Vision for Cycling - view from east London
We had a quick look in the Vision for Cycling in London to see what's in it for east London. Published in early March the Mayor of London's document is described by LCC as, "one of the most ambitious plans to promote cycling ever produced by a major UK political leader".
Tower Hamlets has two Cycle Superhighways, major barriers to continuous cycling journeys, busy towpaths and a great deal of London's lorry traffic on busy main roads. How will the specifics affect us?
Johnson intends to double cycling over the next ten years. Cycling journeys will be delivered on a 'tube network for the bike', a linked system across London of Superhighways for fast commuting traffic on main roads and Quietways for more leisurely journeys on a network of less busy roads and parks. The 'bike Crossrail', an east-west segregated highway from Barking to west London linked to local routes, will be delivered by 2016.
The existing CS will be 'substantially' improved and some rerouted onto roads 'more easily convertible into genuinely high-quality cycle routes'. The document promises that, 'timid, half-hearted improvements are out we will do things at least adequately, or not at all.'
The new segregated east-west route will link to CS3 at Tower Gateway (from Victoria Embankment and through the City). We welcome that Tower gyratory will be tackled but are concerned that CS3 from Tower Gateway to Poplar is described as 'one of the most successful stretches' of a superhighway. We need to make sure that it gets the improvement it needs for cyclists and pedestrians through a permeability scheme. Such schemes are recognised elsewhere in the document as essential for the delivery of the 'Quietways'. 'Quietway CS3' will be our demand.
Safety aspects. This document stresses that cycling is a safe activity but that serious incidents and deaths 'happen disproportionately'. At busy junctions and contact with lorries, hence the Mayor's safety strategy focuses on these points.
"Better Junctions" - there is a committment to improve financial resources for the junction review programme and a focus on the worst junctions. Tower and Aldgate will be tackled in the next three years. Better Junctions design options are currently on the table for Aldgate gyratory and Whitechapel High Street (western end) and may therefore go back to the drawing board. There is specific mention of Mile End Road/Burdett Road junction as one of the current schemes to be reworked as it doesn't meet the ambitions set by the Mayor's 'vision'.
Amongst a raft of measures for safer lorries and vans, the Mayor commits to participation in the comprehensive review established by British Cycling "of how the criminal justice system functions when people are hurt and killed on the roads". We have seen how east London cyclists such as Svitlana Tereschenko and Mary Bower were let down by the judicial process and welcome this review.
The Mayor recognises the benefits of 20mph limits on TLRN roads but intends to implement on a case-by-case basis. We welcome the introduction of "major safety education campaigns, ...which will address road user behaviour and encourage Londoners to share the road safely".
As a borough with a substantial towpath system we note the Mayor's intention to work with Canal & River Trust to invest in towpaths, so that less crowded stretches can be used as 'Quietways' or by creating additional parallel routes to lessen commuting cycle use.
Olympic Park has a very small mention as one of the new schemes the Mayor aims to improve by working in partnership.
Boris Johnson also said in his Vision for Cycling: “We will trial allowing bikes off-peak on the DLR” – after years of campaigning to allow this by politicians and cycling groups.
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