Is this greenish strip a "cycle lane"?

[DulwichLondoner]

Is the green strip in this photo a ?cycle lane?, or does it somehow indicate that that space should be occupied by bycicles only?

https://goo.gl/maps/A5cwsepJo3u

It?s near Oval, so not East Dulwich, but not too far, and in a location many ED residents are likely to drive/cycle/ride through (so I hope it?s not considered off-topic).

If it means for pushbikes only, where is it in the highway code? I couldn?t find it anywhere.

If not, is it even legal to paint a green strip like this? Streetview shows another similar strip at the previous junction just a few yards back: https://goo.gl/maps/ZKYKEXpSRHJ2

While on my motorcycle, I had an argument with a cyclist, who undertook me while I was turning left to enter the bus lane ahead (which is open to motorcycles). The roads were very busy, and I was going very slowly (as proven by the fact that a pushbike managed to undertake me). I had seen the cyclist in my mirror, but would have never imagined he?d undertake me at a bend. I braked, honked, and at the next traffic light pointed out that it is quite stupid to undertake a motorcycle like that; he told me I should not have been on the green strip as it?s a ?cycle lane?.

Note that any vehicle (regardless of the number of wheels) coming from the left, as I was, must cross the green strip ? there is simply no way to avoid it. The two metres or so of green strip before the pedestrian crossing can be avoided, but, coming from the left, there is no way to avoid all of the green strip.

PS Even if he?s right, undertaking like that is still stupid because it is more dangerous for him than for me. I speak from direct experience: as a motorcyclist I am a vulnerable road user myself; if I see, say, a truck in a bus lane that?s open to motorcycles but not to trucks, I stay back, I don?t undertake while the guy is turning left arguing that he shouldn?t have been there!

[rendelharris]

When I was cycling down Dog Kennel Hill on Friday, a motorcyclist cut in front of me at very high speed, missing me by a couple of feet, while his mate simultaneously shot up the metre-wide gap on my inside. I didn't post about it on here though, because I recognise that the vast majority of motorcyclists are sensible and law abiding and I'm not obsessively anti them.

[DulwichLondoner]

??? I asked a genuine question about what on Earth those green strips mean.

If you can answer, I shall be forever grateful. If you want to get into a flame on which category of road users is more dangerous or obnoxious, do it with someone else, please.

[rendelharris]

It's not a genuine question, DL, you say yourself that you can't find it anywhere. No, it's not a cycle lane, OK. The majority of your post, as with your posts elsewhere, is taken up with whingeing about how crap cyclists are.

[uncleglen]

Higher friction surfaces

http://www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/ha/standards/dmrb/vol6/section3/ta8199.pdf

[DulwichLondoner]

@rendelharris, had I wanted to rant about dangerous cyclists, trust me, I would have posted about way more outrageous behaviour. My daily riding through London provides me with plenty of examples of suicidal behaviour by all types of road users. I should set up a youtube channel called "Darwianian selection"!

I am not infallible, the fact that I couldn't find it doesn't necessarily mean much. I certainly didn't find the document posted by uncleglen.

@uncleglen, thanks.

I read in the document that

"2.6 Green or red is commonly used to supplement

prescribed signs/ markings to highlight an area of the

road for use by buses or cycles [see Paragraphs 2.17 &

2.18]. However if coloured surfacing has already been applied in the locality, special care should be taken to

minimise conflict".

So do you think the intention was, what? To tell motorists: please leave this space for cyclists?

Given the road layout I am not sure I understand. A bus lane is ahead; cars could interpret the green strip as an invitation to position themselves on the second lane before the bus lane starts, but motorcycles, TFL buses and black cabs can enter the bus lane at any time.

The pictures in the document show cases where the purpose of the coloured strips is quite clear, but don't show anything like what I have posted.

[red devil]

A stab in the dark...as they are sandwiched between pedestrian crossings, might they not be some kind of a designated waiting zone for cyclists while people cross the road?...

[DulwichLondoner]

@RedDevil, do you mean for a pushbike waiting to turn right? The smaller strip may be crossed by vehicles turning right, but not the bigger one.

Without any sign, I find they just create confusion. I ride there almost every day but I admit today is the first time I noticed them. Older street view images show they were not there in March 2016.

[ianr]

uncleglen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Higher friction surfaces

> www.standardsforhighways.co.uk/ha/standards/dmrb/vol6/section3/ta8199.pdf

TY

viz: DESIGN MANUAL FOR ROADS AND BRIDGES

VOLUME 6 SECTION 3 ROAD GEOMETRY PART 4

TA 81/99

COLOURED SURFACING IN ROAD LAYOUT (EXCLUDING TRAFFIC CALMING)

From which:

"1.3 Coloured surfaces are not considered as signs or

road markings and therefore have no legal status. They

are intended to supplement the prescribed signs and road

markings [see Paragraph 2.11].

...

"2.11 The purpose of coloured surfacing, as indicated in

Table 2/1, is to supplement the prescribed signs/

markings: to improve contrast of road markings and

discourage vehicles from encroaching on an area of the

road [see Plates 1 to 6], or to highlight an area of the

road intended for buses and cycles. [see Plates 7 to 9]."

I see that they also specify the use of Light Colours to indicate high friction surfacing, but don't think this is an instance, and the colour is in any case more like Plate 8 than Plate 10; though it doesn't appear to me to be part of a designated cycle lane. Might the engineers have thought that even the possible uncertainty could only be beneficial?

[red devil]

It would have to be full width to safely facilitate a right turn.

I was thinking that if a cyclist has to stop for the pedestrian crossing, they have right of way to wait in the green zone, and cars crossing either from the left or right have to give way to them, and can only cross when clear...

[red devil]

It could just be a visual warning to cars that they are approaching/crossing a road with a designated cycle lane and to take care accordingly...

[Champ]

If they are higher friction surfaces maybe they are there to help cyclists stop before the pedestrian crossings? I can't see anything to suggest they are cycle lanes though.

[JohnL]

If you couldn't cross into it there's be a white line I'd think

[JohnL]

"Cycle lane A: Cycle lane A has a solid white line running down the right side. This is a mandatory bus / cycle lane and motorists must not drive or park in a bus or cycle lane that has a solid white line. This includes motorcyclists unless the signs dictate otherwise.

Cycle lane B: Cycle lane B has a broken white line running down the right side. This advisory marking tells vehicles that they should not drive or park in the cycle lane unless absolutely necessary."

http://www.drivingtesttips.biz/cycle-lanes.html

[ruffers]

It;s nothing. Just a green bit of road as it stands.

Looks unfinished.

[AbleM84]

If it is a bona-fide cycle lane, there would be either a solid or broken white line to indicate its presence

[ianr]

red devil Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It could just be a visual warning to cars that

> they are approaching/crossing a road with a

> designated cycle lane and to take care

> accordingly...

But there is no cycle lane. I agree with you, in that I think it's probably a warning to vehicles not to encroach unwittingly into a virtual lane where there are quite likely to be cyclists. Possibly the best they could do short of a give way or halt marking.

[Applespider]

At one point there were plans to make CNR part of CS5 which currently spits cyclists out near Oval where some blue paint switches to green after a junction.

There are scattered bits of cycle lanes and bus lanes all along that road along with quite a few cyclists and often a lot of queuing traffic. It's one reason why it's not my preferred route. I'd agree that it's an attempt to warn drivers that there are likely to be a fair number of cyclist between bits of actual cycle provision but I doubt it has any legal status.

[red devil]

There's a clearly defined bus lane either side of this junction with the usual cyclist motifs painted on the tarmac. If you keep going in a backward direction you come to a similar junction with a standard yellow junction box...and a green strip! :)