Plans for the Bethnal Green Liveable Streets scheme are currently out for consultation, closing on Monday 25 November. The proposals were discussed at the last Tower Hamlets Wheelers meeting, and the consensus was that they were excellent – perhaps some of the best plans the borough has ever put forward – and will be a real game-changer for active travel in the area. We therefore suggest that you tick “very supportive” in relation to every proposal in the consultation (scroll right down to the bottom of the page to find the questionnaire) – and then get all your friends and family in the area to do the same.

Make the scheme even better

Although the scheme is very good, there are several areas where it could be made even better. If you have time, please use the free text boxes to ask for the following:

• Throughout: ask for many more bike hangars to be installed (we suggest at least one per street), and also that all existing and proposed one-way streets will permit contraflow cycling.
• Scheme 1: ask for Redchurch Street to be made a no-through road, similarly to what is proposed for Old Nichol Street just to the north (it is currently real rat run territory).
• Scheme 2: the proposals leave open a potential eastbound rat-run via Columbia Road and Ropley Street (or possibly Ravenscroft Street). Drivers’ sat navs may tell them to use this route in order to avoid the traffic lights on Hackney Road. We suggest asking that the stretch of Columbia Road east of its junction with Gosset Street be made walking/cycling only for much of the day (similarly to Orford Road and Francis Road in Waltham Forest), which’d remove this rat run. Failing that, Ravenscroft Street, Ezra Street, Shipton Street and Ropley Street should be made no-through roads.
• Scheme 5: relating to an existing scheme for this area, ask that Cheshire Street/Dunbridge Street be made a no-through road.

If you are interested in more of the details of the scheme, there is some discussion on Cyclescape. But the most important thing is that as many people as possible fill in the consultation with supportive responses. Please do share as widely as you can.