Kennington Healthy Streets blogposts

Please note that I have a few posts on www.kenningtonhealthystreets.blogspot.com  too

Is it time for a new Thames walking bridge in Waterloo?

The controversial Garden Bridge is looking ever more likely to be cancelled, but I wonder if the footbridge I propose might appeal to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists (especially bus drivers)?

You can get an idea of the proposed bridge, built out from Waterloo Bridge approaching the IMAX roundabout, in the illustration (kindly drawn up by Iain Longstaff) below, with the cycle track that it enables shown in green.

To give it context, Waterloo Bridge has just become part of Quietway 1. Quietways are "routes which will overcome barriers to cycling, targeting cyclists who want to use quieter, low-traffic routes, providing an environment for those cyclists who want to travel at a more gentle pace."

The start of the bridge southbound from Westminster, albeit not perfect, isn't bad. There is however a significant issue for the Quietway towards the exit from Waterloo Bridge.

Despite being an enormously experienced London cyclist, I don't enjoy this section and I know that it doesn't appeal to the people I give cycle training to.

Independently of the Quietway, Transport for London have just started consulting on plans to turn Waterloo Roundabout into a peninsular and improve the space for active travel (walking and cycling). It is clear that a lot of careful and good work has gone into the plans, but the same problem remains .

The plans don't provide Quietway quality space for cycling until after the bridge end, and even then the queuing space at a red light is tight for the increased number of people who will be cycling here.

According to TfL the problem is that the width available between the pedestrian ramps on each side of the bridge doesn't  allow for the provision of a dedicated cycle lane alongside lanes for motor vehicles. 

                          

Pupils cycling on the Quietway over the bridge to London Nautical school would have to move out as the pavement flares out, hopefully having checked for buses, then slow down for a sharp turn to continue on the Quietway

Pedestrians are also ill provided for, with a narrow strip of pavement close to the traffic.

Building a wide footbridge (green line below) between the approach to the pedestrian ramp (black) and Kings College would provide a wider and direct route for pedestrians away from traffic at the same gradient as the current pavement. A Quietway quality cycle track can then be created, combining the current pavement space and a narrow strip of the road, to the benefit of drivers, cyclists and pedestrians using the bridge. I don't think it would be difficult in engineering terms or particularly expensive

Below, the view from outside Kings College towards Waterloo Bridge - I don't think a new pedestrian bridge here would wreck it. A small downside, depending on detailed design, is that tall vehicles (coaches for example) may no longer be able to use the on-ramp from Upper Ground to the former roundabout, but there are many other exits from Upper Ground and Belvedere Road they can use.

The footbridge wouldn't ruin the view of Waterloo Bridge as it is at the end, and could be designed to fit the existing character if deemed sensible

What do you think?

If you support this idea it is important to say so in your consultation response

People really are rubbish, so organisations must change

The Castle Leisure Centre opened at Elephant and Castle last year and I have been to the pool there many days this year. There are bins throughout the centre, with recycling ones next to general waste bins. I've been amazed over the months at the failure of people to sort their rubbish. Those people who bother to put empty shampoo or water  bottles in the bin seem to do this randomly, about half go in the bin labelled plastics and half in the general waste bin adjacent.

At Taunton station last week I saw the clearest attempt I have seen yet to help people simply sort their rubbish.

Every waste bin has one recycling bin adjoining it, and clear directions are given on what to put where should you be in doubt. 

  Look inside the bins though and you can see that people just don't care at all. There is no appetite amongst consumers to take the tiniest step to sorting their rubbish. They just bung it in a random bin or drop it on the platform.

I can't see any other option than to transfer legal responsibility to the manufacturers and retailers to resolve the waste problem their products create, and so what if it means they must pay people, either directly or via taxation, to sort the waste. The businesses will also need to pay for the cost of enforcement, with significant penalties for non-compliance.

Tackling the Brook Drive rat-run

Brook Drive, a busy rat-run by the Imperial War Museum on the border of Lambeth and Southwark, has the potential to be as quiet and free of traffic as neighbouring Walcot Square and adjacent streets. It can be achieved inexpensively. The gate,to the right of the picture below, which makes Walcot Square so calm, could just be turned 90°.

Firstly though, why is Brook Drive a rat-run in the West-East direction? Google map directions reveal all. Drivers from Westminster Bridge or Lambeth Bridge to the Walworth Road are directed via Brook Drive and Dante Road rather than the designated A roads.

The immediately neighbouring enclave of back streets, in grey below, around Walcot Square and St Mary's Gardens are very much calmer and quieter. Many years ago the residents persuaded the council to install the gate (marked by the short, thick black line) at the junction of Sullivan Road and Brook Drive to prevent motor-traffic cutting through their streets.

Turning that gate by 90°, to the pink line, would create two cells - part of Brook Drive would become part of the Walcot Square quiet enclave - still able to get to and from their houses while enjoying the benefits that their neighbours have had for years. The other half of Brook Drive would be part of a newly calmed enclave of streets gaining the same or similar benefits.

As well as enabling the residents of Brook Drive and Dante Road to have less noise, danger and air pollution, such a measure would increase the freedom for local children attending the local Charlotte Sharman, Archbishop Sumner and Crampton primary schools to easily walk or cycle to school at minimal risk. 

Turning the barrier may not be the ideal, or the whole, way of creating a back street area free of traffic that should be using the main roads. There may be a better location to install the traffic filter on Brook Drive. And there's a likelihood that some rat-running would relocate to use Wincott Street / Renfrew Road (the thin black line) so it makes sense to consider options and implement appropriate measures within the entire cell of back streets bordered by the A roads. I welcome suggested alternative options or additions in the comments section.

This traffic filtering scheme (and similar ones you may think of) would fit well into the current Lambeth consultation for this area - if you like it please include it in your response. I hope that Lambeth will accept responses from residents on the Southwark side of Brook Drive too.

Kennington / Oval Cycling Improvements Meeting this Thursday

If you live, work or visit the North Lambeth area (Prince's and Oval wards), the Council would like to find out your priorities for investing payments that are made by developers to fund local improvements. A Community Local Investment Plan (CLIP) is now being drawn up and your input would be appreciated.

What are your priorities for your streets, open spaces and places?

The money can be spent on capital items (e.g. cycle parking or segregated cycle tracks) or on revenue items (e.g. cycle mechanic training programmes).

Councillor Joanne Simpson has arranged a meeting to source ideas for cycling improvements in the area. It is this Thursday 5th January at 6.30pm, upstairs at the Black Prince pub, 6 Black Prince Rd, SE11 6HS. If you can't make the meeting but have a suggestion beforehand you'd like discussed please email it to lambeth_cyclists@hotmail.com.

Ideas from the meeting will feed into Lambeth's Prince's and Oval wards CLIP consultation that runs until Friday 24 February 2017. Please reply to the survey there too.

The Bins of Tooting Common - The Cafe

This is the first of an occasional series on the bins of Tooting Common (just joking, one blogpost is surely enough for anyone on this subject).

Here's the cafe, and you can just make out three bins in the photo - green, yellow and red

Here's a close up of the red one, sponsored by Walls

and here's the yellow one, courtesy of Lipton

Also within throwing distance is this big bin

and these two bins - dog poo and, is it finally the recycling bin?

Nope, a general litter bin

 It may be that all rubbish collected on Tooting Common is sorted for recycling, or maybe a clause in the cafe's lease requires the managers to extract recyclable items within a 100m radius of the cafe  (in either case why not say 'waste and recycling bins').

Or maybe none of the plastic bottles, aluminium cans etc. are recycled from here at all. Maybe the litter dropped on the ground is sorted for recycling, which is why people drop it near all these bins.

Who knows? Who cares?

UPDATE
I emailed the Parks contractor for Wandsworth (Enable Leisure and Culture) yesterday and had a prompt reply:

When the last trials took place people used the recycling bins for general waste and we were unable to recycle any and all went as general waste. If the café have there own bins it is their responsibility to dispose of the waste arising from them.
There is no allowance in the Parks Maintenance contract to recycle litter waste but we do ask our contractor to do this where ever possible which is not that often because of the sorting costs involved.
When Friends Of Tooting Common conduct their litter collections they do segregate recycling and take this off of the common. 

So if you care about recycling and see a can or a bottle thrown on the ground or in a bin, please pick it up to take home to put in your domestic recycling.

Where will you let your children cycle this car free day?

Lambeth has a car-free day with lots of events this Saturday in Cornwall Road, behind the National Theatre on Quietway 1.

As my contribution to the fun I'm asking you to imagine you live in Cornwall Road with your eleven year child. Relatives are coming to London and your child would like to cycle, without you but with a classmate, to meet them at a tourist/fun location.

Which of the following places would you a) definitely,  b) maybe, c) definitely not
let the two children cycle to? What are your reasons?

I've put together a map showing indicative routes here

1. Cutty Sark Greenwich (meeting the relatives at the far end of Quietway 1)
2. Tower of London (using the north-south then the east-west cycle superhighway)
3. Hyde Park (Belvedere Road then across Westminster Bridge to join the east-west cycle superhighway and cycle tracks through the Royal Parks)
4. The British Museum (Waterloo Bridge then following quiet roads - Bow Street. Long Acre, Drury Lane, Museum Street)
5. The Ritzy, Brixton (Baylis Road, Kennington Road, Brixton Road)
6. John Lewis, Oxford Street (Westminster Bridge, The Mall, St James' Street, Albemarle St, Bond St, Savile Row, Hanover Square)
7. Brockwell Park Lido (north-south cycle superhighway to Elephant and Castle then backstreets through Myatts Fields, Loughborough Junction, Shakespeare Road, Railton Road)
8. Westminster Boating Base (London Cycle Network 3 via Baylis and Hercules Roads to Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, joining Cycle Superhighway 7 across Vauxhall Bridge, then Cycle Superhighway 8 along the Thames to end on the riverside near Pimlico Academy)

Consultation on A23 Brixton Hill and Streatham Hill bus, lorry and cycle lanes

TfL are consulting until September 14th on plans to improve peak hour conditions for buses on the desire line between Streatham, Brixton and Central London. Their scheme (only to run during peak Monday to Friday adult commuter hours) does nothing to encourage people to cycle - you are not going to see more pupils after school socially cycling along Streatham Hill to the ice rink.

TfL's plan totally ignores Lambeth's intent as laid out in its formally-adopted cycling strategy:
"Lambeth wants to encourage more cycling and believes that the only way to do this is to make cycling safe and attractive for a broader cross section of people. Anyone who wants to cycle should be able to – women, children, parents, older people – as happens in Denmark and the Netherlands. Our vision therefore is that: Lambeth will be the most cycle-friendly borough in London where 1- 100 year olds feel safe enough to cycle."

I think it makes complete sense to improve bus efficiency, but not at the expense of people who would like to walk and cycle. How could we get 24/7 cycle tracks and bus efficiency without stealing pavement as TfL plan to do in their scheme? We could take a Copenhagenize diagram as our inspiration - giving the straighter lines to pedestrians, cyclists and bus users:

Through banning cars and small vans from the A23, providing them with the exciting new Wiggleway (TM) in red below, space can easily be created for a cycle track on each side of the A23 with plenty of space for loading bays and floating bus stops, and a lane in each direction just for buses and lorries.

The scheme may seem a little radical, but it's always good to know that options exist that don't give under-occupied cars priority over active travel on quality routes.

Please have a look at TfL's proposals and ask yourself how they could be improved (a simple example: make the bus/cycle lanes 24/7 or 22/7 or similar) and share the ideas, and respond to TfL and your councillors.

Get involved in Lambeth Floral Ride to the Country Show

Lambeth will have a spectacular floral cycle ride to this year's Lambeth Country Show on Sunday 17th July,  from Waterloo via Kennington, Myatts Field and  Loughborough Junction to Brockwell Park.

There's the possibility of a ride also from the south of the borough, dependent on sufficient interest.

Gardeners, flower arrangers, makers,  artists, cyclists, companies, schools etc. - everyone is invited to find out more and how to get involved at an Open Meeting on Tuesday 19th April from 6.30 to 7.45 at Roots and Shoots, Walnut Tree Walk, SE11 6DN. 

Lambeth Council's Sustainable Travel team are helping make the ride happen in conjunction with Lambeth Cyclists. Small grants may be available to support participation. 

Inspiration for your floral bike or cycle float can be found at the following sites: 

https://uk.pinterest.com/dg61534/bicycles-in-bloom/

http://www.corsozundert.nl/home/ 

https://uk.pinterest.com/empiryk/flowers-in-hair-photographic-theme/

http://shazzarazza1.tumblr.com/post/91895693334/menflowers-beards

https://uk.pinterest.com/nydiasaenz/costura-floral/

If you can't make that date but want to find out more information please e-mail cycling@lambeth.gov.uk.

Travelling telegraph poles and being nice to drivers

I'd normally let this pass, but a new tweet and press release from West Midlands Ambulance Service relates neatly to my blog post yesterday.

By saying 'his vehicle collided' the inference is
a) the driver was a third party to the collision
b) the telegraph pole was moving at the time of the collision

A more accurate tweet would be
"a van driver was trapped for about an hour after crashing into a telegraph pole"

The inference, quite reasonably, is that the crash (not collision as the pole, typically inert, is not known to have been moving) happened to some extent due to the driver's actions.

It stops short though of saying that the driver "crashed his van into a telegraph pole" as there is a remote possibility that the crash was independent of the driver (e.g. part of the steering suddenly shearing).

If you read the press release the van comes across as being totally self-determining:

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: “Crews were told that the white panel van was heading towards Warwick when it left the road and collided with a telegraph pole."

I sympathise with the Ambulance Service writer for wanting to soften the blow, avoid suggesting fault etc. but that's not what happened in the case of the child cycling by their school.

 

Pushmi-Pullyu Health Promotion

Pushing in one direction are public health professionals keen to promote the enormous health benefits of making everyday journeys by foot or cycle.

Well-meaning trauma health communicators risk pulling people away from active travel if they take too narrow a perspective. Poorly executed campaigns and opportunistic press releases, intended to make people behave in a safer way, can scare people right off cycling, or letting their children cycle.

Look at the recent West Midlands Ambulance Service press release about a collision and related tweets.

Which parent would read the press release, look at the images, and think, "If I make my child wear a helmet they'll be fine in a collision like this with a van, so I'd like my child to start cycling to school"? There is no sense of celebration that a 14 year old is actively travelling to school, and no advice on how to avoid a collision. Implicit, I think, is a recommendation not to let your child cycle to school.

A key challenge is how to communicate effective and reasonable ways to reduce the likelihood or severity of an incident without discouraging people from doing an activity beneficial to their health. Ideally of course, the messaging should positively encourage more people to take up the desirable activity!

How can this be done?
Trauma related stories are newsworthy due to our love of other people's gore and misfortune. I think that professional health communicators must ensure their story sits within the wider health objectives. Though visually compelling, the image of a tuft of hair in the windscreen is probably not an appropriate one to provide to the media in this case, in fact a press release and tweets may be inadvisable at all.

Taking the West Midlands incident, I imagine that it could play out as follows (NB I don't know the full story, the area, the local authority, the local press or the school at all, so please treat this purely as fiction not fact)

• The collision happened between a child cyclist and a van being controlled by an adult driver outside a secondary school on this B road (a clearway with a 30 mph speed limit so far as I can tell). The pavement appears not to be designated for shared use by pedestrians and cyclists. 

• The child was injured, though apparently not seriously. 
• The ambulance service does not consider fault. Messages should however be devised in consideration of Highway Code rule 204  "The most vulnerable road users are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and horse riders. It is particularly important to be aware of children, older and disabled people, and learner and inexperienced drivers and riders."
• Is it known if the collision (regardless of fault) happened at a moderate speed? How significantly does speed affect the severity of impact, relative to other preventative measures?
• The health service and council want more children to cycle to this school
• The collision will result in a local concern about the safety of children cycling - some parents may stop their children cycling and others will not allow their children to start. Appropriate reassurance and remedial action is needed within that community as quickly as possible.
• It is questionable whether there is positive value in publicising this collision in the wider community. Does the press need to be informed and are tweets beneficial here?
• We need to identify and convey ways that the likelihood and/or severity of a cycling incident can be reduced while encouraging the uptake of cycling locally.
• The authorities need to show they are acting in a joined up way to get people cycling in safety.

What could a press release say? (assuming one is needed)
I've doodled a few initial ideas here . I am sure that certain statements in this style could be 'stock' ones ready to be used without delay in the event of a collision where a vulnerable road user is hurt.

PUPIL ESCAPES SERIOUS INJURY IN COLLISION OUTSIDE SCHOOL

(Photo of the road outside school)

A van, being driven by a YY yr old man, has collided with a 14 year old who was cycling outside XYZ secondary school. The boy was treated in hospital for a cut to his head before returning home the same day.

The West Midlands Director of Public Health commented, "We want to see more children keeping fit and reducing air pollution by cycling to school instead of being driven. While collisions like this are rare, we are working with the council, police and schools to make cycling even safer. Obviously we would rather this collision had not happened, but we are thankful that serious injury was avoided, most likely because the collision happened at a moderate speed. We urge adults who are driving not to exceed 20mph in areas where children could be walking or cycling, and give these inexperienced road users plenty of time and space. "

The School's Head Teacher said, "We have asked the council to provide cycle training courses in school this term to encourage pupils to cycle and develop their skills. The training will include demonstrations of routes to school, where they exist, that avoid all or most traffic. Free bike marking, locks and helmets will be made available to all pupils. We would like the police to increase enforcement against careless road users on this road with immediate effect."

The Council's Head of Highways reported, "We have been moving towards 20mph speed limits on the city's roads since 2012 to reduce road danger. As this B road passes a school we will bring forwards plans for a 20mph limit here. We will also implement measures to improve off-road cycle routes and ensure they are well signed and convenient."

 ------------------

 West Midlands Ambulance Service wrote a blogpost reply to people's online criticisms of their tweets and press release. Do you think their reply encourages people in the area to cycle?
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And finally, if the lad who was in the collision reads this - I think it's absolutely brilliant that you cycle to school.

UPDATE The subsequent three posts are within a few days of each other, all noting the approach taken in the West Midlands Ambulance Service. All are worth glancing at, but in particular the one involving the car occupants who suffered head injuries

Inner London Primary School to Swimming Pool by cycle

While teaching Bikeability in primary schools I try to include local journeys to potential secondary schools or places of interest that the pupils can start to make with parental permission. In a perfect world schools would routinely make some local journeys by cycle, to inculcate an understanding of cycling as an everyday form of efficient transport.

Here's a journey that a teacher could make with a Year 4 or 5 class, supported by a couple of learning assistants. It's from a school just by Britain's busiest railway station in the centre of London to a new swimming pool on the Elephant and Castle unroundabout.

Leaving the school cul-de-sac, you turn left at the top of the alley into Lower Marsh market (one way for motor traffic, two way for cyclists)

You turn left into a one-way for motorists, two-way for cyclists, quiet road

At the bottom you wait for a good gap in the traffic on Baylis Road or walk across the zebra crossing (just in front of the AA van below)

Having crossed the road you continue down a one-way street (Frazier Street). Currently this is used as a rat-run, but hopefully as part of Quietway related measures motor traffic will be banned from turning right into it. It's one-way for all traffic currently, meaning pupils have to walk this section on the way back. Two-way for cycles will hopefully be allowed in Quietway related measures.

At the bottom, the class turns right into Morley Street

and goes to the left of the bollard to a cycle crossing over Westminster Bridge Road. This is tricky because you get a green for very few seconds, then there's a second set of lights in the guerilla garden in the centre of the road. It will take two or three light phases to get all the pupils across. This is largely due to the cycle lights being regulated to be at a different time from the yawningly long green light for pedestrians crossing (this is to avoid imaginary cyclist / pedestrian conflict, imaginary as no cyclist ever turns to go through the pedestrian crossing because it's a nonsense route). Achieving a long green light across one arm should be an easy fix by TfL - simply ban the turns across the pedestrian crossings as cyclists don't make them anyway.

You then continue down the quiet King Edward Walk

and across Lambeth Road, either with a gap in the traffic or using the Zebra crossing, and through the gate into the park

You turn left towards the front of the Imperial War Museum

Past the big guns

and exit the park

walking (or more likely cycling) across the Pelican crossing and turn right onto Cycling Superhighway 6

Straight down towards the Elephant and Castle

turning right at cycle only traffic lights just before the Elephant and Castle onto Cycle Superhighway 7 Elliots Row.

Left at the end onto Brook Drive (CS7)

Right (just behind the new pool)

left into the park

and you've arrived in front of the pool.

That's not too hard is it? Zone One, Congestion Zone, Inner London. No sweat.