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A string of new ‘Quietway’ cycling routes have been announced for outer London, alongside nine major projects to overcome barriers to suburban cycling.
Included in the plans is substantial funding set aside for the redesign of Twickenham, and Ealing town centres; a new bike crossing of the North Circular; a new bike superhub at Abbey Wood station and better links to Thamesmead; a new bike route along the A316 in south-west London; the Hounslow and Hammersmith & Fulham sections of Cycle Superhighway 9 and a superhighway type scheme in Barking. All these projects were proposed by the boroughs concerned as part of their mini-Holland bids last year.
The Mayor’s Cycling Commissioner, Andrew Gilligan, has now also written to all London boroughs committing to funding the second phase of Quietways.
Work is set to start shortly on improvements to the Oval junction, in south London – the first of 33 major junctions set for review. Around £300 million will be spent on upgrading these locations, an average of £9 million per junction. This will be funded through the £100 million Better Junctions budget. Segregated tracks are due to be installed at Oval as part of improvements to CS7.
Revamped plans for Oval, Aldgate, Tower Hill, Blackfriars, Elephant & Castle, Parliament Square, and Lancaster Gate are now all open for public consultation.
Four junctions in the area will also be radically redesigned to include new low-level signals, built specifically at the height of cyclists to help provide an early start for cyclists. Innovative ‘hold left turn’ and ‘two stage’ right turns for cyclists will also be delivered to further reduce conflict with vehicles. The plans were consulted on in July and August. Seventy-nine per cent of those who replied expressed support for the proposals.
More than 2,400 cyclists an hour now use CS7 during morning and evening peaks.
Almost a third of the proposals are expected to be delivered by 2016.
Substantial funding is set aside to develop the “big-ticket” items in eight boroughs and are:
– Transformation of Ealing town centre to make it more welcoming to cyclists.
– Transformation of Twickenham town centre to make it more welcoming to cyclists.
– Segregated cycle route along part of A316.
– Cycle Superhighway 9 in Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.
– New cycle crossings of the A406 North Circular Road at Neasden and near Ilford, the latter subject to agreement with LB Redbridge.
– New cycle superhub at Abbey Wood station and better links from there to Thamesmead.
Quietways are defined as direct, low-intervention routes on low-traffic side streets, with interventions (such as segregation and junction improvements) where they have to use busier roads.
