Cycle ride causes gridlock on roads (From The Argus)
Get involved: Send your news, views, pictures and video by texting SUPIC to 80360 or email us.
Cycle ride causes gridlock on roads
1:27pm Monday 18th June 2012 in News By Ben Parsons
Gridlocked roads triggered calls for a review of the effect city centre events have on weekend traffic.
Visitors to Brighton and Hove faced long delays yesterday during the London to Brighton Cycle Ride.
Buses were diverted from routes that were not directly affected as traffic tried to avoid the main course.
About 27,000 people took part in yesterday’s ride from Clapham Common to Brighton, held in aid of the British Heart Foundation.
Many cyclists ended up walking up Ditchling Beacon, a steep climb just before the run to the finish.
Police said there were no significant incidents.
By the afternoon, though, the A23 London Road was said to be “gridlocked” by traffic trying to enter the city.
Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company diverted two services, which had been expected to run normally, because of what its Twitter updates described as “significant delay”.
Woodingdean was also badly affected as drivers tried to skirt around the cyclists’ route, which ran down Lewes Road before ending at Madeira Drive.
Roger French, managing director of the bus company, said: “We now have to review what we do with those two bus routes.
“We always take action to minimise disruption.”
Councillor Graham Cox, Conservative spokesman on the Brighton and Hove City Council transport committee, said: “I would hate to be critical of the bike ride and would want it to continue.
“But after each event there ought to be some kind of debrief to see if there is anything we can do to make things run a little bit smoother.
“Most weekends in summer there is some kind of event and there is an issue of whether the benefits of some of them are outweighed by the problems they cause.”
The last London to Brighton cyclists were expected to roll into the city by about 7pm last night.
A spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation said the ride’s route was unchanged from previous years but organisers would take any advice offered from the city authorities. She said: “It was a brilliant day for it weather-wise. “Everyone has made it through with no major incidents.”
Comments(25)
btnladbn2
says...
2:23pm Mon 18 Jun 12
chilliman
says...
2:34pm Mon 18 Jun 12
ting and spending hours trying to get somewhere - been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
I was at Brighton station before 7am today and there were announcements and notices saying that only folding cycles would be allowed on trains before 9am, and then it was on a first come first served basis.
As it was I didn't see any cyclists obviously waiting to get out of Brighton, just the usual commuters who cycle to the station and leave their bikes there all day, although it may have got busy later on.
The trouble is that it costs money to put "guards vans" on a train to take cycles and I bet BHF weren't willing to put some of the £3M into it.
William Young 2
says...
2:52pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Police did nothing to direct car flow, many lights blocked by cars joining, only for lights to change & change back so that the main drag was gridlocked.
Cyclist (as ever) ignoring lights, Pedestrians petrified of crossing the road for fear of being mown down by the cyclists.
Ambulances having sirens & lights going having to travel along the roped off area behind bikes that wouldnt move over.
Im in favour of raising money for charity, but this was a nightmare on any day, but on Fathers day & in summer on a reasonable day, unacceptable.
All 9 of me
says...
3:14pm Mon 18 Jun 12
john newman
says...
3:17pm Mon 18 Jun 12
The Heretic
says...
3:27pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Good communication, good sense, good planning, good will and some good humour, and we can perfectly adequately cope on these dates, and the City can continue to profit by them.
This IS Brighton after all - not Frinton-on-Sea !
SGK2000
says...
3:31pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Fercri Sakes
says...
3:41pm Mon 18 Jun 12
john newman wrote:Do we have anti-cycling-message
Yes as ever cyclists ignoring the rules of the road. No lights etc nearly caused a right pile up. Prosecute offenders.
-bots targeting these comment areas now? No lights? On a race that happens during the day? Ha.
Could the editor check their IP addresses to see if they're all originating from a) Russia, b) an oil-funded pro-car lobby, c) the Daily Mail or d) Tunbridge Wells.
Jacobdog
says...
3:56pm Mon 18 Jun 12
I've read that back and I don't think I'm acting like a lentil-weaving hippy hell-bent on destroying capitalism by saying these things, but I may be wrong.
dogface666
says...
4:18pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Sudseax
says...
4:35pm Mon 18 Jun 12
B&H Council and the BHF should be putting a lot more pressure on the train companies.
longman
says...
6:24pm Mon 18 Jun 12
longman
says...
6:26pm Mon 18 Jun 12
true-brightonian
says...
6:29pm Mon 18 Jun 12
paul76
says...
8:29pm Mon 18 Jun 12
From the bottom of Coldean Lane to Madeira Drive I saw one guy go through a red light when we were told to stop. At other red lights we went through them if waved through by the marshals or police.
Traffic didn't start queuing into Brighton until the bottom of Elm Grove, and this was about 2pm, but I don't know about the A23.
When I left at about 3.30pm, I got my car from the marina and drove along the seafront towards the aquarium roundabout. I didn't start queuing there until about Madeira Place, so well past the traffics lights at Lower Rock Gardens, and took about 7 mins to get across the roundabout, due to good management by the marshals with the flow of bikes and traffic. Traffic coming from the west was queuing by West Street, but mainly due to the roadworks reducing the road to one lane.
As other people have said, signs have been up warning of the bike ride for a couple of weeks, so stay away in a car unless you absolutely have to be there.
As for Roger the dodger, this isn't the first year of the bike ride, so get a grip. Try leaving some of your hundreds of buses parked up. I don't know if you did, but also run them like during events like pride, and terminate them short of the middle of Brighton.
William Young 2
says...
8:38pm Mon 18 Jun 12
longman wrote:Longman I have to venture into the heart of Brighton often & I acknowledged it was for charity & yes there were signs saying London to Brighton, but they didnt say dont even think about driving on the roads because it will be a nightmare.
By the way, William Young 2, the London to Brighton cycle ride isnt a race, its a fund raising event for the British Heart Foundation. You knew it was going to be on, the signs have been up and around the entire area for weeks. Change your arrangements, or route, for just one day!
They didnt say if you need to go east bound use this alternative route (believe me I would have).
They didnt say if your in an ambulance with the sirens going pray they take you to Haywards Heath instead.
Lastly driving two disabled people & a child is my only option & whilst I did suggest another day for other reasons, Fathers Day apparently has to be celebrated on the actual day.
Reflect on your post
says...
8:40pm Mon 18 Jun 12
mimseycal
says...
8:48pm Mon 18 Jun 12
HJarrs
says...
9:12pm Mon 18 Jun 12
This comment caught my eye...
"Many cyclists ended up walking up Ditchling Beacon, a steep climb just before the run to the finish."
Like this is news! Scandelous, call yourself cyclists!!
It reminds me of the time I had finished the ride and was talking to a woman who was pleased as punch to have cycled non-stop up Ditchling Beacon at the fifth attempt. Apparently the secret was to limit it to 4 pints in the pub in Ditchling village!
Well done to all those that completed the ride and shame again on Southern for turning away maybe 10000 customers (£150000 in fares would pay for a fair few hired trains!)
seagully
says...
9:12pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Sussex jim
says...
9:29pm Mon 18 Jun 12
It can be done. Instead, numerous road vehicles had to make special journeys to collect cyclists; burning more fossil fuels and clogging up the roads for other normal traffic, which burned more fuel waiting in unseasonal jams.
The Heretic
says...
10:54pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Sussex jim wrote:There's a lot can be laid at this council's door, but the issue of getting bikes back out of the city has been the same since long before the old slam door trains were withdrawn quite a few years back. There's not been the right sort of stock just kicking around in sidings to cope. This particular gripe can't be blamed on the Greens.
If the local "Green" Council cared at all, why did they not hire a special train to take the cyclists and their bikes back to London?
It can be done. Instead, numerous road vehicles had to make special journeys to collect cyclists; burning more fossil fuels and clogging up the roads for other normal traffic, which burned more fuel waiting in unseasonal jams.
Tallywhacker
says...
9:05am Tue 19 Jun 12
mrbadger
says...
2:12pm Tue 19 Jun 12
BNThree says...
1:55pm Mon 18 Jun 12
Secondly the problems could very easily and simply be solved if the railway companies laid on special bike trains to allow cyclists to get home easily rather than banning bikes from trains out of Brighton on that day, as they normally do. Most of the congestion is by the families of those taking part driving down to collect them. If Southern or FCC were to lay on a special bike train to London with a few goods cars on the back for the bikes they could probably charge an extra £10 for a ticket and rake in the profits.