Crossroad near Aldgate East Station ASL

Those of you who go through Aldgate for A13, Ring Road or A11 may have noticed police bikers frequently stationed at the crossroad near the underground station. I’ve been extra careful heading through there to not end up past the ASL because I know that there’s a crackdown at the moment, especially on motorcyclists.

A few days back I ended up having to cross the ASL, because I carelessly didn’t leave enough room for the HGV to my left (doh!) Obviously the police biker was right next to me at the time and called me over. Fortunately he saw why I had pulled into the cycle box and said he wasn’t going to give me a fine this time, but I should be careful as a camera is being installed in a few weeks time to catch ‘offenders’.

I know that TFL were threatening to put these cameras in place, but wasn’t aware they were be installed. So if you are heading through this part of London, keep an eye out for frequently stationed policeman and the possibly imminent cameras.

Cheers mate

Was he braking the low? … or the pcso needs to learn the low? :slight_smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzGqob9LEc

Good clip. I suspect an increase in headcam sales should red light cameras be introduced.

I think in this case, I technically went against the highway code(/law?). I was in the lane to turn right for the ring road and the vehicle to my left was heading straight for the A11/A13, the light had turned green to go straight ahead, but the right turn light was still red. So I guess I crossed the ASL when the light was red, since I was turning right.

Although, maybe in that situation with a PCN from a camera you could claim to be passing the ASL while the light for straight ahead is green, and then have decided to turn right, stopping at the next white line. I’m not sure how far that argument would get you though!

I was aware of the exception when lights are changing. It doesn’t surprise me that the PCSO in that clip doesn’t know the highway code though.

Is this the intersection at Whitechapel Rd and Commercial St?

Cheers for the info re cameras- this is my commute.
Yesterday I was behind a guy who filtered through traffic to the cycle box to turn left onto Whitechapel Rd.
He got pulled over- I wasn’t in the cycle box so I didn’t. (Could easily have happened to me though.)

Yup, that’s the place, although I normally head through the city and turn right on Whitechapel Road to Leman Street at that intersection. I’m not sure if the rumoured cameras would cover both ASLs, but they seem to have regular PCSOs watching both now.

Considering the number of recent accidents involving cyclists there, maybe it’s not a bad thing to regularly have the police there. The free-for-all created by bad road layout and selfish/lazy motorists from the Aldgate gyratory to that intersection is one of the more dangerous parts of my commute.

I’m at the university on the corner (London Metropolitan) so I see all sorts of crazy stuff going on there.
It is a terrible intersection, I agree- I’ve tackled it in a car, on a bike and cycling- cars queuing across the yellow box at the A11/A13 junction create a huge problem when the lights change.
If you hang back and refuse to sit in the yellow box then you get loads of abuse from other motorists.

Oh BTW- If you park close by there are an excellent cafe just around the corner (turning left into Whitechapel Rd) that is just next to the station.
It doesn’t have a sign out the front- best coffee in London.

Cheers hogtrumpet, I’ll have to check it out some time.

I actually head a little further in, to Gower Street, I’m at UCL. Unfortunately we’re surrounded by chain coffee shops, especially Tottenham Court Road, which for some reason seems to have multiples of every chain in London, with only a couple nice indie places. There’s a Sacred café stand next to the uni, which although decent, is almost always closed at the moment.