Incident closes Woolwich Road in Greenwich
Road are blocked by an incident in East Greenwich near the Blackwall flyover.
Yours truly was stuck on a bus for some time. Many people in the area waiting for buses seemed unaware some were on diversion.
Police are on site and removed some cycle lane bollards to permit traffic to pass.
If police were removing bollards this is presumably because there is not enough road space to allow traffic to pass if there is an obstruction, i.e. broken down lorry. This would show there was incompetence in planning/building/quality assuring the cycle path. Theres lots of parts of it that need re doing; heading into greenwich as a cyclist straight after the roundabout you have to make a hard right across traffic onto the pavement with a bit of paint on it. Further down the path just ends and you have to head into traffic to rejoin the road. Cars turning into and out of the adjacent roads are continually blocking the bike lane, not looking when they pull in and generally ignoring the bikes right of way throughout. Hopefully a full review of signs, cyclist protections, enforcement and the design of the cycle path will come soon before someone is killed.
If ia lorry bus or even car for that matter breaksdown threre is no room to pass. Even when buses are at bus stops you get a tail back has vehicles cannot pass the buses.
This is also delaying emergency vehicles which in itselfs can cost lives as they cannot get through.
The scheme needs to be reviewed urgently as the area already suffers from high levels of traffic congestion and air pollution.
I also think this scheme does need to be reviewed urgently as it is taking up too much road space which in turn is causing the issues with traffic congestion and associated air pollution as vehicles just do not have enough room to pass each other.
This is made worse when buses are at bus stops which have been moved to the centre of the road due to the cycle lane as vehicles have to wait behind the buses until the bus is ready to move again. This in turn can also cause delays to bus services. as other buses are held up in traffic.
The bikes don’t actually have a right of way at those junctions, it’s been so poorly thought out and designed that no one really knows where they’re supposed to be and drivers have to pull forwards to see when they can pull out onto the main road
Police can now remove a stretch of bollards in two minutes should a rare incident arise. Not the end of the world.
Without a cycle lane how do we get people out of cars? Traffic is rising everywhere cycle lane or not, LTN or not. Look at areas of Kent and areas with no LTN for miles. The level of traffic increase is just not sustainable without measures to make other forms of transport attractive.
Tweaks are needed and many poor design elements remain in the area such as plastic barriers in Greenwich town centre which hamper pedestrians as much as help. But changes overall on how people travel for short journeys are needed. Without them further gridlock is coming regardless. new homes and London’s population are rising and will continue to rise for years to come. The supposed exodus after the pandemic appears to be a nonsense.
For all those saying, it is because the road is too narrow and no one uses the cycle lane. I actually passed this incident on my bike on the cycle lane (as were several other people on bikes). The traffic was freely before this lorry broke down. The bike lane is easily wide enough for emergency vehicles to use so actually, where the road would have normally been blocked by this kind of incident (with a narrow bike lane on each side), the emergency vehicles are now able to get to the problem.
Oh dear. Rot.
Tell that to the emergency services Alex. By that I mean go into east Greenwich fire station and tell them they have it all wrong by not using the cycle lane. I’ll be interested to hear the response you get.
This seems a bit of a mountain out of a molehill situation. I know some places have bollards that flip down when driven over which would permit use in an emergency like a fire engine, then ping back up.
Of course drivers could get wind and take the pee – but maybe use cameras on buses or in select spots?
The basic concept seems sound to me but some implementation is poor.
I occasionally use the bus to get from Kidbrooke to Greenwich. I don’t recall a time when the traffic has freely flowed since the introduction of the cycle lanes. We need stats i.e. number of bikes passing a certain point in say a half hour period compared to cars, buses, lorries.
I’m confused, it’s supposedly wide enough to be taking away a lane of traffic, but not wide enough for traffic to use in an emergency?