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Works on Westminster Bridge protected cycle lanes delayed in wake of terror attack

Installation of kerbed lanes on both sides of bridge was due to have begun on Wednesday - no news of when work will now start

Works to install protected cycle lanes on Westminster Bridge that were due to have begun on Wednesday have been delayed in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack outside the Houses of Parliament that left four people dead.

Earlier this month, Transport for London (TfL) announced that it would be installing protect cycle lanes on both sides of the bridge, as well as putting a new pedestrian crossing on Westminster Bridge Road.

Other safety improvements included a bus-stop by-pass being installed outside St Thomas’s Hospital, and the speed limit on the bridge being cut to 20 miles an hour once the works, anticipated to last a year, are finished.

> Work due to start on protected cycle route on Westminster Bridge

But last week’s attack in which 52-year-old Khalid Masood killed three people and injured dozens more by driving his car along the footpath on the southside of the bridge before exiting the vehicle and stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death has seen the works postponed, with no date as to when they will start.

TfL’s managing director of surface transport, Leon Daniels, said: “Our thoughts remain with the families and friends of those affected by the terrorist incident in Westminster.

“Works on and around Westminster Bridge were due to start next week to improve the area for cyclists and pedestrians, but we have temporarily postponed this work while we engage with a range of key stakeholders, including parliamentary estates.”

As the Google Street View image below shows, Westminster Bridge currently has a short length of protected cycleway on the western end of its southern carriageway.

Westminster Bridge Google Street View Sep 2016 looking east.PNG

The kerbed protection continues on Bridge Street, which links the East-West Cycle Superhighway between the Victoria Embankment and Parliament Square.

Westminster Bridge Google Street View Sep 2016 looking west.PNG

Last week Lord Carlile, a crossbench peer who until 2011 was the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, suggested that the protected cycle lane could have made it easier for Masood to drive onto the pavement.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he said: "There may have to be changes in the way we protect parliament and other major buildings."

He added: "We may have to look at the new traffic arrangements around Westminster, which have changed in the last few months and opened up a wide new cycle lane along which this vehicle travelled uninterrupted."

Westminster Bridge would have been the fourth in Central London to have protected cycle lanes, joining Blackfriars, Southwark and Vauxhall bridges.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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9 comments

Avatar
thereverent | 7 years ago
1 like

If anything the segregated lanes should now be wider and have higher protection from the road. That would add to the security around the Palace of Westminster. A few bollards to stop a car getting onto the cycle lane or the pavement would also be useful. Also pedestrianise one side of Parliment Square (by Westminster Abbey) as was planned a few years back.

The gate the attacker ran through is open to let MPs and Lords drive into the underground car park. If no parking was allowed (apart from disabled parking) on the site, security would be improved (and MPs would have more of an incentive to improve public transport and cycling infrastructure as that's what they would have to use to get to work).

Avatar
Edgeley | 7 years ago
4 likes

Honestly, if the Bridge wasn't there, then the terrorist couldn't have driven up it.  I suggest that all the bridges over the Thames in London should be knocked down to protect parliament and pedestrians.   If people really feel the need to cross the river, then they can get a boat or cross over via a bridge in Berkshire.  It all makes sense.

Avatar
P3t3 | 7 years ago
4 likes

Honestly, they really will do absolutely anything they can to avoid building cycle infrastructure. Construction can surely begin about a week later than originally planned.

They will take forever fart-arsing around with designs for anti-terror fencing and the like. In the meantime can't they just get on with doing what they said they would do! It's not as if they think ahead and avoid wasting money on redesigns of other government projects is it?

Conflating cycling infra and terrorism is scraping the barrel.

Avatar
dodpeters | 7 years ago
5 likes

I think the basis of the argument must be that if it wasn't for the cycle lane the bridge would have been far too full of stationary traffic for the attach to be sucessful. Congestion is clearly one thing that London doesn't have enough of already.

Avatar
ibike | 7 years ago
2 likes

Hardly surprising, and entirely understandable. It would be insensitive to start carving up the kerbs so soon after the horrific attacks, but you do have to wonder whether there would be a similar response for a road scheme or an office development.

Let’s hope that this is just a “temporary” delay and that the original plans go ahead. If anything the recent attacks should strengthen the case for putting in segregated cycle lanes and keeping cars further away from where people congregate. It was after all a car that was used as a murder weapon.
 

Avatar
StuInNorway | 7 years ago
5 likes

Extra height kerbings between the road and cycle lanes would help prevent intentional or accidental encroaching. The existing cycle lane IN NO WAY helped the attacker, as if it hadn't been there he'd have simply driven onto the pavement directly.  

If they want to protect people and parliament, install more of the metal bollards like they used in teh days of the ring of steel around the city.  leave enough space that works vehicles can come in at a steeper angle if required, at certain points,  but anything trying to "drift" onto the footpath/cycle route gets a solid metal pole in the bonnet.  

This is not the American embassy, we are not paranoid, so the American's preferred option of simply closing the entire square around their embassy (while refusing to pay the congestion charge) doesn't need considered.  If you over-protect one point in a city, any attacker just chooses an easier one. That's why the IRA never attacked the MI5/MI6 offices in London, they blew up vans and trucks outside less protected buildings.

 

My personal preference would be raised kerbs (anti-truck ones) or bollards between roadway and cycle route, and an illuminated central bollard in the cycle lane end. One of those nice ones that can be remotely sunk into the road if an ambulance on a blue light call urgently needs access. One radio call from driver/assistant or control room, and bollard is sunk for a few minutes until they are safely through.

 

Avatar
Ush | 7 years ago
14 likes

Why is no one calling for cars to be banned?

Apart from their now frequent use in terrorist attacks they facilitate the movement of paedophiles and their victims.

Does Lord Carlisle stand with us cyclists against paedophilia and terrorism?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Ush | 7 years ago
2 likes

Ush wrote:

Why is no one calling for cars to be banned?

Apart from their now frequent use in terrorist attacks they facilitate the movement of paedophiles and their victims.

Does Lord Carlisle stand with us cyclists against paedophilia and terrorism?

Have a read of this: Why not ban cars, Amber Rudd? It’d be more effective than banning encryption

Avatar
brooksby | 7 years ago
11 likes

Dear Lord Carlile: why not ban all private motor vehicles from passing Parliament? That might make you feel better? I doubt there's much you can do to stop an SUV leaving the road and going up onto the footpath if it wants to... I know: put all the pedestrians in caged walkways. Or ban them altogether: yes, ban walking - that'll do it. Hmm.

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