London Road Observation

PJ once told me of an article in Wired magazine (which I subsequentlylooked up and have since tried to enlighten the fraternity of man with) about a revolutionary type of street intersection that waspioneered in The Netherlands - it did away with all signs, and markings, even the demarcation between the footpath and the street - everyone, cars, bikes and people all thrown in together with a maximum speed of 25km an hour, the speed at which it is possible for motorists to make eye contact with each other and hence interact in order to maximise traffic flow. Apparently it worked with a reduction in total traffic time and a drop in accidents - London streets ar the complete opposite of this - there are so many different lines and signs, multiple fences that break up already too narrow streets, even double pedestrian crossings on individual streets. I've certainly experienced the traffic problems in the city and i've been told that there ar lots of accidents - this city certainly seems to enjoy a bit of social engineering and I'm thinking it could certainly benefit from an experiment with the dutch roundabout.

Have noticed that there are thousands of bikes on the road in London - every time one stops at a traffic light there ar usually at least two or three bikes there. i've been told that there has been a big jump since the terrorist bombings on 7/7 (as the papers like to call that particular day) but it's always been like this - apparntly since the bombings there have been lots more accidents as a lot of the people who now ride through the city don't have the experience to deal with the traffic (it's my belief that the cyclists who end up having the most accidents are the ones with the most experience who just don't obey the rules [like me ...]). Another thing that i've noticed is that although there's so many more bikes on the road everybody seems to wear their normal clothes on their bikes (not that there's anything wrongwith that) and hardly anyone seems to wear helmets (and there is something with that) - i've never seen so many people riding bicycles wearing suits or skirts - it does look faintly ridiculous. But then again, I wonder how many people think that about people wearing lycra ...