Thursday 10 September 2015

One day one photo - 2

This is an artist's impression of a junction I pass through on my cycle ride to work. It is Kennington Oval. Note Kennington Park is on the right and part of the city is in the distance with the Shard London Bridge just about in view. This is just an artist's impression so there are a few inaccuracies, for instance the Shard should be the tallest building in the photo! Also, you wouldn't ever see that section of road so empty during the day!

One thing that is correct though is the green and blue cycle path on the left-hand side of the picture. This path is in place, though I must say I haven't paid attention to the colour! In fact, when cycling from Brixton towards the city the cycle path starts further back than is shown in this drawing. At the busier section of the junction the path goes up onto a kerb and riders are separated from motorised traffic. It was quite a pleasant surprise to see this on the first day this new road layout was opened. The path then cuts across traffic where cyclists have right of way, and then they turn right to join this dual coloured cycle lane. I take the left-hand branch of the lane to head towards Lambeth North and Waterloo, while alot of other cyclists take the right-hand lane to go towards Elephant & Castle.

I think this is a good system. The only thing is the traffic lights (which are specifically for cyclists) at the end are a bit confusing. The way you approach it you see the Elephant & Castle lights first, which are green but in fact the ones I need to follow are other lights which don't come into view until when I am much nearer to the junction, and at that time, they are red! So it is easy to make a mistake and end up accidentally overshooting the lights - or in the vice versa scenario, stopping when it is not necessary!

 Also, right now this is the only section that is ready for cyclists. Once you round the corner you are faced with another mess of roadworks and you are back to squeezing past buses and cars. The same applies for the lane next to Kennington Park as you travel from London homewards. Currently various parts of central London are a mish-mash of roadworks as workers install the improved Cycle Superhighway. It's a bit of a pain for cyclists and motorists alike, but I live in the hope that once they are all fully in place cycling around London will be alot more pleasurable, and safer.

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