Reducing Pedestrian / Cyclist conflict Westminster Bridge Rd / Belvedere Rd

TfL is consulting until 22 December on a scheme to benefit cyclists and pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and the Lambeth side of it.

There is much that is promising, but the illustration and the plans show that the entrance and exit to National Cycle Network Route 4 remains across the pavement (where the people are standing above and below) behind the former County Hall.

There is a simple way to reduce pedestrian / cyclist conflict at this point, which is to replace the barrier you can see with a retractable bollard so that cyclists can easily and conveniently enter and exit Belvedere Road rather than Belvedere Road (Obstructed) Pavement.

The Toucan allowing access from the upstream side of Westminster Bridge Road should remain, but cyclists would move to the right to enter Belvedere Road, reducing interaction with pedestrians. Likewise cyclists emerging from Belvedere Road can cross on the Toucan parallel to pedestrians instead of co-mingled.

Given that this is a Sustrans National Cycle Network Route, that there is minimal motor traffic on that private section of Belvedere Road, and that an original condition of planning consent is to provide a cycle route here, why is a simple improvement not being shown?

The money is there - S106 funds were negotiated by Lambeth Council, consequent to responses from the public, to enable this as a requirement for Merlin Entertainment's receiving planning consent for Shrek's Adventure on the Shirayama owned former County Hall site.

It is well known that the owners of this land are difficult to deal with regarding cycling. But if TfL with their new cycling scheme and budget; Lambeth Council with their S106 money and aspiration to be London's Most Cycle Friendly Borough; local politicians eager to reduce pedestrian / cyclists conflict at the crossing and local cycling and equality campaigners are all in favour of this easy solution then it must surely be possible, finally, to force quality cycling and pedestrian provision to be provided.

When responding to the consultation, whether as a pedestrian or a cyclist, please demand that this cycle route junction be made first class off the pavement and along the lines I have proposed.

Obstructing safe streets

I have been meaning to write to Lambeth Council concerning parking at the mouth of the junction of Renfrew Road and Dugard Way. Most evenings and weekends the junction is blocked by cars, restricting pedestrian, wheelchair and push chair movement and creating a sight-line hazard for people on bikes. 

There need to be double yellow lines here - especially as this is the only non A-road link between two cells of quiet roads. It should be made safe for children to cycle around.

There is, normally, less of a problem Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6.30pm when the single yellow line explicitly prohibits parking and, crucially, wardens enforce it. However this morning the drivers of the two vans pictured had ignored the yellow lines and dropped kerbs. They were still there at lunchtime. Both had blue folders in the windows, the sign of a police vehicle. The drivers are presumably in the police section house on the road - hardly an emergency meriting such anti-social and hazardous parking.

Here's a reminder of Highway Code 243 (Apart from parking on the yellow line, wardens in London can issue a Penalty Charge Notice for blocking a lowered kerb).

DO NOT stop or park:
near a school entrance
anywhere you would prevent access for Emergency Services
at or near a bus or tram stop or taxi rank
on the approach to a level crossing/tramway crossing
opposite or within 10 metres (32 feet) of a junction, except in an authorised parking space
near the brow of a hill or hump bridge
opposite a traffic island or (if this would cause an obstruction) another parked vehicle
where you would force other traffic to enter a tram lane
where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles

The police locally have form on ignoring parking rules for their own convenience.

Is Nine Elms en-route to being more cycle friendly than Amsterdam?

Exciting stuff - the Barclays Hire Bike docking station has gone in opposite Battersea Power Station

Doubtless Wandsworth or TfL will soon put in a dropped kerb so you can comfortably cycle directly to Nine Elms Lane

The new blocks of expensive flats, some with an element of affordable housing, are going up. You can see Riverlight taking shape behind this sign, advertising imminent traffic delays

Embassy Gardens building work is taking place on the other side of Nine Elms Lane

and advice is offered to cyclists, so they're aware of turning lorries even if the drivers can't see them

I dropped into the Embassy Gardens Marketing Suite, taking my bicycle with me as there is no cycle parking outside

There's also none inside the grounds, but the sales clerk kindly invited me to bring the bike into the building

Having ascertained that all available flats had been sold, I continued up Nine Elms Lane towards Vauxhall, mingling with other proponents of active travel

towards The Tower

which planning conditions dictate has loads of cycle parking, plus a few car parking spaces. You get into the Cycle and Car Park here:

There are no guest Sheffield Stands for St George's Wharf Tower but there's much better than that - the gatekeeper assured me the concierge would arrange for the valet to look after your bicycle (don't ask how much the service charge is, if you can afford a flat here it's loose change)

Continuing to the top of Nine Elms Lane I tested my bike control skills around all the signs relating to the St George's development to take the segregated cycle path past Lassco

and when the van had gone I made my way back to Kennington

Across the river there's lots of discussion about the planned pedestrian and cycle bridge across the Thames http://www.warwicksquarepimlico.co.uk/1050/troubled-bridge-over-waters-nine-elms-bridge/

So, I think we can see that everyone's pulling their weight to ensure that Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea is well on its way to being 'Better than Amsterdam' for cyclists as Boris Johnson promised.

Enterprising scrap metal merchant with portable angle grinder sought

I've been meaning to write this post for months, since I started using the almost splendid off-road link that Camden built, following lots of persuasion by Camden Cyclists, between Agar Grove and Camley Street:

Wide cycle paths each way, separate pedestrian path, no motor vehicles. Splendid, but at each end you're faced with these almost impassable chicanes. Surely a couple of bollards would have sufficed? In the meantime could someone please take an angle grinder to at least a couple of fencing sections at each end.

Another example of wanton obstruction of an otherwise great cycle route can be found near Dartford where there's an almost splendid off road link to Crayford Station - but which you can't use without having to dismount and try to battle your bike through

I can't see the Dutch doing this and wonder why the local planners or highway engineers countenanced such a stupid thing here. Angle grinder please.

I was reminded of the gate above today when I used the segregated cycle path that runs alongside the unforgiving A1055 Watermead Way towards the Tottenham Hale gyratory, but first I negotiated this obstacle that needs the attention of an angle grinder

Anyway, I reached the end of the segregated track and faced this obstacle:

 and discovered that my handlebars were too high to fit through the cycle bit. I tried every which way to get out and in the end had to call out to a passer by and ask her if she'd take the bicycle off me as I passed it over the ironwork and lower it to the ground. I won't be using that bit of segregated route again until someone with an angle grinder has visited

A couple of days I came across this dangerous looking cycle farcility entering Lynton Road in Haringey and decided to take a photo of it

 Then a bloke on a bike came past and I decided to take a photo of him weaving through the chicane, but he crashed into it, so that's off my route until someone's used an angle grinder

And, finally, good advice to 'lock the frame and both wheels to the stand' at Wood Green Shopping Centre

only with two D-locks you can't on these particular stands, so let's get these cut down too

Postscript
Just after I posted this Anders Swanson tweeted the following photo he'd taken of a presentation by Ida Sabelis at this year's Velo-City conference. Wouldn't it be great if cycle facility engineers were required to use the images in the bottom half of the photo as the bike logos painted on the ground. That should stop them from installing such barking mad barriers as the examples above.

Nine Elms regeneration falls at first hurdle

Those in authority have no ambition for Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea to become the new Amsterdam. They just don't want mums and kids, pensioners and commuters in London's biggest regeneration scheme walking and cycling around.

If they really aspired to get everyone and their dog walking and cycling they'd have started creating environments that nurture and support active travel right from the outset of development.

Instead they're doing exactly the opposite, closing the pavement, bus and cycle lane outside the huge former Post Office site on Nine Elms Lane.

For nine whole months.

Why the hell would you mix the soft, squidgy people in the same lane as huge tonnes of lorry for nine whole months if your aspiration for an area is for it to be a pleasant environment for everyone to walk and cycle?

 Maybe the solution is to remove the hatching in the middle of the road and create a cycle lane by the ex-bus lane. Better still, maybe, in addition remove the bus lane going eastbound and replace it with a 2m wide cycle lane, matched with one on the westbound side of the road, plus a pavement for pedestrians.

Maybe there's a better solution. But to do what's been done simply sends a message that it's motor-centric business as usual at TfL, Wandsworth and the Mayor's office.



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Yay! The railings on Kennington Lane are going

A few weeks ago I took some photos outside Tesco on Kennington Lane of the junction with their car park in preparation for a blog post urging changes..

Pedestrians can't simply walk across the side road that just leads to the relatively modest, for a supermarket, car park.They but must instead zigzag around, push buttons and wait for a green man twice. It's preposterously over-engineered with a complicated traffic light and pedestrian light sequence, probably due to having two lanes of traffic going out, to smooth the motor traffic flow, where one would be reasonable.

While I doubt that a lane is being removed, the great news is that TfL are removing the railings later this month

A llot of people use the railings as a bike parking location, so the existing bike racks are likely to become much fuller shortly. I suspect additional ones will be needed and hope Tesco have this in hand..

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Three reasons not to shop at Tesco in Kennington

(beyond objecting to their monopolistic ambitions in the Kennington area)

1. You can't park because of their rubbish - a regular occurrence at the first local store (photo today)

2. Drivers using their store, or making deliveries to it, park on the cycle path rather than on the highway - a regular occurrence at a second local store (Tesco's cash van pictured yesterday).

3. Drivers waiting to unload block the cycle path - a regular occurrence at a third local store (photos from the past week)

Cycle and Car Parking, and a Christmas Tree binned

Fantastic to see the new cycle parking outside Kennington tube station - very promising for the New Year.
Let's hope the staff and users of Lambeth Living's North Lambeth Housing Office make a New Year resolution to leave the car at home and cycle instead. This kind of parking that obstructs pushchair and wheelchair users happens all too often outside their Kennington Lane/Opal Street office:

Pavement obstruction by parked cars is something the Women's Institute could get their members to act on, rather than their current suggestion of forcing cycle helmets to be mandatory. Please read the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain blogpost and sign the petition against the WI's suggested measure to dissuade people from cycling.

 Finally, while we're just about to bring our Christmas tree inside for its annual holiday, it would appear that Christmas has come and gone already for others

Oops, Oh Bollards!

 The AA to the rescue

I wonder whether this driver will be required to have a medical check and driving retest?

I saw this today on Cornwall Road (London Cycle Network Route 3) at the junction with Stamford Street. The primary school children I was teaching safe on-road cycling to weren't impressed.

And, for the record, they all considered Upper Ground, where they were to turn right into Cornwall Road, to be a very hostile cycling environment. That'll be one of those Olympic Cycling Greenways / National Cycle Networks - stuffed full of big lorries, big buses and belching taxis.