Friday Reads – 11 October 2019

1. TfL’s “Cyling Database” – they are using GOOGLE maps?
   What’s wrong with the Ordnance Survey?
   Much clearer & with vast amouts of deatail if one zooms in.

   For comparison a readily available on-line version is shown Here

2. I’ve eaten at the “secret canteen” at Changi airport, though it was nearly 30 years ago. Nice to hear it is still there. I suspect I would need to be told how to find it again. I also found well-concealed cheap hawker stall markets for locals, for example in a multi-storey car park, close to the city centre.

   The article on cycling in London mentions a journey time estimate for a cycling journey from TfL’s cycling route planner. These estimated route timings, I find, are hopelessly optimistic, because they are just distance multiplied by a standard speed. These speeds seem to assume you never have to wait or slow down for at junctions and other hazards. Especially in central London, this can be a lot. For example my daily ride across central London from station to office has 14 lights-controlled junctions in about 2.3 miles, and I have carefully chosen the route to keep junction delay down. If a lights controlled junction has, a say, 90 second lights cycle with 15 seconds green in your direction, and you arrive at it randomly, then the 5/6 of the time you arrive at it and the light is red, then you will have an average delay of 75/2 seconds, so your average delay at such a junction is 31 seconds. If that is typical, as I am afraid it increasingly is as lights cycles are often being extended, then I have 7 mins traffic lights delay in 2.3 miles, which is almost long enough (for me) to ride 2.3 miles on a flat open road.

   My cycling journey time has been increasing because the West End Project has generally resulted in lengthened traffic light cycles, which adds up to increased delay. I’m afraid my “I obey traffic lights all the time” attitude has been severely tested by some of this, especially by some new sensor controlled lights that can decide not to give you a green at all. Oh yes, and there has almost never been a time in the last 20 years when there hasn’t several sets of roadworks impeding my preferred route, and sometimes requiring quite tricky rerouting, hardly ever signposted, to get past.

3. My cycle journeys through central London are optimised to avoid routes with traffic lights, especially those with long dwell times. It may be more of a weave through the back streets, but it’s far more pleasant certainly not slower. It takes time to perfect these routes by trial and error. There are several places where I save time and junction-faff on ‘Superhighway’ routes by going just one block parallel. There are also places where new infrastructure has disrupted my previously free-flowing route, but it’s usually an improvement overall.

   Singapore airport is good airside too. Makes a journey to Australia very bearable when you can get some good kip in free to use recliners in quiet lounges.

4. @Ivan – I’ve eaten at the “secret canteen” at Changi airport, though it was nearly 30 years ago. Nice to hear it is still there. I suspect I would need to be told how to find it again.

   ‘For the Terminal 2 canteen, locate Starbucks on level two and take the nearest lift to the car park at level 3: from here walk up the staircase, turn left and look for the unlabelled iron door.’
   The canteens have always technically been available to the public since being built in 1981 (Terminal 1) and 1991 (Terminal 2): the airport just didn’t realise people would want to eat at them. It’s a trip down memory lane to what food courts in Singapore used to be like in terms of pricing and retro design.

5. Answer to Greg Tingey.I have heard that local councils don’t use Ordnance Survey Maps as they have to pay to use them and the maps are expensive so boroughs use free Google Maps instead.

6. @Greg and @Jason
   Yes, OS maps are the gold standard for UK mapping, and we should be proud of the quality compared with other national mapping agencies, but they are pretty expensive to licence. Presumably this is because the licensing fees are the main source of income for Ordnance Survey, whereas the Google Maps licensing fees are just pin money for Google….

7. I believe councils should be able to use the Public Sector Mapping Agreement to use OS data for free. Whether that extends to providing it to the public for free or not, I’m not sure.

8. PP
   Particularly as the example I quoted (above) is a joint London Councils/GLA project, available to the public, with OS “25-inch” openly available …..

9. Gregg, the OS map is also zoomable over the rest of the country.

10. Mike
    Yes, I know – wonderful, isn’t it?

11. I’ve found the new cycle infrastructure to be slower, but, it’s hard to begrudge that when it makes journeys possible by bike for people who’d never have been able to cycle before.

    10 meters of dangerous junctions would mean I don’t take my toddler on a 2km cycle journey, for example.

    Asking current cyclists what works for them does mean you’ll only get answers about what works from people who are already mostly comfortable on the roads as they are today.

12. Additional car parking at Manchester Piccadilly? It appears that ever since HS2 was authorised, it has been left to engineering consultants to determine its development. From the start they have favoured segregation, engineering prowess, and car access. It’s like a rerun of the 70s.

Comments are closed.