Forum topic: Cycling in Enfield - the view from the saddle - Episode 1

Thanks for voting Green.

I wondered why you are " - pretty sure I voted for you......." ? I'm guessing that you wondered whether there is another David Hughes locally. It was me.

It would have been nice to have been successful so I could have played a part in 'better streets', cycling and walking. However there is the battle of the Quieter Neighbourhoods (QN) to come, so I plan to be active in that. I don't know how much you've been involved in thinking about QN, but apart from the re-creation of liveable streets QN will have a hand in quelling rat-running, and ultimately in the success of the Council's strategy for discouraging the use of cars for driver-only short journeys.

With so many interesting threads on this website to keep up with I feel almost indecent in mentioning that a couple of days ago whilst biking on High Street (A1004 into Southgate) a car passed me with a centimeter or two of my right hand and the handlebars (The Highway Code says the gap between car and bike should a cars' width). And it's not the first time: I reported to this website on a similar incident on the same stretch of road a year or two ago. Then the culprit seemed uncertain and under pressure from a growing line of vehicles behind her, but this time the culprit was under no pressure from behind and simply put his/her foot down and charged.

This has to stop, a cyclists just slightly wobbling is going to get severely injured or killed, and it could be me.

When I was young this was much less likely to happen, I think probably because a very high proportion of drivers had had prior cycling experience. So when driving they could call on their experience of wobbling (caused by a pothole, a poor road surface, even by a moments lack of attention; it happens). Now relatively few adults cycle, and I have experience of drivers who are amazed that people do bike and even resent their presence. Which is a shame because the more drivers who take to cycling the more space there will be for those who must drive, the healthier our population will be and the more potential there will be to give kids their freedoms back.

Perhaps this is a moment to reflect on whether the Highway Code can reasonably expect drivers to allow a car's width between them and the cyclist(s). Personally I think there is simply too much traffic for watertight safety, but passing a cyclist so closely that the slightest wobble leads to disaster is unforgivable.

Estimates just released from the Department of Transport suggest that the chances of creating more of the desired road space are close to zero: they’re now forecasting an over 50% increase in the number of cars on British roads, with resulting slower travel times (about 20% worse) and more than double the number of “clogged” roads than is currently the case. And you also have to wonder where all these cars will get parked. (No mention of the growing size of cars that is all too evident, and also space hungry.)

Realistically, when combined with today’s other headline report that car exhausts are now linked to 60,000 cases of dementia; this on top of the ever growing list of other detrimental health effects, then something has to give.

This Sunday morning, 25th November, whilst cycling I was held up at a junction by a constant stream of traffic along a main road which prevented me from crossing to the opposite carriageway. Driver-only after driver-only car went past, and indeed only one car that I saw carried a passenger. Of course the cars could have been on a long journey to some obscure destination, or were driven by someone physically unable to cycle, but on a Sunday morning in a North London it seems unlikely that there were many of those.

These are the sort of trips Enfield Council is targeting for cycling change. It's too early to be critical, but it shows how far we have to go.

While a still relatively low number of cyclists are using the cycle lanes ( I approve of them in principle), a worryingly high proportion of those are cycling the wrong down the cycle lanes. I have seen two near misses where a pedestrian has stepped off the pavement to cross the road, checking for bikes and cars coming from their right. In both incidents the bike was moving fast and would have hurt the pedestrian badly had they connected.
The lanes clearly indicate which direction cyclists should travel. Perhaps cyclists, who now have a large part of the Palmers Green stretch of Green Lanes to themselves, could show a little more consideration for pedestrians?

I have a lot of sympathy with Fran Carman's comments. These particular cycle lanes are too narrow and too close to walkers in many places for really fast cycling; I use them to confirm their place in the mix of transport possibilities , and also to play a part in the 'education' of walkers in getting used to cyclists in close proximity. Fast, experienced cyclists should, in the main, stick to the carriageway among the traffic.

But that statement depends on driver's obeying speed limits, and giving cyclist a very wide berth.as provided for by the Highway Code

I am confident of the analysis that drivers have been feather-bedded for two long, and have developed a sense of entitlement to priority - in the construction of the carriageways, in their use of speed, in their use of their cars when other means of transport - walking, cycling, public transport - would be more appropriate. As a proportion of the population few people really need a car in London. I use mine very little.

If you must have car in London make it as small as possible, and hire a bigger/faster car for those occasional journey's out of town.

I too have sympathy with Fran Carman. I am a driver, a cyclist and a pedestrian so I don't take sides. But I have been knocked down by a cyclist going as fast as he possibly could on the pavement and I've had a near miss with a cyclist going the wrong way on the cycle lane. I would simply like to know what the law is regarding 'wrong way cyclists'.

Quite a bit has been written on this website about the virtues of cycling in terms of traffic-bound streets, under-exercised communities and shockingly poor air quality, but the recent international climate change conference in Katowice, Poland highlights another benefit should we choose to take it on board. An important contribution to maintaining a stable climate can be made by choosing to cycle rather than drive, even if the journeys are short which so many are in London.

In a city like ours, blessed with excellent public transport, leaving the car at home is for most people easy to do. And as a further incentive its often easier to hop on a bike than face the congestion and parking problems of our crowded city. Acquire a good pair of panniers, and/or a handlebar basket, and you can also do some shopping. Think of the health benefits, and if you’re an Ancient like me note that cycling takes the weight off knees and hips, and is therefore more comfortable than walking

My children are in their fifties now so I don’t have a personal worry about the world they will be living in. But in the second half of this century Climate Change will change lives unless something is done. Depending on your age you may not be affected, but if the scientists are right its certain that the generation after yours will face problems unless more is done to curb emissions.

Of course I do have to acknowledge that President Trump knows better than the climate scientists, so he will be ignoring everything they have to say. Fortunately many of the States are already on the ball.