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Popular London bike route to double in capacity for year-long trial

Camden Council is replacing a lane of car traffic with a bike lane for the trial, starting next month

One of London's earliest protected bike routes will be doubled in width for a year from November, replacing a lane of motor traffic.

The popular East-West commuter route runs from Tottenham Court Road past Gower Street along Torrington Place and Tavistock Place, and is currently served by a narrow two-way bike lane protected by a concrete kerb.

Although 43% of those using the road are currently cyclists, bike infrastructure claims just 13% of road space, while motor traffic, used by 16% of those using the route, gets 43% of the road space. The new configuration will give cyclists 35% of the space and motor vehicles 21%.

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Camden Council says: "The number of cyclists has grown to a point where the existing cycle track does not provide sufficient space and also makes it difficult to safely overtake."

"The route suffers from a poor casualty record, particularly due to collisions between motor vehicles and both cyclists and pedestrians.

"Because of the width of the road it is not possible to provide more space for walking and cycling without significantly reducing the space available for motor traffic. The experimental trial gives the opportunity to test a potential solution to these issues."

 

Torrington Place infographic.jpg

Infographic showing allocation of road space before and during the trial, and current usage

The London Cycling Campaign's Charlie Lloyd says the plans will combat rat running, which was predicted to increase as part of the West End Project, where private motor traffic will be banned from Tottenham Court Road for much of the day.

Lloyd said: "We are very positive about Tavistock Place and what [Camden Council] are doing. It links to the what they're doing on the Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street.

He said by making motor traffic one-way, which changes direction part way along the route, the high volume of rat running traffic will be removed.

Lloyd said the London Cycling Campaign would prefer modal filtering - where junctions are blocked to motor traffic but cycling traffic permitted. However, he says, the new bike lane and one-way motor traffic, with banned turns to protect cyclists, represents a significant improvement.

He said: "We would prefer a filtering [plan] that would stop all through traffic, but this calms down the junctions on Tottenham Court Road and on Gower Street and on Gordon Square, so effectively takes the rat running motor traffic. So they aren't there but they are 80% there."

Bike lanes will be protected from one-way traffic by what Camden Council describes as "intermittent lightweight barriers". Work to change the street configuration will take place between 6-23rd November, during which cyclists will be directed into the new lane as required.

It is estimated 50,000-60,000 students are based at the University of London Bloomsbury campus, generating a high number of walking and cycling journeys. UCL and SOAS university campuses are also situated along the route. 

You can read more about the plans on Camden Council's website.

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7 comments

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alotronic | 8 years ago
0 likes

Suicide alley I used to call it. I ended up riding on Euston Road as it felt safer! 

It does highlight a very interesting thing about comutter traffic on bikes. People assume is all doing 10-12mph but in fact it's anything from 8 to 20+. This differential (and blinding impatience of some cyclists) made this a nightmare in it's current guise. 

CS3 I call 'comitting suicide 3'.

You can see I have a good opinion of these facilities  3

So - nice work Camden, worth a try that's for sure.

 

Avatar
congokid | 8 years ago
3 likes

I can't wait to start using this improved route. I regularly travel between Chancery Lane and Marylebone and though I like the fact the route is there, the downsides are the narrow lanes, the high chance of a head on collision with someone inattentive coming the other way, long single file queues at junction lights during peak times and the high kerbs that reduce the lane's usable width even further. And the fact it disappears at Westminster.

I don't mind being overtaken by anyone going faster - I usually pootle along in my office clothes - but it would be better if they had more clearance. Most of the Strava crew tend to use the road anyway, which isn't often busy as the data suggest.

Avatar
Dnnnnnn replied to congokid | 8 years ago
1 like

congokid wrote:

I can't wait to start using this improved route. I regularly travel between Chancery Lane and Marylebone and though I like the fact the route is there, the downsides are the narrow lanes, the high chance of a head on collision with someone inattentive coming the other way, long single file queues at junction lights during peak times and the high kerbs that reduce the lane's usable width even further. And the fact it disappears at Westminster.

I don't mind being overtaken by anyone going faster - I usually pootle along in my office clothes - but it would be better if they had more clearance. Most of the Strava crew tend to use the road anyway, which isn't often busy as the data suggest.

 

Agreed. It's a good example of where 'build it and they will come' has worked to generate demand to the point that it needs to be upgraded.

As a general point, the kind of narrow two-way route currently provided really isn't ideal, and is quite stressful during busy times with oncoming cyclists passing very close while forward visibility is very limited by having to be very directly in line with the rider in front. CS3 from Tower Hill towards Canaary Wharf is also bad in this regard.

Avatar
zanf | 8 years ago
8 likes

This is will be good, and bravo to Camden for finally reallocating road space away from vehicles.

This cycle way currently is a nightmare. My GF lives on it and you have to negotiate a weird switch [GMaps link] then face a narrow two way lane that at rush hour is hugely oversubscribed, leaving you very little place to overtake.

That is combined with vehicles that will nose out of junctions, like this one [another GMaps link] and block the cycle way.

When it gets the other side of Tottenham Court Road, it is even worse, where you are expected to negotiate a horrible tight curve [one final GMaps link] that floods (more so with the seasonal leaf fall).

 

Avatar
P3t3 replied to zanf | 8 years ago
0 likes

zanf wrote:

My GF lives on it and you have to negotiate a weird switch [GMaps link]

what the hell is that!?  I can't get my head around what its for.... something is missing in that design somehwere!

Avatar
mwhittle91 replied to P3t3 | 8 years ago
0 likes

P3t3 wrote:

zanf wrote:

My GF lives on it and you have to negotiate a weird switch [GMaps link]

what the hell is that!?  I can't get my head around what its for.... something is missing in that design somehwere!

 

Looks like its to allow people to turn right when approaching the lights, if they carried on down the path the kerb would cause them to jump out of the path at a dangerous angle. This design allows them to filter more easily it would seem.

Avatar
a1white replied to zanf | 8 years ago
0 likes

zanf wrote:

 

When it gets the other side of Tottenham Court Road, it is even worse, where you are expected to negotiate a horrible tight curve [one final GMaps link] that floods (more so with the seasonal leaf fall).

 

 

 

Yes, but as you can see from the Gmaps link the majority of the time this cycle path is (illegally) blocked by parked vehicles anyway. The recent "crackdown" on this, by the police, doesn't seem to have achieved anything.

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