London Banter - View Single Post - Route 73

Colin Rosenstiel · May 23rd 05, 03:58 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Tom Anderson) wrote:

On Mon, 23 May 2005, David Splett wrote:

"Richard J." wrote in message
. uk...

It least that confirms TfL's claims about quicker boarding. Is it
really a "nightmare" to have to wait a few seconds behind the bus
until it moves off again?

I ride through here on many weekday mornings,

Me too. Any other King's Cross cyclists on this froup?

Not sure what a froup is but there appear to be at least three of us in
this group. I travel from Cambridge, three days most weeks, with overnight
stays in Putney from time to time (when of course i don't pass King's
Cross).

and TBH I don't really have any safety issues with it. However, time
and again I get delayed on the approach to turning left into Judd
Street because you have one or more bendy buses stopped in the
left-hand lane which need to move rightwards and have difficulty
getting in to the traffic flow because of their length. I feel sorry
for cars in this situation - at least on a bicycle you can make up
the lost time by walking the bike past the red traffic lights.

Hang on, though - that left-turn tailback is as often as not due to a
normal bus, at least when i'm there. I think it's just a really nasty
bit of road - a bus stop, a turning, lights and however many lanes of
traffic, all in one go.

Like i said, a proper cycle route under the Town Hall would be a much
better alternative and safer for the left turn.

I'd like to see the bus stop moved to the west side of Judd street, and
an ASL installed to the east with a feeder lane running between the bus
lane (which would usually be full of buses waiting for the lights,
making it little use for cyclists) and the left-hand lane of traffic,
so that bikes can actually get into the reservoir. The traffic's dense
enough that the reservoir would usually be full of cars, though.

I'm not sure how much that would help for cyclists going straight ahead.
IME taxis especially have no respect for ASLs at all.

--
Colin Rosenstiel