This conversation has wondered off the point of the change of lane use on the Uxbridge Road to personal name calling. To bring the discussion back to the original point, it is blindingly obvious that restricting cars to only one lane on this stretch of road will create additional delays – THIS IS THE WHOLE POINT! This is part of a raft of measures taken specifically to reduce car use – the council, Mayor etc. have been relatively clear about this. The measures aren’t particularly pro-cycling – any benefits to cyclists will be purely coincidental. As a previous poster pointed out, there is already more than enough capacity for safe cycling on this section of road – if riders don’t want to use the bus lane, they will use the pavement, and will continue to do so even after the dedicated cycle lane has been created. We can see this in other sections of road, such as that alongside West Middlesex Hospital – the wanded-off lane seldom has any bikes on it. Restricting lane capacity westbound will mean that traffic intending to go straight on into Southall will be in the same lane as traffic intending to turn left down Windmill Lane – any hold-ups on either road will affect ALL westbound traffic. Any fool can see that these proposals will create a massive bottleneck. And don’t count on the “consultation” having any effect on the proposals – this will be ignored as have all previous ones. The decision has been made and the change will go ahead – the contractors will already have been booked and the permits applied for. It’s happening, and it will be horrible.
Graham Thorpe ● 1021d