The roadworks at the Bow Roundabout continue, and have a lot more continuing to go.
• Most of the action is beneath the Stratford side of the flyover - drilling, pouring concrete, adding kerbstones and more drilling.
• Much less is going on beneath the Bow side of the flyover, just the rough carving-out of the roundabout's additional third lane.
But this still doesn't look like the promised major roadworks.
As if to prove the point, some of the cones have just been removed.
This is where Bow Road joins the Bow roundabout.
For the last month one of these two lanes has been coned off, reducing throughflow and creating (sometimes considerable) backed-up queues of traffic. Now suddenly the cones have gone and both lanes are accessible again, i.e. traffic is accessing the roundabout as normal, and hey presto all the extra queues have vanished. I took this photo at the height of the morning rush hour and look, no queue whatsoever, something I haven't seen since the roadworks started.
This may just be temporary, or it may be that those organising the roadworks have realised they don't have to be as restrictive as originally planned. Whatever, it's very welcome.
However it does make a mockery of all the bus mitigations introduced two months ago. Frequencies on route 205 were reduced, but a spin round the roundabout now takes the usual amount of time. Frequencies on routes 25, 276 and 425 were reduced, but eastbound road conditions are back to normal and westbound journeys are actually faster having been diverted over the flyover. And route 8 was curtailed to Old Ford so no longer comes here at all, even though current road conditions suggest this was a vast overreaction. Obviously it's not easy to change temporary timetables and drivers' schedules ad hoc, but it does feel like bus passengers are being punished for long term disruption that hasn't materialised.
The other thing that's concerning me this week is this sign.
It says CS2 Cyclists Use Crossing Point Ahead.
It's concerning me for three reasons: 1) This isn't CS2. 2) There is no crossing point ahead. 3) This is a one-way cycle lane and the sign is facing the wrong way.
I suspect 3 explains 2. Even if it were the right way round I'm still not sure where the crossing point ahead might be, other than the usual way around the roundabout.
Also, although this started out as CS2 it's now C2 and has been for at least three years. Most Cycle Superhighways no longer exist, they're now Cycleways, even if nobody's got round to repainting all the letters on the blue paint yet. I still don't understand Cycleway numbering, indeed given the way it's grown organically I suspect nobody does, for example C2 connects to C22, C37 and two Cycleways that don't have a number.
Anyway, the good thing about the confusing red sign is that no cyclist will ever see it because they'll all be riding in the opposite direction.
