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Camden cycle lane voted through despite Conservative claim road was “Too steep” for it

Councillors had claimed schoolkids won’t use protected bike lane due to gradient averaging 3.5% – but local schools back the infrastructure

A Camden Council committee yesterday evening voted through plans for a protected cycle lane on a road that Conservative councillors had claimed was "too steep" for many cyclists, including children.

Tory councillors in the Labour-controlled borough had called in the scheme, but the council's culture and environment committee voted it through by a majority of five to one, with the news welcomed by London's walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman.

Our original story published yesterday appears below.

Conservative councillors in Camden want plans for a protected cycle lane in the borough scrapped because they claim the road it is on is too steep, saying that among other things, schoolchildren won’t use it – even though four local schools back the plans.

The Camden New Journal reports that the Conservative group on the London council have called in the route on Haverstock Hill, meaning that it will be scrutinised by Camden’s culture and environment committee at a meeting this evening.

Under its powers of call-in, the committee can approve the original decision, ask for it to be reconsidered, refer the issue to the full council for a debate, or require more information or that further work be carried out.

The cycle lane runs a little over a kilometre from the junction with Prince of Wales Road, just north of Chalk Farm tube station, up to the junction with Pond Street, where the Royal Free Hospital is located, and passes through Belsize Park on the way.

Councillor Oliver Cooper, leader of the Conservative Group on the council, described it as “one of the most daunting climbs in London, and that won’t change with cycle lanes.”

In fact, it has an average gradient of 3.5 per cent, with a short stretch nudging 5 per cent early on through a section of Haverstock Hill that has become known as Steele’s Village, and there is no shortage of much tougher climbs in the capital – not least, Swain’s Lane in nearby Highgate.

Construction is due to start in October under an 18-month experimental traffic order, with a full public consultation held after 12 months to decide whether or not to make the changes permanent.

Publishing the results of a consultation into the 18-month trial earlier this month, Camden Council said the route had been backed by four local schools, and the charity Wheels For Wellbeing, which campaigns on behalf of disabled cyclists, has also endorsed the lane.

But Councillor Cooper claimed: “Children will not cycle up it, new cyclists will not cycle up it, and elderly people will not cycle up it.

“Yet Camden’s model has expressly assumed that everyone – whatever their age and whatever their disability – could cycle up and down that hill,” added Councillor Cooper, who described the scheme as “detached from reality.”

Labour holds 43 of the 54 seats on the council. The Conservatives are the largest opposition party with seven seats, while the Liberal Democrats have three and the Green Party one.

A Camden Council statement said: “During the consultation, older and disabled residents told us that the lack of protected cycle lanes is one of the biggest obstacles when wanting to take up cycling.

“For example, one said the plans will ‘allow disabled people who might have been too fearful to use active transport greater confidence to do so’. The disabled cyclists charity Wheels for Wellbeing also wrote in to support the plans.”

When the results of the consultation were announced earlier in August, Councillor Adam Harrison, the council’s cabinet member for a sustainable Camden, said: “Last year we began making changes to enable greater social distancing and provide non-polluting alternatives to public transport during covid. There were also big benefits for quality of life in Camden in the form of keeping more people safe from road danger, improving air quality and cutting carbon.

“In Camden, more than two-thirds of people do not have a car, and already more than 8 in 10 trips made by Camden residents are made by public transport, walking and cycling. But we know this can rise further if we make our streets as safe and as welcoming as possible.

“I have been contacted on many occasions by parents asking for much safer travel for their children. With numerous schools on or close to Haverstock Hill, segregated cycle lanes are designed to allow more kids to ride a bike to school, improving their health and making Camden a more family-friendly borough.

“For that reason, I am pleased that four local schools have supported the proposals, along with the Royal Free Hospital. We should also not forget the new pedestrian crossings that this trial will introduce, making it a much better environment for people who want to walk in the area. I am also pleased to be introducing extra disabled parking,” he added.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 6.30pm and beforehand Camden Cyclists will be holding a demonstration outside the venue, the Crowndale Centre, Mornington Crescent.

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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47 comments

Avatar
Hirsute | 3 years ago
5 likes

Interesting to read some of the post decision comments

How do you deliver sheets of glass to a glass shop if you have to cross a cycle lane?

How do you get a wedding dress and get on the bus to go home with it?

 

How do they get the glass through the traffic and onroad parking?

How often do the same people get married in Camden? Do they not have taxis or ubers in that area? How do the 2/3 with no car and the 80% who use foot/bike/public transport get on with doing anything ?

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mdavidford replied to Hirsute | 3 years ago
7 likes
hirsute wrote:

How do you deliver sheets of glass to a glass shop if you have to cross a cycle lane?

Carefully?

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wtjs | 3 years ago
6 likes

Well done Camden Cyclists! Fight the dimwit Tory Panzer drivers, although I suspect most of them would rather be in a Tiger crunching over the skulls of cyclist untermensch, like the Machines in Terminator 2

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OllieB | 3 years ago
4 likes

I reckon we need one on Swain's Lane too ...

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Rendel Harris replied to OllieB | 3 years ago
7 likes
OllieB wrote:

I reckon we need one on Swain's Lane too ...

Speak for yourself - I need the whole width of the road for zigzagging!

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Nick T | 3 years ago
1 like

Interesting that Camden council recently put a cycle Lane up Archway Road despite its steep profile

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quiff replied to Nick T | 3 years ago
0 likes

Agree, that's a good comparison for gradient, but technically I think that one is on Islington and Haringey's patches rather than Camden. Also, a lot of the uphill route is (or at least was, when I used to ride it regularly, pre-covid) just in a bus lane rather than segregated, and parts of the downhill route are a bit tight considering the gradient on approach, so they're not necessarily a shining example of cycle lane design, though better than nothing.    

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Nick T replied to quiff | 3 years ago
0 likes

I think you're right, it's just outside Camden. Have you been there since the roundabout was removed, it's not too bad - segregated cycle Lane from the bottom until just before the bridge, then use the bus lane. Coming down is better now there's a massively wide bus lane and seperate lights for bus and traffic

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quiff replied to Nick T | 3 years ago
0 likes

Yep, I commuted through there every weekday since ~2012, so used it regularly both before and after the changes. Haven't been to the office since March 2020 though(!), so haven't seen anything they might have done to it since then. TBH, personally I never really found Archway gyratory or Highbury Corner that intimidating, but appreciate they wouldn't have been particularly welcoming to new cyclists. The revised layouts are much friendlier. My gripes above about the Archway lanes are just nit-pciking really - though I dislike the way the segregated lane ends and throws you into the bus lane, uphill, just before a bus stop. I rode single speed up there, so wasn't happy if a bus pulled in in front of me! I think that was the first roundabout scheme Islington implemented, and the Highbury and Old Street schemes seemed more coherent.  

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wycombewheeler | 3 years ago
3 likes

just looked up the strava segment for haverstock hill

3.5%  ffs, how can this possibly be too steep to cycle?

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brooksby | 3 years ago
8 likes

This is basically the same as the story about benches the other day. What those councillors actually mean is "I know that I wouldn't cycle on that slight incline, therefore i believe that nobody would!".

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Captain Badger replied to brooksby | 3 years ago
9 likes
brooksby wrote:

This is basically the same as the story about benches the other day. What those councillors actually mean is "I know that I wouldn't cycle on that slight incline, therefore i believe that nobody would!".

It's not even that good. They know people use cycle lanes. They just want to own all the public space for their wank panzers

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CumbrianDynamo | 3 years ago
15 likes

Great news. They have just approved the lanes at the council meeting. The Tories' sociopathic grandstanding has come to nothing.

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Steve K | 3 years ago
1 like
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CyclingJudy | 3 years ago
16 likes

5% is hardly anything. And even if it was, the existence of a hill is even more reason for a cycle lane because you might be wobbling about. And if you have to get off and walk you need separating from the traffic even more!

This is a clear case of
We Don't Want No Cycle Paths Here https://t.co/WQqYYLXvZs

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brooksby replied to CyclingJudy | 3 years ago
2 likes

Nice plug there, Judy  3

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Global Nomad replied to CyclingJudy | 3 years ago
2 likes

my thoughts exactly

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andystow | 3 years ago
12 likes

"Elderly people will not cycle up it."

Oops, there's a Strava segment. Elderly people seem to be doing okay on it.

https://www.strava.com/segments/4320798

 

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hawkinspeter replied to andystow | 3 years ago
10 likes

Mr T is in 3rd place with a very high heart rate for an over 75

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wycombewheeler replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
6 likes

I pity the fool who tells me the road is too steep for me to cycle up.

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Awavey replied to wycombewheeler | 3 years ago
0 likes

maybe it's an East Anglian thing but I think I'd struggle with it for the whole length  2 ive seen middle aged cyclists give up on far shorter hills than that and certainly most young kids would baulk at riding up it the whole way.

I dont think they highlighted some completely outrageous point even if in of itself shouldn't preclude there being a cycle lane installed, and there arent a whole lot of ways to get around it,just dont expect it to deliver as much gain for all demographics would be my take.

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Awavey replied to andystow | 3 years ago
1 like

Yes because clearly people who have signed up to a fitness app that records all their cycling activity and who may even be paying an annual subscription for it, are totally representative of their age group in the general population.

What was it that famous septuagenarian film star who cycles abit once said in a movie, it's not the years, it's the mileage.

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mdavidford replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
2 likes

Vast numbers of people, of all kinds of ability levels, use all sorts of fitness and activity tracking these days. It may not be entirely representative, but the idea that people on Strava are only the super-fit / cycling obsessed is pretty wide of the mark.

In any case, whether they're representative or not (in one sense they're obviously not - they're all riding bikes) isn't necessarily the question. Over 6k people have recorded a time on that segment - even if no-one who isn't on Strava ever cycles it (unlikely), that still seems like enough people to dismiss the suggestion that it'll be a white elephant because hardly anyone will want to cycle up there.

If they were debating whether to spend the money on this or another scheme, then raising questions as to whether it offered proportionately less benefit to certain groups might be more relevant, but I suspect the argument that's being made is just that they shouldn't spend the money at all.

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Velo-drone | 3 years ago
12 likes

Elderly cyclists might want to remind the honourable Councillor about the existence of e-bikes and triple-locked pension income to fund them with ...

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Global Nomad replied to Velo-drone | 3 years ago
8 likes

not to mention that gears on a bike mean its more efficient than walking 

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Awavey replied to Global Nomad | 3 years ago
0 likes

And a free pass bus means you dont have to bother doing either & let the bus take the strain

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brooksby replied to Awavey | 3 years ago
3 likes
Awavey wrote:

And a free pass bus means you dont have to bother doing either & let the bus take the strain

Only if there's a convenient bench halfway to the stop (hmm - now there's an idea...).

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quiff | 3 years ago
3 likes

Obviously this doesn't sound steep to a group of people choosing to read road.cc, but it may well be unappealing for new cyclists. I don't know what the applicable design criteria are, but I have found a Sustrans manual suggesting a preferred maximum of 3%, with 5% being acceptable for a short burst of 100m - this sounds like it breaches that. However, on balance it can only be more appealing than cycling the same hill without a cycle lane. Would be interested to know the gradients on the near-ish hill up Archway Road which has a well used cycle lane.  

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wycombewheeler replied to quiff | 3 years ago
1 like
quiff wrote:

.. Sustrans manual suggesting a preferred maximum of 3%, with 5% being acceptable for a short burst of 100m - this sounds like it breaches that.

welcome to this delightful segment on NCN route 57

https://www.strava.com/segments/29047629

as short distance from here NCN 57 becomes a mud track suited only to mountain bikes. I wouldnt fancy riding a 13kg mountain bike up this hill.

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David Roy | 3 years ago
4 likes

The only thing that’s steep is the value of the bungs the councillors receive

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