My Cycling Super Highway ride

I’ve just ridden from River Road Barking (eastern end of CSH3) to Bow Creek (boundary of Newham with Tower Hamlets) and back as far as Jenkins Lane, Barking (a bit to the west of River Road in Newham) both ways on the southern side of the A13 (I think the northern side is only designated LCN+ route 13).

There was nothing new in this section of the route as far as I can see except the blue paint on the areas that were previously green. The weather was warm and dry with a strong breeze and I could not perceive any problems at all with the surface being slippery. I could not produce the slightest skid by accelerating or braking hard in a straight line. I did a very unscientific test with tap water from my drinking bottle and couldn’t perceive that the surface was particularly slippery when wet.

I am assuming that any infrastructure changes would be underway or complete, given the launch date. I am not that familiar with the route in detail west of Woolwich Manor Way, but I saw nothing any different to the type of provision on the rest of the recently upgraded stretch of the A13.

I saw some chaps actually applying the paint in Canning Town. They were using Streetbond SP150E.

From what I can see nothing of any consequence has been done here to change conditions for cycling, unless the slipperiness in the wet is worse than before as alleged, which would be very bad.

The white centre lines, give way markings and cycle decals have all been painted over and presumably will have to be re-done. This all just seems like a waste of paint, time and money on a vanity project carried out at a time when the public sector faces drastic cutbacks.

As to the launch event, it seems it can only be – based on the section of route that I saw - an attempt to pass off a paint job as something genuinely new or different, which is deceitful in my book.