Cycling provision for a new student hall in Waterloo

Lambeth Council's Leader, Cllr. Lib Peck, spoke last week at the opening of Urbanest Waterloo, a 1,100 bed, 19-storey student accommodation block and private 6th form college at the corner of Westminster Bridge Road and Lambeth Palace Road.

This is how the back of the building looks. There's gated parking for hundreds of pool bikes alongside the students' own ones. It's not very pretty but a thousand or so bikes parked looks a lot less ugly than than a thousand cars, and there may be more landscaping to come.

The cycle parking is in clear sight of, and easily accessible from, the building, and it'll be quick to get to the main road.

CCTV is used and cycles can be locked to the stands

 

 There's plenty of room to access the majority of the bikes 

 At one end the stands are cramped, and these will clearly be used less that the others.

The pool bikes come in a variety of sizes - I think 510 to 610mm. 

There appear to be no step-through frames, and there are no chain guards or skirt guards, meaning that these cycles aren't going to appeal to every student. I'd like to see a wider range of cycles. I don't know if consideration has been given to parking tricycles, hand cycles and other types of cycle.

The stands are not currently covered, which doesn't bode well for the life of the uncovered chains (again, though, this may be a work in progress) UPDATE Urbanest have tweeted to say that the stands will be covered.

 What is strongly demonstrated here is Lambeth's commitment to ensuring that developers provide a large amount of parking, and where appropriate pool bikes, as part of its commitment to becoming London's most cycle friendly borough.

I envisage that every single student living in these halls will, at the very least, give some serious thought to using a cycle to get around town.

A quick, easy and cheap way to reduce the likelihood of bike theft

You can lock your frame and both wheels to Sheffield Stands but only the wheel to 'wheel-bender' stands. Why has the management of the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre left these theft-inviting racks in place, given there are now a large number of conveniently located and more secure Sheffield Stands? I think the shopping centre management are almost as responsible for the theft as the person who took advantage of their slackness to steal most of the bike. When will they remove them?

I would also like to know why the police and PCSOs who patrol the area haven't demanded the shopping centre's management remove them.

Temporary steps towards a cycle friendly Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea

Sainsburys Nine Elms Vauxhall has a large noticeboard in its entrance lobby about the imminent temporary store that will replace the big one while it is being rebuilt.

I can't help but doubt that Sainsburys shares the aspiration of Lambeth and the Mayor of London that this area will be super cycling friendly - in fact 'Better than Amsterdam - from that sketch and the accompanying Access information:

21 car parking spaces is way fewer than the existing store's several hundred spaces, plus the petrol station is closing, so this is presents a classic opportunity for Sainsburys to give a nudge to those currently shopping by car to switch to shopping by bike instead of losing these customers to a competing supermarket with a big car park.

The first thing to do is to ensure some cycle parking will be provided and tell people about it. But that's just a start. Don't show images like that above, but instead add lots of images of people shopping by bike; put panniers on sale by the tills, or whole shopping bikes ready equipped with rack, panniers, dynamo lighting and locks; give vouchers with the till receipts and petrol receipts offering a deal at local bike stores; and another voucher promoting Lambeth Council's free cycle training; run a Dr Bike in the existing car park and encourage drivers to bring their bikes to get them sorted ready for the big switch.

It's a real shame that the developers holding such sway here aren't pulling out every stop to nurture cycling as an everyday, efficient and less polluting means of transport in this area, right from the outset.

UPDATE
Sainsburys have replied to my tweet asking if they would amend the sign to give details about access by bicycle:

1. Sainsbury's ‏@sainsburys18 Oct

   @KenningtonPOB ...throughout the build and that this will take a number of different forms including in store displays. Thanks, Mark 2/2

    View conversation
2. Sainsbury's ‏@sainsburys18 Oct

   @KenningtonPOB Hi there, just to let you know that we will be keeping the community fully appraised of all aspects of the development...1/2

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.

The cycle parking at Clapham Leisure Centre is beyond parody

My congratulations are overdue to Lambeth Council for opening the first new leisure centre in 30 years last February. Given the current economic climate this is no small achievement. At the time of the launch Lambeth said, 

"The new multi-million pound Clapham Leisure Centre on Clapham Manor Street comes complete with a new six-lane 25-metre swimming pool with movable floor, 100-station fitness gym, four-court sports hall and dance and fitness studio. The highly sustainable building forms part of an £80m, multi-award winning regeneration scheme."

Cathedral Group, the developers of the scheme which includes private and social housing and a new library, equally boast  of the 'brand new sustainable leisure centre designed by specialists LA Architects.'.

How much cycle parking do you think there is for this building in the pro-cycling borough of Lambeth? I'll give you two hints to help you guess:
1. This 'highly sustainable building' is just a stone's throw from Cycling Superhighway 7;
2. The parking is located in a shiny new road next to the Leisure Centre called 'Bicycle Mews'.

What's your guess? Maybe 50 stands? Or, planning for the future, 100 stands? Surely no fewer than 20 stands?

Seriously, the answer is 9 stands although Lambeth's operators better.org.uk state there are only 9 spaces.

And I'm inclined to agree with better.org.uk because several of the stands are wedged so tight together that you can't get your bike in or out without bashing your way past other bikes. Here's how it looked this chilly March afternoon:

 Below is the  Leisure Centre sign just by its front door and you can see the crammed cycle parking just by the far wall. As you can see from the photo at the top of this blog post, there's no cycle parking in front of the building.

You really couldn't make it up, could you?

Did the planners consent to just 18 cycle parking spaces? Do the Architects and Developers really believe that it is acceptable to install the cycle parking so badly, and does providing a nominal 18 cycle parking spaces fall into their definition of 'highly sustainable'?

But above all, when will the parking positioning be improved and the quantity increased to meet the aspirations that the name 'Bicycle Mews' surely implies?

Cycle Parking and Advertising

 There's not a lot of cycle parking outside Streatham Common Railway Station so I hope the Council take this advertiser to the cleaners. Or at least remove his bike.

Meanwhile, the other side of the railway bridge, the local Farmers' Market aims to rile the people who would otherwise be their customers.

 While in Clapham, judging by the rusty chain, this bicycle has been abandoned and can be removed by the council, freeing up parking that is clearly in demand even on a freezing March morning.

Lock your frame and wheels with two good locks

The Mayor of London's draft Policing and Crime Strategy includes 'theft of and from motor vehicles'. I suggested that was amended to 'theft of and from all vehicles'. While we wait for the Mayor's response, here are a few photos from Lambeth today that show why I think it makes sense for people to use two good locks, locking wheels and frame.