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"Superhighway redesign will make cycling journeys long and circuitous'

Green Party has queried Boris Johnson's plans, saying safe routes on faster roads could be achieved...

Darren Johnson AM, Green Party Member of the London Assembly, has called on Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to answer concerns that the Cycle Superhighway 8 through Wandsworth may make journeys longer and mean cyclists are less likely to use the route.

He said:“The Mayor should be providing safe and direct cycling routes for people of all ages and abilities.

“TfL has shown it can do this through busy junctions like Vauxhall Cross. I’m worried that their proposals for Cycle Superhighway 8 might put people off using the route by taking them round the houses on quieter roads. So I’m pressing him to make these plans clearer, and to reconsider whether a more direct safe route can’t be provided.”

He has tabled the following formal questions for the next Mayor’s Question Time meeting:

You confirm that your plan to re-route Cycle Superhighway 8 will make cyclists' journeys longer. When routes become circuitous and cycle trip times rise relative to other modes, research suggests cycling levels drop. Please share with me the results of any modelling TfL has carried out into how the number of cycle trips taken on CS8 could be affected by these route changes.

You state that you will be realigning Cycle Superhighway 8 'away from heavily trafficked and congested roads onto quieter roads'. Please list other superhighways where this course of action is being considered, giving details of the precise locations in question.

How many metres will be added to a cycle journey from the start of CS8 in Wandsworth to the route's end in Millbank under the new route alignment?

Please share the evidence TfL have collected to suggest that cyclists are being deterred from using CS8 due to its current alignment in Wandsworth.

The Cycle Superhighways are along with the Santander Cycles Hire Scheme the two flagship projects of the Johnson administration's London Cycling Revolution.

Neither has been without controversy, however, with critics accusing the Mayor of super-serving the centre at the expense of the suburbs.

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8 comments

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Roger Geffen | 8 years ago
1 like

The consultation proposals are here:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/wandsworth-town-centre

... with a more detailed map here:

https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/wandsworth-town-centre/user_uploa...

 

There are certainly some more direct routes that TfL could have taken - particularly for west-bound cyclists heading for Putney Bridge Road, and for eastbound cyclists coming from pretty much anywhere.

 

Moreover, the main road being avoided certainly isn't narrow. 

 

Roger Geffen

Policy Director

CTC, the national cycling charity

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antigee | 8 years ago
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not my local area but a couple of things  have always concerned me about "quiet routes":

one being that the number of near misses seems to me to be as high on quiet roads as on major roads (purely anecdotal experience) BUT the consequences of the bad driving are much reduced as generally traffic speeds and volumes are lower and more manoevre space is available - so the cyclist KSI rate is reduced (a key indicator for local authorities?)  but cycling is no more attractive as the same type of bad driving is met with

the other is that the reduction of cyclists on main roads encourages a belief in drivers that they simply don't belong there and as a consequence encourages a style of driving that has little concern for cyclists or other vunerable road users

not against segregated cycle facilities they have a place and I like them but they are a fix in urban areas for problems that shouldn't exist

 

Avatar
sm | 8 years ago
0 likes

The route may be longer but is it slower? My route to work is now being turned into CS1. It's a great route. Slightly longer than a direct route but fewer traffic lights, less pollution and fewer cars. A superior route to the direct route.

Does Darren Johnson cycle? Does he commute in London by bike? This is just politics for the sake of it.

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bikebot replied to sm | 8 years ago
1 like

sm wrote:

Does Darren Johnson cycle? Does he commute in London by bike? This is just politics for the sake of it.

Balls. Go read up on Darren's history, he's been bloody brilliant in speaking up for cycling and will be missed after he stands down in May.

 

 

Avatar
teaboy replied to sm | 8 years ago
1 like

sm wrote:

The route may be longer but is it slower? My route to work is now being turned into CS1. It's a great route. Slightly longer than a direct route but fewer traffic lights, less pollution and fewer cars. A superior route to the direct route. Does Darren Johnson cycle? Does he commute in London by bike? This is just politics for the sake of it.

 

You're a fan of shared use paths alongside 6-lane roads with no priority at any junctions then?

Avatar
Bob's Bikes | 8 years ago
7 likes

Any chance you could add some diagrams/maps of actual route and proposed changes so that this story makes some sort of sense to those of us that don't live on the doorstep?

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bikebot | 8 years ago
2 likes

Whilst I need to check the specifics of this change, the phrase "narrow congested streets" can't be used to describe much of Wandworth.  With the massive gyratory system and the urban motorway of Trinity Rd, it's a part of London where the traffic engineers really did tear the place up in the 60's, and created a traffic choked hell with many, many lanes.

Unfortunately, what I do know of the parts of CS8 which runs along the A3205 is that it's similar to the first generation CS7.  Lots of "just blue paint" shared with bus lanes and minimal treatment at the junctions.

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Wolfshade | 8 years ago
2 likes

Darren Johnson seems to have hit the nail on the head. While I appreciate that trying to retro-fit our narrow congested streets to include infrastructure is hard one needs to be very sensitive to journey length as if the new facilities do not provide a timesaving (which they *might* by allowing free-flowing without start stopping even if they are longer, though I am doubtful this is the case) or if the new route is at a steeper gradient (not an issue here) it will not be used as much as it might.

The trouble with standard modelling (using WEBTag) is that it doesn't take into consideration shortest route preference, indeed, strictly speaking if you can make the route longer, or slow the riders down then you increase the amount of itme that they are engaged in physical activity and therfore the greater the benefit is (owing to reduction in premature death) according to the model.

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