A Labour member of the London Assembly has renewed her call for Sadiq Khan to “pause” the rollout of all forms of bus stop bypass in London due to concerns about their safety for blind people and other pedestrians.
In a letter to the Mayor, Elly Baker, who is the Assembly Labour group’s spokesperson on transport issues, reiterates concerns she has raised in previous letters, explaining that she was spurred to do so by the publication of a report commissioned by the charity Guide Dogs and a meeting she and Labour colleagues had with the National Federation of the Blind.
The new research, produced for Guide Dogs by academics at UCL, concludes that “vision-impaired people” feel this form of road infrastructure is “constantly a threat to their safety”, putting many of them off using buses.
Baker writes that any road design “that involves pedestrians having to cross cycleways to access their bus service” is a matter for concern, and reveals that she has “raised privately” her worry that any approach to reviewing safety “that relied heavily on collision data was not likely to be adequate” given that anxiety about using so-called “floating bus stops” and the like at all is a major issue.
“Our buses remain by far our most accessible form of transport,” Baker writes, “and we must remain committed to the network both in word and deed and expand, not reduce, access to an affordable, accessible and effective bus network”.
Responding on social media, dermatologist Edward Seaton told Baker she had “essentially’ asked the Mayor “for children to be made to cycle in the middle of busy roads” and academic Ed Davie said Baker should focus on cars instead.
Cycling activist Donnachadh McCarthy wrote that “far more blindness is CAUSED (his capitals) by lack of protected cycle lanes?!” and asked Baker: “Why do you hate kids so much u want them to cycle out in front of HGVs.”
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Have you *seen* “cycling activist” Donnachadh McCarthy’s twitter stream? He has manic and fervent opinions on very many things :/ https://x.com/DonnachadhMc?s=01 He’s entitled to his views but no-one voted him into office and fortunately he & his fellow zealots do not (and should not) dictate policy.
This decision should be made by those intending to serve *all* Londoners, not just able-bodied cyclists. Affordable and accessible buses, and safe *pedestrian* streets are the lifeblood of our most basic freedom to move about. Madness to let the attempt to improve cycle safety ruin those basics in the process. Better ideas surely exist?
There are many different types of floating bus stops, some which effectively force cyclists to slow down (with harsher humps and tight curves on the cycle lane, as in the newly installed Cycleway 50), vs others which continue in a straight line with only a zebra crossing over the cycle lane.
The reason for the variance is because there is no national standard. The RNIB is not calling for floating bus stops to be banned, but for a national standard to be created that makes the interaction of pedestrians and cyclists safer: https://www.rnib.org.uk/news/rnibs-statement-on-floating-bus-stops/
The solution is not to push cyclists on to the other side of the buses (which is a danger to cars, pedestrians and cyclists, because of the lack of visibility), but neither is it to have a straight, flat cycle lane with only minimal interventions around bus stops.
A little bit of nuance and a bit less culture warring can help build something safer.
Perhaps the problems with floating bus stops of whatever kind would be solved if fewer cyclists behaved as though they are somehow exempt from rules and courtesies respected by other road users. What do you think?
Well yes of course cyclists should follow road rules. But if you’ve read the reports by disability rights campaigners, one of the other problems is lack of consistency in design. So for example, a partially-sighted person crossing a push-button traffic light always has the same experience. But approaching a floating bus stop, there are 4 or 5 different experiences, which makes it intimidating and hard to navigate. Of course, cyclist behaviour adds to the fear of using the bus stop.
As well as the inconsistency, TfL themselves have found that two-thirds of floating bus stops have design issues (missing tactile paving, no zebra crossing etc). So even if a cyclist obeyed the rules, pedestrians would be in danger here.
Traffic interventions exist to force behavioural change. The same reason road humps and width restrictions are installed on many roads: because 85% of car drivers ignore the 20mph limit (and 50% ignore the 30mph limit) according to 2022 DfT data.