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.

Street furniture obsession in Swansea - part one

It all started as we walked from the station and saw an enormous semi-circle of street furniture - the photo below shows about a third of it

Here's a further section

An awesome wall of bollards, benches, boxes, bins, bicycle stands and trees.

Bicycle stands like no other - these are chunky and enormous cycle stands. Cycle stands that stand out.

But mainly it was the bollards that caught my eye - so many of them. Just look at this line prohibiting access to the pedestrianised section of town

Once you're in the pedestrianised section the bollards don't go away but now are spaced gloriously far apart to allow cars and vans to fit between them. 

On occasion bollard storage spaces are provided to house the bollards that can be removed from the highway to permit access

 

 The ones in the middle of the road below, for example, can be removed (but not the one that has been knocked into) 

Admire the way that each piece of street furniture has its designated role. The signpost is not a bollard, it's a signpost, so sits away from the space where a bollard is needed. It's the same with the CCTV camera posts, and the bin. 

The retailers have done their part too, adding advertising boards to the cacophony of clutter.

Then, just as you think that there can be no possible addition of any further bollards, you stumble upon the shop below

I take my hat off to the bollard salesperson of the century.

Post Script bollard bonus:

We're not quite done yet. Check out the warning sign (by the 'No Vehicles'. not even bicycles, sign) - 'Bolardiau awtomatig ar waith'

And here it is, a fine retractable bollard (and by chance the photo shows how reasonable it is to prohibit cycling on this narrow, crowded, street with the merest apology of a pavement).

A cycle friendly route to school in Clapham

Crescent Lane in Lambeth runs, one-way, between Clapham Common (on which not many people live) and Abbeville Roads and a cluster of streets off it, on which many people live. There is a primary school, shown on the map, on Crescent Lane that people from the Abbeville Road area travel to. 

 Here is a photo of Crescent Lane between Abbeville Road and the school - as you can see it's wide

As Crescent Lane is one-way, away from the Common, parents and pupils cycling from Abbeville Road can either ignore the No-Entry signs

as the lady and child above, and the lady and child below have chosen to do

 or they can be 'respectable' citizens and dismount and push their bike

 or their bike and trailer

I am sure that Lambeth Council, dominated by Labour which pledged in its election manifesto to make Lambeth the most cycle friendly borough in London, will rapidly make this wide street with its primary school truly splendid for the children to cycle independently along in either direction.

Creating pleasant routes for cycling takes time

On Monday thousands of cyclists seeking clear 'Space for Cycling' attended a protest ride around Parliament, where MPs were discussing how to 'Get Britain Cycling'. 

There is cross-party consensus that getting people riding their bikes is to be encouraged with regards to health, environment, pollution, congestion and economy. It's also recognised that people prefer to cycle away from motor traffic and that it is safer to do so.

It is important, however, that those seeking change do not set their expectations too high. As an indication, expect that it will take over a year and half, with a few reminders, to have 'except cycles' added to 'No Entry' signs in a place where cycling is already legal.

12/03/2012 Me to Park Manager: The Mall closure on Sundays

Can you please let me know why there is not an exemption permitting cyclists to cycle along the Mall and Marlborough Road on a Sunday when the road is closed? It would seem an excellent opportunity for families to cycle there, especially as it is part of a recommended cycle route. Do you have plans to permit cycling on these roads on Sundays in the future?

19/03/12 Park Manager Reply

Your e-mail regarding not being able to cycle on the Mall on Sundays comes as a surprise to me, and to our police inspector also, in that we do permit such exemptions! I certainly am passed by many cyclists on the Mall when I am doing my rounds on a Sunday.  The only time this is not the case is if we have a specific event on - such as this coming weekend when we host the Sport Relief Mile - or whilst Changing the Guard is taking place.

If you have been prevented from doing so I suspect it may have been by officers tasked from other areas who may not be especially familiar with the park?

I do apologise if this has been the case and my Inspector has reminded his officers that this is something we do permit, on the consideration of course that the activity being conducted is in such a manner that it is not discourteous or a danger to others.

19/03/12 Me to Park Manager:

Given the Royal Parks' intent that people can cycle on the Mall and Marlborough Road on a Sunday can you please arrange to replace the temporary 'No Entry' signs you currently use (photo attached) which the law states applies to vehicular traffic, including pedal cycles, at the entrance to the Mall and Marlborough Road with the 'No Motor Vehicles' sign (flying motorcycle over car) or have the recently permitted 'Except Cycles' added beneath the 'No Entry' signs?

19/03/12 Park Manager reply:

Thank you for your suggestion. We will give this some consideration.

19/03/12 Me:

It'll be great if these can be corrected. I teach cycling to pupils in Westminster schools, including not only the meaning of 'No Entry' signs, but also of course the importance of obeying signage including the 'No Cycling' and 'Considerate Cycling Permitted' signs in the Royal Parks (normally Kensington Gdns/Hyde Park/Regents Park) that we visit on Fridays! 

19/03/12 Park Manager:

...and of course you are absolutely right! I am just surprised that it has taken over 20 years for anyone to raise this with us or even for ourselves to notice!!

I need to look at my budget and at what signs are available. If we are unable to replace outright it may be a phased introduction as and when other signs get damaged.

14/05/2013 Me:

You may remember we had an exchange of emails a little over a year ago concerning the incorrect signage for the Mall etc. on Sundays when cycling is permitted but 'No Entry' signs are used, which apply to cycles also.

On Sunday a pedestrian took great exception to me pootling on my bike on the Mall and, unsurprisingly, wouldn't accept my statement that cycling is permitted but the signage is wrong. A policeman by the 'No Entry' sign at the entrance to Horse Guards Road confirmed that cycling is in fact permitted.

Can you please let me know when you will be changing the signage?

14/05/2013 Park Manager 

I'm sorry to learn that you have been harangued.  We did start looking for off the shelf signage but could not find suppliers, and did not have funds available at the time to commission bespoke signage. With your reminder we shall again explore the possibility of doing so.

14/05/2013 Me

http://roadsignsdirect.co.uk/road-signs/cars-and-motorbikes-prohibited riveted,superglued or similar over your existing signs should do it I reckon.

15/05/2013 Park Manager:

Thank you. However I was thinking along the lines of 'Road closed except for cyclists' but will ask our H and S manager and police for their view also.

01/09/2013 Me:

Now it's September and the 'No Entry' signs still haven't been corrected. When will the correct signs arrive?

Thanks

03/09/2013 Park Manager:
We hope to have the new signs on site in October 2013. To save on cost we are looking at purchasing a few different bespoke signs at the same time from a supplier. There has been an exchange in correspondence regarding the images on these signs which are both appropriate and legal for use in St. James's Park.

We are nearly there with our procurement of these signs.

UPDATE 15/12/2013
The signs have not been replaced.

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.

Much to admire in Isabel Street transformation to Van Gogh Walk but...

Isabel Street is a little back-street adjacent to Durand Primary School in Lambeth SW9 which has just been transformed by Lambeth Council from the above to the below. 

As part of the makeover, Isabel Street is being renamed Van Gogh Walk which even has its own blog. Van Gogh Walk is just off Hackford Road, below, where Van Gogh lived for a year at number 87. 

 As you can see, there's a 'no right turn' sign into Van Gogh Walk. But it's not because the Walk is car free. The new Walk is being made one-way, with added signs advising caution as there might be children and parents with push-chairs. There won't be a load of traffic on this street. All in all it should be a perfect street for children to cycle through to or home from school for example.

 Except that, like motor traffic, the plan is that cyclists can only use the street in one direction.

I can see no reason why this street (especially now it's named after a Dutchman) shouldn't be two-way for cyclists. Luckily there's still time to get the signage changed as, despite having been installed, consultation on the traffic order for the signs is still open. Please drop a polite email to hgame@lambeth.gov.uk asking for the proposed traffic order 'to ban vehicles in Hackford Road from entering Isabel Street' to be amended to 'ban vehicles, except cycles,....'

There are a number of planned changes for the Stockwell out for consultation, following the Neighbourhood Enhancement Programme, which are due shortly to be implemented.  Come to Lambeth Cyclists meeting on Tuesday 16 April to see the plans and suggest improvements.

Please email Lambeth re Clapham Old Town

This may be a little off the patch for many of my Kennington readers, but it's still important for you to comment. Schemes which work inspire others to emulate them (would London have Barclays Bikes if Paris  hadn't?). So, if you want Kennington to be cycle friendly you need to try and get other Lambeth initiatives to really boost cycling - and the proposed Clapham Old Town schemes just aren't good enough to do that.

Lambeth Council are consulting on very expensive plans for improving Clapham Old Town  (at the top end of the Common) yet, unacceptably, neither of the options currently on the table resolve some major barriers to cycling here.

If either of the plans proposed by the Council are approved as they stand, those wishing to cycle in a direct line from the Clapham Park Road area, through Clapham Old Town, towards Chelsea Bridge will still have to make a circuitous detour (see the map), away from the Old Town, on very fast and busy main roads, if they dare. Many adults don’t dare and even those who do are hardly likely to allow their children to cycle on these roads.

Everyone (and local residents in particular) who would like to see Clapham Old Town become a great place to cycle through and around needs to send a quick email to the Council NOW (or certainly before 21^st July) – claphamoldtown@lambeth.gov.uk - saying that you can’t accept either proposal as they stand and that you want to see the scheme reworked to make the area much more cycling friendly. Please also give your address. Ideally you’ll copy in your local Councillor as well if you live in the vicinity.

After all, It's not as though there's not enough road width for The Pavement to become two way for cyclists

Put simply, the plans on the table at the moment don’t meet Lambeth Council’s own, Mayor of London approved, Transport Plan.

Lambeth’s Transport Plan puts pedestrians and cyclists at the top of the hierarchy of road users, because these are the ONLY travel choices that totally meet Lambeth’s five key transport objectives:

1. Promote sustainable, healthy transport behaviour
2. Improves the quality, reliability and efficiency of the road network
3. Improves air quality
4. Reduces the perceived and actual danger of Lambeth’s road
5. Reduces CO2 emissions.

Instead both draft schemes focus on maintaining the motoring status quo while preventing cyclists from having calm, family friendly routes that permit them to frequent the useful shops and cafes in the Old Town.

This is all the more extraordinary given the project brief include the following statements

"Prioritise the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and bus users and make walking, cycling and bus use more attractive and accessible to encourage more journeys by these modes."

and 

"The Cycle Route Implementation and Stakeholder Plan (CRISP) identified that there are currently significant barriers to providing attractive conditions for cyclists. These include conflict between cyclists & pedestrians/motor vehicles, lack of priority at some junctions, and the large Clapham Old Town one-way system resulting in cyclists taking different routes in each direction. London Cycle Network (LCN) route no 3 passes through the area. There are several points and sections along the proposed route which are likely to cause problems to cyclists."

Having shown the existing plans’ weaknesses, it is only fair to point out that there are some significant improvements for pedestrians and some for cyclists too, particularly a plan that allows cycling in a southbound direction along Northside

Finally, unless you have a firm view about the bus locations, I recommend you don't complete the poorly designed on-line survey, as it doesn't have have a button for 'Devise a better option'.

Quality road closures in Southwark

Here are two views from the same position in Darwin Street, SE17 (a stones throw from the Bricklayers Arms Flyover).

Before:

View Larger Map

and After:

Here's a bit of a closer view of the planting

The next road along, Mason Street, used to look like this:

View Larger Map

and now looks like this, attractive and usable for cyclists and pedestrians, while the motorist has to take the long way round.:

This should be food for thought for Lambeth's Neighbourhood Enhancement Programme and the residents within the Clapham Road, South Lambeth Road and Harleyford Road triangle that has funding for enhancement..

Please take one minute to support these proposals

Lambeth Council is consulting on the following proposed changes in the Kennington area. All of these are extremely sensible in my view but may meet resistance from people objecting, for example, to protect 'their' car parking spaces. So please take a moment now to drop a quick email of support, giving your own rationale if appropriate (e.g.with Tyers Street to be able to return home from Vauxhall City Farm without using Kennington Lane), to Genstacia Bull at the council - gbull@lambeth.gov.uk 

Cardigan Street/ Kennington Lane

Bicycles are already allowed into Cardigan Street from Kennington Lane, but parking spaces immediately in front of the access point make things dangerous and difficult for cyclists. The Council proposes to remove two parking bays so that cyclists can continue through.


Tyers Street

The Council proposes to allow two-way cycling on Tyers Street. Infrastructure changes will be minimal, involving small changes to signs and road markings. Motor vehicles will still only be able to travel one way.


Sancroft Street

The Council proposes to allow two-way cycling on Sancroft Street. Infrastructure changes will be minimal, involving small changes to signs and road markings. Motor vehicles will still only be able to travel one way. It is also proposed to remove two parking bays at the junction with Vauxhall Street to improve visibility and safety. If budgets permit, the section of Sancroft Street between Cardigan Street and Kennington Road will be resurfaced.


Wincott Street

The Council proposes to allow two-way cycling on Wincott Street. Infrastructure changes will be minimal, involving small changes to signs and road markings. Motor vehicles will still only be able to travel one way. It also proposes to remove a parking bay at the corner of Wincott Street and Kempsford Road and replace it with a built-out kerb to improve visibility for cyclists and pedestrians.