save the animal from extinction.


After all, its natural space is being eroded, it's under constant attack, and though it seems to be thriving in some areas, overall its numbers are struggling. As cyclists we know the feeling.

Many are round City Hall, Green Park, Trafalgar Square and the Eye, with a few adventurous individuals out at Heathrow Terminal 5, the Museum of London in Docklands, St Pancras, and of course the Elephant and Castle (where many of them were painted).


One of our favourites is this one (right) at City Hall. Peer inside through its portholes, and you see a plastic melange of London architecture, roamed by more elephants.

There's a map and location list at elephantparadelondon.org. Collecting the set would make a set of bike trips you'd never forget.

They'll be herded together at the Royal Hospital grounds, Chelsea from 24 June to 4 July. On 3 July they'll be auctioned off, so you can have your very own elephant in the room.

Narrowing experience: Roadworks block Elephant bike path

Work installing the Cycle Superhighways continues apace. This sign has appeared on Churchyard Row, currently part of the Elephant and Castle cycle bypass, and part of the future CS7 from Merton to the City.


Unfortunately, the works don't leave much space for cyclists using the bypass, which purports to offer a safe alternative to the Elephant's lethal double-roundabout. Especially when they have to share it with pedestrians, whose footway is completely obstructed.

It seems a lot of fuss just for painting a blue stripe on the road...

Elephant in room: No room in Elephant

Not sure who's at fault here on the Elephant and Castle cycle by-pass, snapped on Saturday: the council, for not painting double yellows all the way to the end? Or the driver? As ever, by extraordinary coincidence, the registration number is again appropriate...

Other sections of this by-pass will, unmodified except for blue paint, form part of the forthcoming Cycle Superhighway route 3. It doesn't bode well.

Wrong-side cycling at the Elephant

I like these little bits of the continent in London: double-contraflow places where both you and oncoming cyclists have to keep to the right.

Savoy Court has been Britain's most famous example of a wrong-side 'road', with cars, taxis, cack-handed traffic lights and all. Sadly, it's being semi-pedestrianised, which will spoil that experience.

Cyclists using the separated cycle path in Tavistock Place though can continue to enjoy life on the other side, if briefly, and bewilderingly.


So I was pleased to notice this one (both pics) the other day, on Southwark Bridge Road just north of the Elephant, by Keyworth Street.

I noticed it because I nearly collided with an oncoming cyclist who was as temporarily confused as me.

So why go to Paris for a weekend and pay £6 for an overbranded lager just for the privilege of right-side cycling, when you can do both of those in London?

Elephant by-pass gets a paint job

Aha! Some good news for a change. Not much, but it's good. This is the Elephant and Castle by-pass heading towards the Elephant along New Kent Road. They've just repainted the markings - perhaps in preparation for the Cycle Superhighway that will be coming this way? - and as you can see the new 'give way' lines give the cyclist through-priority over the various entrances cutting across it.

Now, I know this is only a few hundred yards, and it only makes a significant difference over a distance of say a mile or two. And that in the Netherlands you get cyclist-priority cycle paths stretching all the way from one side of the country to the other, which is probably even further. And our Elephant by-pass is only crossing minor entrances, not full-on side roads.

But it's a start. And to judge by the amount of white paint at their disposal, resources are plentiful.


I'm still not entirely sure about this phone box further up, though.

By-pass the lethal Elephant. Except you can't

One of the pleasures of living near the Elephant and Castle is seeing the local newspaper hoardings with headlines like TV STAR TO WED ELEPHANT WOMAN or ELEPHANT RATS ON RAMPAGE.

Not everything is so amusing though. The long-promised safer-friendlier redesign of the twin vortices that are the Elephant and Castle roundabouts are not even halfway there. Conversion of the south roundabout's detested, stinking, sewer-underpasses to overground pedestrian-friendly crossings won't begin until Christmas. And there isn't even a timetable for redesigning the north roundabout, where cyclist Meryem Ozekman was killed by a lorry last month.

There is a so-called 'cycle by-pass', but it's worse than useless. Especially just now, thanks to these roadworks that have just gone up opposite Churchyard Row. No notices, no alternative routes: just a dumb blockade, a mute testament to council and contracting contempt.

Two die, but cycle lanes get squeezed even more

It's been a sobering week, with two more cyclists killed on London's roads: both women, both crushed by lorries turning left. That brings the total of cycling fatalities in London so far this year to four, compared to nine in all of 2008.

Wednesday's fatality was at the Elephant and Castle; Thursday's, at the junction of Goswell Road and Old Street.

We know the Elephant only too well: a hideous double-whirlpool in south London's traffic ocean, whose dangers are perpetually ignored by politicians. There is a so-called 'cycle by-pass'; but it is badly signposted, counter-intuitive, incomplete, and not remotely satisfactory.


So our blood was boiling last night. The cycle lane at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge has just been reduced to under half its previous width (top right). At the top it has shrunk from 88 inches wide to 34 inches (224cm to 86cm). At the bottom (right) it funnels down to a mere 30 inches (76cm). According to the Department of Transport's design guidelines (Oct 2008, 7.4.2), the minimum recommended width for a cycle lane is 59 inches (150cm).

Worse, though, the lane has changed from a 'mandatory' lane (one traffic must stay out of, marked by a solid line) to an 'advisory' lane (one traffic can go in if it wants, marked by a dashed line).


The photos (right) clearly show the old and new dimensions, and the effect the reduction of width has had: cyclists are now cramped between HGVs and the kerb.


There are roadworks here, which may or may not have something to do with the reduction. If so, the repainting of the lines is a bad solution. There should be far better signage and provision for cyclists; at the moment there is no warning of this confiscation of safe territory. This isn't good enough. And it's dangerously not good enough.

We'd rather be relaxing this Easter weekend than fretting about cycle facilities. But we're chasing this up with TfL of course. In a week when two people were pointlessly killed, simply going about their business on this most gentle, benign and sociable form of urban transport, it seems the most decent way we can turn our anger and sorrow into something positive.