rendelharris

Showing your anticycling bias by tarring me with the brush of your own perception of cyclist behaviour, I see. As it happens I overtake on the outside at all times unless there's a cycle lane. Interesting though that rather than reply to anything I said you rather absurdly, knowing nothing about me, accuse me of dangerous behaviour. Still the fact remains that however I maintain my average speed, travelling at 15MPH I get there just as fast as cars which go 30MPH, two minute stop, 30MPH, two minute stop.

I don't think I'm a superhero at all - I'm a slightly tubby vaguely unfit middleaged cyclist. I'm not trying to make a point about the efficacy of cycling, or only tangentially; the point is that travelling at an average of 15MPH I cover the same distance in the same time as cars travelling at 30MPH, due to the amount of time they remain stopped. So whether a road is 20MPH or 30MPH makes little odds to journey times, but a massive difference to safety. Incidentally, the same effect can be observed on roads without bus lanes; part of one of my regular journeys goes from Clapham South, down Nightingale Lane, up Wandsworth Common, down Burntwood Road and on into Wimbledon. There isn't a bus lane in sight for around three miles, but (certainly in rush hour) I'll usually still have the same cars and lorries around me at the end as at the start. Speed limits make a huge difference to safety, in a crowded urban environment with constant checks they make next to no difference to journey times.

I entirely disagree. Why would people want to move onto tighter, more roundabout routes which would also be 20MPH? As for being too slow, all one is doing on main roads like LL and DH is moving from one set of traffic lights, zebras etc to the next. Driving at 30MPH just gets you to the next stop point quicker so you spend longer sitting with your engine running. I observe this empirically almost every day: cycling at an average of 15mph, I can stay with cars from Denmark Hill all the way to Clapham, Tooting and beyond, if they're going my way. They shoot off into the distance at 30MPH+, but I inevitably catch up with them again at traffic lights. Driving at 30MPH on roads with frequent lights and junctions doesn't get you to your destination any quicker than driving at 20MPH, but you will be a lot less able to react effectively to emergencies and you will do a lot more damage if you have an accident; if you hit a pedestrian at 30MPH, they are seven times more likely to die than if you'd hit them at 20MPH. Two thirds of car trips in London are for distances under three miles (a disgrace but we'll put that to one side just now); imagine the utopia (for drivers) of a completely traffic free road with no blocks in terms of lights etc: at 30MPH you'd cover three miles in six minutes, at 20MPH you'd do the trip in nine minutes. Three minutes out of your day to be seven times safer in the event of a collision, seems a pretty good exchange to me.

"It appears a slavish following of the Highway Code which says you shouldn't park within 10m of junctions. But of course the Highway Code is for all roads and doesn't vary this distance based on road speeds - all our roads are meant to be 20mph." Key phrase there is "meant to be," James. If the police and council, working togetehr, could ensure the 20mph zones are respected, then you're probably right, people could park closer to the corners safely. However, one only has to walk or cycle down any road with the 20mph limits to see that 95%+ of car drivers ignore it. If we could rely on all drivers obeying the Highway Code and traffic laws at all times all traffic calming measures would be extraneous, but I don't see such a utopia arriving any time soon, do you?

I quite agree, in my experience of living on Southwark's streets for twenty years they don't seem to remove a disabled bay even when the original applicant has died or moved, so how was the OP to even know if it was still in use by the original applicant? Disabled bays are there for the use of anyone with a blue badge and that's that. The OP sounds perfectly reasonable and I'm sure had the person who left the note come out and explained when and why the space might be needed for another user a sensible accomodation could have been reached, but abusing another disabled person for using their blue badge entirely legitimately is filthy behaviour. Cheers, Rendel

"Question. what right do people have to restrict parking to others on a public highway for their own benefit?" Question, what right does a car driver have to restrict parking for cycles on a public highway for their own benefit? Cars are vehicles, cycles are vehicles, cyclists pay the same council and income tax, why shouldn't they have a place to park their vehicles? Taking up a couple of car spaces (at most) in a street with maybe a hundred of them is hardly restricting your rights. Of course there is a difference, which is that bicycles don't kill thousands of people a year directly and hundreds of thousands indirectly through air pollution. Every person who cycles is one less fume belching potential killer on the road, so if having some cycle storage encourages people to get out of their cars and onto bikes that is a direct societal benefit, besides which the fact that you might have to walk fifteen yards farther from your car seat to your armchair isn't really that important, sorry.

Well we've just moved to Copleston Road and we're delighted with how quiet it is in terms of traffic - though we do live below Soames Street and Avondale, for this end of the road it's certainly a benefit. Mind you, we moved here after ten years of living right on Denmark Hill so probably anything would seem quiet by comparison! I'm sure some canny locals use the cutrhough you mention but without the no entry I'm sure a lot more traffic would use Copleston as a way to avoid the lights at Sainsburys and outside East Dulwich station, coming out lower down. Anything which keeps non-residential traffic to the main roads is surely an environmental and safety benefit?

"in my opinion what we should be asking is why is there an no entry on a quiet residential road off main street traffic" Because if there wasn't the no entry sign it wouldn't be a quiet residental street, it would become a diagonal ratrun to get from Bellenden Road, Rye Lane and the Peckham Road to East Dulwich Grove, saving having to go round Peckham Rye and Goose Green.

One to beware of for cyclists, rather close to home! Check your stand carefully before locking up. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35669181 Cheers, Rendel

I'm very happy to be in either but yes, I assume the SE15 postcode makes it Peckham. As long as an envelope has the correct number, street and postcode it'll get here anyway, won't it, so I might start giving out East Peckwitch as my address just for fun...

We've just moved to Copleston Road (not from far away, from Ruskin Park House on Denmark Hill) and are loving the area, but there seems to be some confusion from the Post Office and estate agents as to whether we're Peckham Rye or East Dulwich (ED being the nearest station but PR being not far away either). A friend suggested we style ourselves East Peckwitch, which I rather like for its Dickensian sonority.