Alexandra road - just when you thought it was safe to take primary...

I have previously written about the "improvements" to Alexandra road in Leyton.

I have to say that I have very low expectations of Waltham Forest council when it comes to cycling, which they consistantly fail to meet.

This is no exception.

This is now the end result which cost £562,000 (hat-tip to Freewheeler who posted the amount on the comments to a  previous post).

The result appears to have been that the road has been raised around 3/4 inch so that there is no drop between the pavement and road. Presumably so  motorists do not have to worry about damaging their alloys when they park (legally) on the pavement.

The thought given to cyclists consists of the dashed white line one can see to the left of the road. Which runs right next to the parked cars, opening up an exciting world of dooring whilst being past by cars travelling at speed.

I consider myself an experienced urban cyclist who is not a "shrinking violet" on the road. But I certainly didn't have the courage to position myself away from the door-zone and thus prevent close passes by overtaking cars on this road. The traffic volume is simply too high and too fast - two issues that adding some more tarmac has singularly failed to resolve.

This "improvement" above isn't just crap for cycling. It is worse than what was there before, and is actually dangerous whilst doing nothing to make the street more pleasant for anyone that isn't racing round the gyratory in a car.