Re: london cycling

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 7/10/2025 1:39 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:

<https://youtu.be/OunBRdTIe3w?si=v2Crsm2yMmF6aS5I>
 
Essentially numbers of cyclists are up and by quite some margin
particularly around Central london, aka City of London and areas like
Hackney.
 
The combo of direct high quality bike lanes, and Low traffic Zones ie
restricting motorists though traffic, which has been around for nearly 100
years but this is the new term for it, but it’s quite effective, I use a
few regularly be that by bike or car, or sometimes both.
 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/07/londons-low-traffic-zones-cut-deaths-and-injuries-by-more-than-a-third?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other>
 
May explain LTZ as not sure how common at all they are in the US, as ever
get a vocal minority who dislike and claim well falsehoods aka the traffic
is just moved and worse and so on, which is not backed up by any evidence.

 
"Low Traffic Neighborhoods" have the U.S. nickname "Bicycle Boulevards."
They're streets where cars are permitted but discouraged, and/or are
held to very low speeds. I've encountered them mostly in Portland,
Oregon and a few streets in Columbus, Ohio, both many years ago. They
used things like "one way" restrictions, certain barriers, speed bumps,
etc. to slow or restrict cars while permitting nearly unobstructed
bicycling.
 
In my experience, they worked well. I think they primarily deterred "rat
running," or zooming through neighborhoods when nearby major roads were
congested. They cut down on motor vehicle traffic and made bicycling
more pleasant. I think they were much better than on-street sidepaths,
"protected" or not.
 

At least with london it’s a case by case, ie protected cycle lanes that are
more with a eye on longer distance commuters, and LTN for local traffic, so
Protected cycle lane along the main road/shopping centre, and LTN on the
backstreets which makes the area more walkable and drivable for locals.

For example if I’m riding to the Cheese market in Chiswick, I’ll use the
bike lane as that takes me directly and quickly there, but if I’m going to
Fulham palace on the river, then I’ll use the back street parallel to the
main road that is within a LTN.

I suspect with US zoning LTN would be less useful, ie works at small scale
and essentially walkable.

BTW, I find things like the YouTube video at the top of your post much
less convincing than, say, actual traffic counts and other data. I've
seen too many such videos and photos shot with very careful planning to
maximize the density of cyclists in the frame, including even filming
special bike events and pretending they were normal traffic.
 

Traffic counters have in central/city of london shown more and more
junction/roads where bikes numbers are more than cars. Particularly stuff
like the Embankment as that was arguably the start of this, and hence they
knew that folks would take photos of it clear of bikes and say it’s not
used! So needed to have the data to prove that it was used!

it’s noted in the film though it’s not really a data heavy video but more
cultural.

TFL if one wishes has the data, plus as the counters sometimes fall over
are some folks keeping a log! Which personally seems like an odd thing to
do with one’s time!

What I like is the range of cyclists you see now, central London was brave
fast male roadies, of which there is still plenty as your not going to ride
15/20 miles in from the Suburbs unless your fairly fit bike infrastructure
or not.

But as well as those folks, is lots of other types who you didn’t see
before such as cargo bikes be that mums and kids or delivery’s and so on.

Roger Merriman