Comment: Probe into cyclist deaths must study roundabout design
This letter was originally published in a personal capacity in the 2nd December 2011 edition of Local Transport Today (subscription required), a fortnightly transport planning magazine.
On 24 October, Brian Dorling, 58, was killed whilst cycling eastbound along Barclays Cycle Superhighway (CSH) 2 at Bow roundabout, East London, adjacent to the Olympic park site. On 11 November, Svitlana Tereschenko, 34, was killed cycling on the same roundabout though travelling westbound. Both were hit by left-turning lorries as they attempted to head straight on.
On 22 November the Mayor of London met the deceased's families and announced a Transport for London investigation into HGV safety.
As a public relations drill to deflect blame from the poor design of sections of the cycle superhighways (CSH) this announcement is an exemplary exercise in professional crisis management by TfL.
Regarding these two deaths, London commuter cyclists who use this route regularly do not believe the issue lies solely with the vehicles concerned but with the shockingly bad CSH blue painted lane leading around the outside of the roundabout. This lane requires cyclists using it to pass across the northern roundabout exit lane leading to a slip road onto the A12 (A102M). The same applies on the southern side across the exit lane with cyclists again encouraged to aim towards a segregated section on the outside of the roundabout.
A competent cyclist (as one who uses this route needs to be) travelling east-west should be taking the centre line as they approach this roundabout, just as thousands of commuter cyclists have been doing every day for years. Since the painted blue CSH and associated filter lane have been implemented two cyclists have been killed at a similar spot.
There is an entire library of professional literature advising on how to deal with cyclists at roundabouts, from the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges to Cycle Infrastructure Design, which itself at para 9.8.1 states: "Keeping well to the nearside on the circulatory carriageway is the typical approach adopted by less confident cyclists, but this puts them in the most hazardous position for being hit by vehicles entering or leaving the roundabout. They are less visible to motorists entering the junction, and this is where most conflicts occur."
On CSH2 at the Bow roundabout where the two recent deaths have occurred this is the very position that the CSH positions the cyclist!
During site meetings prior to its implementation members of my group of London Cycling Campaign activists (Tower Hamlets Wheelers) specifically advised TfL officers against installing this type of facility at this site, as did independent consultants from Jacobs attending the same site meetings.
London cyclists have long recognised that TfL will not counter losing motor vehicle capacity over safe provision for vulnerable road users, which would have been the result at this site had the signalised system recommended by both cyclist stakeholders and Jacobs been implemented.
TfL has not made public the report in how it concluded the current Bow roundabout design was a workable solution, and how the comments of stakeholders and Jacobs came to be dismissed. It would be enlightening to read this report.
The Mayor and TfL‚s response to these deaths is, as noted, to announce a review of construction industry HGVs in London, and the press release did include a sub-announcement about a review of junctions.
While the issue of HGV operation and safety is not to be underestimated, and HGVs have been found responsible in a number of high-profile cyclists deaths in London recently, many of London's cyclists believe that in these two cases this is being used as, at best an opportunity to shift the blame for the recent deaths at Bow away from the design of the CSH and onto other vehicle users, at worst it is disingenuous and cowardly on the part of TfL.
This CSH2 is the closest route to the Olympic Park but last week TfL's director of better routes and places, Ben Plowden, said that cyclists heading to the Games would deliberately be directed away from this roundabout if they are riding to the Park; an open admission that this section of CSH2 does not provide the "safer, faster and more direct journey" that Cycle Superhighways have been introduced to provide.
The original London Cycle Network (LCN) plan made too much use of half-baked facilities relying on painted lanes, when that was scrapped the resulting London Cycle Network Plus proposed to do the same on a smaller scale.
That was scrapped in favour of the more PR-minded CSH, which uses much of the same routes as the LCN and LCN Plus but has, for the most part, simply changed the colour of the paint.
Whilst Bow roundabout has never been a good experience for cyclists to use I believe this junction could be made safer overnight simply by removing all of the existing CSH paint and filter route infrastructure and returning it to its condition prior to the installation of CSH measures.
TfL officers responsible for the design of this section of CSH need to apologise for this dreadful facility and immediately work to remove it and then install a safe design for all users. How to do this is sitting in a year-old report on their shelf.
Owen
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