Bike Mounted Advertising

Seen by East Croydon Station...



not in a fit state to ride home though.

Not that this is a new idea...



...this was the bike I left in North End back in 2005.

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cycling, croydon

April Fool Debate on Public Photography

No doubt nothing will come of this...

Westminster Hall debates
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Photography (Public Places)

..and the police will continue to harass innocent photographers following the other events on the same day.

Suburban cycling cut to pay for central London cycling

News from Jenny Jones: Suburban cycling cut to pay for central London cycling

Analysis of new figures released by Transport for London shows how the Mayor is planning to spend £57m on a Velib style cycle hire scheme in central London whilst spending less on schemes which would benefit cycling in outer London. New figures show that out of a total of 383 schemes which have not been funded in the coming year, 260 are in outer London boroughs.

A provisional breakdown of the £111m cycling budget for 2009/10 has been sent to Jenny Jones. TfL have allocated nearly half the money to cycle hire and £12m to the cycling superhighways, which are fast commuter routes into central London. However, nothing is specifically allocated in the coming year to cycling hubs in outer London and the total spent on the pan London Cycle Network will be just over a third of what it has been this year.

Jenny Jones said:
“I think that the cycle hire scheme is brilliant and so is the idea of cycling superhighways, but the London mayor is paying for these high profile schemes by cutting hundreds of local schemes which would make cycling safer in London. We have a zone one cycling mayor who is giving far less money to the London Cycle Network in outer London, despite the advice from experts who tell him that four fifths of the potential new cyclists come from the suburbs.”

Notes to Editors

1. Analysis of the money provided to the boroughs for the LCN+ shows that a total of 383 schemes have not been funded in the coming year, 260 of them in outer London boroughs, see attached table based upon Question to the London mayor No: 2698 / 2008.

2. TfL’s cycle hire scheme is aiming for 55,000 cycling trips per day by bike. At present there are around 540,000 cycling trips.

3. Money spent on LCN+ was £33m in 2008/09, but drops to only £12m in 2009/10. These total figures are divided up between borough roads and the Trans London Road Network (TLRN). The LCN+ expenditure on the borough roads drops from £20 to £10m, whilst the LCN+ spending on the TLRN drops from £13m to £2m.

4. The London mayor has the target of a 400% increase in cycling, but the Transport for London report which proposed this target showed that 80% of the new potential cyclists would have to come from outer London.


For more details please contact the Green Party Group Press Officer - Ian Wingrove on 0207 983 4424, 07967 205 330 Ian.Wingrove@london.gov.uk

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cycling, croydon

South Croydon Station and Seltrans..

I'd never heard of Seltrans till today, but it turns out that they are responsible for the works at South Croydon Station.

from the Autumn issue of the Seltrans newsletter.

South Croydon Update

We are pleased to announce that the final allocation from TfL for stage 1 of our holistic “station access scheme” has been approved. The major part of the scheme involves a joint cycle pedestrian access link to the station from the near by A212 and its neighbouring LCN route. This scheme has been delivered on time within budget, with the help of our partners from BRB, Network Rail and Southern Railway. The industry has complemented the Seltrans scheme with a refurbishment for not only the station building and the car park but they have also created a new station forecourt designed for passenger/pedestrian safety. This innovative scheme includes elements to remediate the heavy engineering required. This includes the provision of nesting boxes, too enhance bio-diversity and future funding is being sort to provide solar panels that will deliver a carbon zero project. We are hoping to invite our Seltrans partners to a formal opening ceremony in the very near future. Our thanks goes out to all the stakeholders that have been involved in delivering this relatively complex scheme.

Watch this space!!

I occasionally use this station, and have never noticed any information about this scheme or any information about Seltrans.

Satellite Image - pre-new carpark

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cycling, croydon

South End Dual Use Cycle Lane

Croydon's anti-cycling department are known for their innovative approach to cycle facilities.



This example is a combined car parking space and cycle lane. A dual use facility. It allows Croydon Council to claim a few metre's more cycle lane without inconveniencing drivers.



Satellite Image - with a car in the parking space

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cycling, cycle lane croydon

South Croydon Cycle and Ride?

A nice new cycle parking shelter has been installed at South Croydon Station.




It is in a prominent position at the entrance to the car park, a deterrent to bike thieves, and has capacity for 8 - 16 cycles. The design is bright and modern, and of a quality you might expect in the Netherlands, so maximum points on this one.



However, I have yet to see a single bike parked here. The surrounding road network is pretty dreadful, access to the station by bike is not easy, so sadly cannot imagine this well designed facility getting much use.

Satellite Image - pre-instalation

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cycling, croydon

Shoddy road repairs

Of course, although nobody comes to fix most of the rubbish road surfaces, sometimes when they do try to repair them, they make such a shoddy job of it that they probably shouldn't have bothered but they'll have to return soon to make a proper job of the repair.

The photo below is of the A232 on Duppas Hill Road (taken on Wed 11 March '09), a TfL road, not a Croydon Council one! This is what I call a "tarmac which fell off the back of a lorry" repair. A bunch of highway cowboys (but expensively hired by TfL) turn up with a lorry, cone off a bit of road, dump some tarmac in the holes/hazards, press it down a bit with a small steamroller (pushed by hand - and which also arrived on the back of their truck), hoist the steamroller back onto their truck, remove the cones, and drive off to their next shoddily-performed assignment. TfL should be ashamed of themselves. This sort of repair may not cost or delay traffic as much as a proper job, but it's never going to last as long and they'll have to keep coming back to do these useless repairs.
The photo below is of a large hole around a sunken manhole cover in Whytecliffe Road South in Purley (taken on Fri 13 March '09). They have attempted to repair this with some tarmac but they have covered over the manhole cover so it can't be seen whose it is (water, gas, electric, etc.) and is probably difficult to lift/remove. The patched surface around the manhole cover wasn't done properly so it has sunk again with all the buses and other heavy vehicles which pass over it (you can see a bus at a Bus Stand in the photo). You can also see the cycle lane on the LHS of the photo, but because of debris in the cycle lane (near where the photo was taken from) sensible cyclists will be nearer the middle of this one-way road until they need to swerve left to avoid the abortion in the photo!

Rubbish road surfaces and shoddy repairs

Crap cycle lanes are made worse by dreadful surfacing. Road surfaces weren't helped by Croydon Council's negligence in never gritting or clearing snow from ANY side-roads or pavements so that snow remained lying on surfaces for nearly 2 weeks.
The "elephant trap" below (luckily, elephants aren't often seen in Croydon so it won't matter if they're not looking where they are putting their feet!) is at Reeves Corner (trams cross from right to left at the top of the photo).

Satellite Image - EDIT!

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cycling, cycle lane, cycle path, cycle track, croydon

Gaps in Croydon's Cycle Network

The map to the left shows Croydon’s cycle network. Croydon has more connections north-south but there are major gaps in the north-west and eastwest directions. The proposed cycle routes do not fill these gaps. The proposed off-road cycle route south of the town centre will create a ring around it improving the connection to the east
but further links need to be proposed towards the west.

found via http://www.croydonthirdcity.co.uk/links/links.htm

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cycling, croydon

St James's Park follow up - LCN 5

I've just found this rather out of date consultation on the Croydon Council web site, it is of interest as I was involved in pushing for the original scheme back in 2002.

St James's Park - Proposed Cycle Safety Scheme

with an associated map

I had thought the outcome would have been reported back to the Croydon Cycle Forum, but I can't find any trace....

Satellite Image

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cycling, cycle lane, croydon