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Bow Roundabout – TfL Proposals

Details of TfL’s proposals for Bow Roundabout have been released:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/bow-vision

At last night’s meeting, Olawale took us through the discussions he has had with Tower Hamlets Wheelers, taking into account LCC’s standards for junctions.   His draft response and sketch map are attached to this post, as well as an article on Cycle Segregated Junctions from the last issue of London Cyclist.

This is an important issue and although it is only an interim measure, it is important that we push TfL to get it right. We will be submitting a response on behalf of Newham Cyclists, but individual responses are probably more important.

Please make sure you have your say!

London Cyclist Xmas 2014 edition_CS Jct explained article TfL Bow junction interim plans_consultation response draft Bow junction reference map

Stratford Gyratory: Our Vision

Stratford Gyratory is a key cycling node.  More than £1m is available for design and consultation of a new junction.  Here are the principles we are working on for its improvement from the cycling angle.

This link will open a drawing (which will need rotating clockwise).

Stratford Gyratory General Details 

In narrative:

  • The main axis for motorised traffic would be Stratford Broadway through to the Grove i.e. the A11.
  • Stratford Broadway to be bi-directional with segregated cycle lanes forming part of CS2 (on existing westbound carriageway).
  • Tramway Avenue sliproad closed.
  • A subsidiary traffic axis  from Leyton Rd / Angel lane through to Great Eastern Rd (eastern section to the Grove) to be single single bidirectional lanes with  cycle tracks and bus islands.
  • Eastbound, one way bus, taxi, delivery and cycle traffic only on Great Eastern Rd from the “Rhubarb” sculpture to Angel Lane, with cycle contraflow.
  • This leaves (essentially) a series of  T junctions (at (1)the “Rhubarb” sculpture), (2)Tramway Ave/Broadway, Broadway/Romford Rd,   (3) Grove/Great Eastern Rd  (4) Angel Lane/Great Eastern Rd.) These to have, in principle “hold left” arrangements to prevent left hooks and attractive options for cycles turning right.
  • Additional cycle parking at convenient points with large footfall.
  • Maintain and, in some areas  improve, existing facilities e.g. at pavement level on the Grove, the Grove Crescent contraflow, Oxford Rd, the eastbound bus lane in the Broadway.
  • 20mph throughout.

This form of design would bring huge public realm gains including the link between the Stratford Centre to Westfield; permit the repositioning of crossings and bus stops to more convenient locations; and reduce conflicts between pedestrians, cyclists and motor traffic.

 

 

 

 

 

Newham Council and Cycle Superhighway 2

As long ago as 31 July 2103 Councillor Conor Mcauley, then Executive Member for Regeneration,  trumpeted in the Newham Recorder “Our vision is for Newham’s streets to be made more accessible for cyclists” and called for more of the Cycle Superhighway type of infrastructure in Newham.  He ended “We’ll keep lobbying TfL to do their bit and deliver a cycle hire scheme and a cycling network that will benefit all.”  This looked like a change of approach from the Council that had previously blocked Cycle Superhighway 2 through Newham. Completing CS2 to Ilford is one of Newham Cyclists Space for Cycling suggestions to which Councillor Patel of Manor Park signed up.  It was included in Newham Council’s mini-Holland bid, but this was unsuccessful.  Since then  we have seen  no sign that Newham Council has pressed for this and it now appears to be dropped from TfL’s Cycle superhighway programme.

This unsurprising  outcome is compounded by Newham Council’s approach to the existing CS2.  It has secured the removal of a key section providing protection for cyclists from being “left hooked” at the junction of Broadway and Tramway Avenue, leaving the current dogs breakfast, which needs a plethora of signs addressed to both drivers and cyclists to be careful. This change was demanded in the face of a safety audit that confirmed that this change made this junction more dangerous for cyclists.  The reason? As the Council eventually admitted, this was to accomodate “driver misbehaviour”.

On 17 September 2014 Councillor Corbett  told the Recorder “The Council has made clear to TfL the urgent need to fully address all safety issues at this location and review the design proposals,” he said. “This should be done in conjunction with key stakeholders such as the council, police, emergency services and cycling groups.”

” We will return to install the final, agreed design later this year once the local development works are fully completed, and remain committed to provide safe cycling infrastructure across London.”

There has been no change to this unction, made more dangerous for cyclists by the actions of Newham Council itself.

 

P1000741

On 3 December 2014  a spokeswoman for the Council misleadingly told the Recorder that the removal was at the behest of TfL, wrongly said that the Council only closed the risky sliproad (which is still open) and that the changes were done following unspecified “concerns” raised by the police and cyclists. The Council have  now admitted  that these “concerns”  were expressed by three cyclists who happened to randomly stop when Council officials were looking at the junction, but they have still to reveal the nature of these “concerns” despite two freedom of Information requests concerning this junction.  There is no indication that these cyclists preferred the current situation to the protection provided by the CS2 with its “wands” i.e. the latest version provided by TfL.

At no time were Newham Cyclists consulted despite the latest in a series of claims that ” We value the views of Newham’s cycling community and are committed to ensuring that there are safe cycling routes in the borough.”

Greenway Closure

As many of you know, the section of the Greenway at the CS2 end has been closed for a staggering 45 week period, whilst Thames Water carry out essential repair work on the Channelsea Bridge.

The issue is not the closure, but the lack of alternative route, which is a complicated but unacceptable situation.  For once, LB Newham are not totally responsible, but they have not helped the situation.  Because the Greenway is not a Right of Way, but a Permissive Route, the regulations are different.  It seems that there is no actual obligation to provide an alternative route.  However the transport team at Newham are well aware that this is not good enough.  Part of the problem  seems to have been that the closure was only supposed to be for a month.  The change to almost a year was very last minute.

The decision not to use Canning Road (which was the route Newham Cyclists requested) as the alternative route seems to be based on 2 main issues.

1. It is a route used by emergency vehicles

2. It is not usually the done thing to put traffic lights at the bottom of a hill (!).

Some of you will have seen the very detailed piece on the route here:  https://www.easternism.co.uk/?p=107

The lack of signage and the difficulty of crossing Manor Road is obvious.

This morning Arnold, Bill and I met with Richard Wadey to ride through the route.   The signage should have gone up weeks ago and it seems to have fallen through the gaps for it to be checked.  Richard is pushing this forward.  It may be that some ‘guerilla signage’ is needed in the meantime!

Some of the improvements that have come out of the ‘ward audits’ we have done as a group with Richard, as well as other improvements that have already been agreed would make the route much more cycle friendly and those improvements are being pushed by Richard as well.  These include access into Leywick Street.  The bus stop opposite has approval to be moved, so that a cycle crossing can be put in – the barriers will obviously be removed.  The concrete bollards which are currently in place will be replaced with a single removable bollard.  This would mean that as you come down the Greenway ramp and use the pavement to cycle under the bridge and then the already signed shared use section, you would be able to safely cross Manor Road and enter Leywick Street.

Timing on this is unclear, but Richard is hoping to be able to report back to us before Monday’s meeting.

What none of this helps, is the fact that this alternative route is a very long way around.  We have asked Richard to further investigate the Canning Road alternative.  If anyone knows of any other locations where there are traffic lights at the bottom of a hill, let us know!

 

Readout from January Meeting and Review of the Olympic Park

On 26 January we held another lively and well attended meeting.  Forest Gate Councillor Ellie Robinson attended with two Newham Council Officers.

The main item on the agenda was discussion of how Crossrail money for environmental improvements around Forest Gate and Maryland Stations could be spent.  See earlier post for the initial drawings.  Plenty of concrete suggestions were made to improve the the initial plans as far as cycling is concerned and these were taken away by the Council officers.  We emphasised to Councillor Robinson how important it was to give priority to pedestrians and cyclists, including by imposing a 20mph limit.  She took a lively interest and invited further representations from individuals by e-mail to her Council e-mail address.

There was also an outline of our vision for redesigning the Stratford gyratory .  TfL and Newham Council will soon be starting serious design work for which £1m in funding is available.  Newham cyclists are working up detailed representations which will be fed into this process, including the LCC Infrastructure review group.

There were other short updates on some positive developments: (1) the Aldgate to Hainault Quietway as it goes through north Newham.  This is in TfL’s second tranche of quietways and we are ahead of our neighbouring boroughs in planning this; (2) the first fruits of the Ward Audit  – with 19 permeability schemes for “urban Newham” already having been approved by the Council and the other 400+ being prioritised for approval; (3) the preliminary results of the initial study for remedial work on Westfield Ave and Montfichet Rd ;  (4) news that a further study of how to improve the wider  Olympic Park/Westfield area for cyclists in view of the possible adoption of the roads by the Council  is going out to tender; and (5) an indication that the Roding Valley cycle and footway study is progressing.

Less promising was the continued dog’s breakfast that is the junction of Tramway Avenue and the Broadway.  It is a key demand that this be improved as part of the reworking of Stratford gyratory.  This episode acts as a timely reminder that our input is vital to avoid poor designs which ultimately waste public money.

Finally, our draft ride programme for 2015 was circulated.  Watch this space.

In relation to item (4), on 30 January a group of Newham Cyclists rode around the Olympic Park area with two Newham Council sustainable transport officers, looking particularly at the periphery of the area and points of access.  From this it became clear that a coherent and useful study must  cover as wide an area as possible, even if it strayed slightly outside the borough.  Some good news is that Temple Mill Lane east is to be permanently bus/cycles only.  This is something that we have campaigned for over several years.

We also took the opportunity to discuss ideas  for the Canning Town to Excel Centre area.

It has become clear what opportunity there is to link these various improvements, together with the Greenway and the Lea Valley to create a major generator for both leisure and utility cycling in Newham.

Crossrail Plans – Forest Gate

The proposed plans for the Crossrail complementary measures are attached.  As with Manor Park, these are proposals only and comments are invited.  We have invited the Forest Gate councillors as well as Murray Woodbury to our monthly meeting on the 26th January, so please have a look ahead of the meeting and bring your comments along to the meeting!

FG Public Realm masterplan FG Photographic record Overview ML Public Realm Masterplan Maryland artist impressions ML Traffic modelling ML Furniture Strategy ML Spatial Strategy FG artists impressions FG – Traffic modelling FG Furniture Strategy FG Spatial Strategy

Crossrail plans – Manor Park

The proposed plans for the Crossrail Complementary schemes for Manor Park are attached.  This is what was submitted by Newham to Crossrail to get the funding secured but the plans are not final, hence our planned meetings with councillors and council staff to give our input.  Please peruse and let us have your comments!

MP Traffic modelling MP Artists Impressions MP Furniture Strategy MP Public Realm Masterplan MP Spatial Strategy MP Visual Analyis MP Photograhic record

New Manhattan?

Prior to the Olympics Stratford High Street was being touted as a potential Manhattan style area, with its wide carriageway and tall buildings.  But of course whereas Newham Council blocked segregated cycle lanes,  New York City has been busy installing segregated cycle lanes and to very beneficial effect:

  • Injuries to pedestians down by over one fifth.
  • Cycle volumes rise but with a slight decrease in cycle injuries.
  • Greater increase in retail sales compared with streets with no cycle lanes.
  • IN many streets journey times actually decreased.

For a full report and some pictures of what can be done:

https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/2014-09-03-bicycle-path-data-analysis.pdf

 

Newham Council mislead over CS2

Newham Council have now belatedly provided information about the removal of CS2 at Tramway Avenue.  The documents provided confirm the story of TfL that the changes were driven by Newham Council because of “confusion” and “driver misbehaviour” and also reveal that the cycle lane was removed in the face of a safety audit pointing out the reduction in the protection for cyclists.

Nevertheless the Council’s subsequent conduct can only be described as grossly misleading.  Here is the statement made to the Newham Recorder published on  3 December.  :

“CS2 route was removed by TfL, not the council, who only closed the risky sliproad.”

In fact Newham Council was the driving force behind the removal the protected cycle lane.  If it was just a case of closing the sliproad there would have been no need at all to remove CS2.   Newham Cyclists would welcome the closing of Tramway Avenue.  It is one of our long term aims.

“Following concerns raised by the police and cyclists and a number of serious near misses on this route, a decision to close the Tramway Avenue sliproad was taken in September”

In fact the documents provided by both TfL and Newham Council do not reveal any concerns by cyclists, particularly in its latest – “wands” version. We shall be following this up. The police did raise concerns at an early stage but participated in the safety audit that took place.  The “risky” sliproad remains open.

“We value the views of Newham’s cycling community and are committed to ensuring that there are safe cycling routes in the borough”

Why  not, then, consult on this high profile action to revert back to a dangerous junction layout for cyclists?  The Council have resisted since 2009 our suggestion for a cycling liaison group and consistently resist our suggestions for greater safety such as 20mph. The Council’s values and the level of their commitment can be judged by their actions rather than their words.