Photomap

See clip at www.youtube.com/watch

I'm riding along the westbound carraigeway of Bateman Street and come up behind a taxi ("VP55 YPV" license 332). At 6 seconds you can see a cyclist (with lights, my camera doesn't pick up that kind of light, they were very visible) in the contraflow cyclelane. The taxi driver appears to almost drive at the cyclist leaving very little space. Then, when the car pulls away (at 13 seconds) you can see that the taxi is about 50 cm into the contraflow lane. And continues over the line for the next few seconds. The driver caps it all off by turning right without any indication.

I drive down this road quite regularly and there is space to not drift into the contraflow cyclelane. However, it's not much. And it does pinch up quite a lot in this last spot.

Bateman Street was meant to be an iconic road, allowing cycling against the one-way road. However, given what generally tends to happen (see radwagon.blogspot.com/2011/06/bateman-street.html and www.youtube.com/watch) it's become a example of poor traffic control and ineffective road design. There is too much set aside for parking, probably to pacify the residents. At least remove this past parking bay which only hold a few cars! I'd replace it with a cycle parking spot, about half the width of the car parking, as that would retain some of the traffic calming measures.

On top of this, the entire street is crumbling away. The speed humps are breaking up and the cyclelane is pitted with tarmac breakup.

Highway Code Rule 140 (backed up in law)
www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070308
You MUST NOT drive or park in a cycle lane marked by a solid white line