hfcyclists
Ride with Councillors

LCC CYCLE RIDE WITH LBHF COUNCILLORS, THURSDAY 28 JUNE 2012, 9.30am.

PRESENT
Cllr Nick Botterill, Leader of LBHF [NB]
Cllr Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, Cabinet Member for Transport and Technical Services, LBHF [VB-F]
Chris Bainbridge, Head of Transport Planning, LBHF [CB]
Charles Barraball, LCC board member, co-ordinator Merton LCC [CharlesB]
Ruth Mayorcas, Hounslow LCC [RM]
John Griffiths, Chair hfcyclists, LCC [JG]
Susie Gretz, hfcyclists LCC
Janusz Carmello, hfcyclists, LCC
Jonathon Wright, hfcyclists, LCC

APOLOGIES
Alexis Vergez, Simon Maddison, form Hfcyclists, LCC, who had hoped to come but prevented by last minute work commitments.

NOTES
Written by JG, and amended and approved by CB, NB and VB-F.

SOME POSITION STATEMENTS MADE AT VARIOUS TIMES

VB-F : I am grateful for the opportunity to ride with you this morning and share your concerns about cyclists' safety. This is a matter which the Council takes very seriously. I cycle and it is a much more reliable way of travel than by car. I can be sure of turning up at a meeting on time. Whereas by car the journey from Fulham to the Town Hall may take 10 minutes, may take 30 minutes

NB I am pleased to listen to you. But you are a campaign group. I have to weigh up all sides of the argument, not just cyclists but pedestrians and vehicular traffic in general.

RM It is important to consider road design and speed limits in terms of parents with children who want to cycle, and in terms of all the people who would cycle if the felt it was safer. There is a large number of potential cyclists who do not cycle because the road conditions are designed for fast moving motorised vehicles.

A lot of cars at this time of day are carrying just one person. There should be far fewer cars and more cyclists.

CharlesB A lot of car journeys are just with one person and are less than 2.5miles. There should be encouragement to get these people to cycle - for many reasons, including congestion, pollution, and health.

KING STREET CONTRAFLOW AT MACBETH STREET

LCC A gap which allowed a connection was closed several years ago. It was an important connection to Macbeth st.

CB It was closed as the elephant feet markings did not conform with regulations. We have had no complaints about this, but we can look at it again.

LEAMORE STREET junction with KINGS STREET.

LCC This junction very dangerous as drivers emerging from Leamore street are looking out for westbound vehicles on King St and miss cyclists on eastbound contraflow.

CB We have drawn up a scheme to improve the signing here and intend to implement it in the next 5-6 weeks.

LCC Presently designed as a high speed junction for large vehicles with only a yield sign. Suggest STOP sign on Leamore street. Make junction a tighter T-junction by extending the contraflow further up to the junction so the cycle lane is more visible.

NB The traffic has to move up to the cycle lane before it can see if King Street is clear. And then the driver is looking to his left.

CYCLE CROSSING TO BRIDGE AVENUE,

LCC There is confusion as to whom the red signal is for. It could have a cycle sign on it.

BRIDGE AVENUE
LCC This could be made 2-way for cyclists.

CB We have already had a request for that. So it is in the pipeline for consideration. It would require some entry treatment at the A4 end.

NB It would seem a direct route to King Street, instead of going around this small one way system. Could s106 money from Hammersmith Grove be spent on this. I think the s106 specification said "improvements to the infrastructure in the area"

CharlesB They have already made many one-way roads into 2-way for cyclists in K&C and Camden

CYCLE SUPERHIGHWAY 9 [CSH9]

JG The route of this comes from the town hall and goes along the A4 pavement. It then uses this pair of toucan crossings to connect to a route to the Apollo.

CB The design work for this is on hold until TfL have had a review of the Bow Roundabout, where there were two fatalities recently. However, we are expecting TfL to ask us to restart the design work any time now.

RM Chris Calvi-Freeman [Head of Transport LB Hounslow] holds meetings with us each month on the progress of the design..

JG I saw him last week at the sunset ride to Richmond, and he said that Hounslow Council had just bought some frontage at Brentford that allowed a part of the route to go ahead.

On the subject of the CSH9 I think a large proportion of cyclists will continue to use Glenthorne rd / Beadon rd to get to Hammersmith Rd. I would like to see money spent on Beadon rd to give a clear path for cyclists through this bottleneck. Can CSH9 or s106 money from Hammersmith Grove be put to this use.?

BUS GATE

LCC When this was put in cyclists were taken off the carriageway to avoid the bus-gate, but there was no proper way for the cyclists to return. To return some sweep off the footway at the toucan, between the signal post and the kerb.

CB We realise that a dropped kerb will help reduce conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians and other cyclists at the puffin crossing and plan to install one in the current financial year.

NB The bus-gate was only put in a year or so ago, wasn't it?

TOUCAN AT WORLIDGE STREET.

JG This is a major route for cyclists coming over the bridge and wishing to turn right to join the CSH9. There is no protection for cyclists to make this turn. I would like to see this crossing altered in a significant way so that cyclists have a safe refuge whilst waiting to turn. Possibly by moving the crossing so it is opposite Worlidge street, or by using the island by the bus-gate as a refuge.

I had a site visit here with Slobodan Vuckovic of LBHF earlier this week to look at possibilities. A report of this meeting can be found here [www.hfcyclists.org.uk/HammersmithBridgeRoadCrossing.doc ]

Before any design work is done proper observations should be made at peak times to see what the cyclist and pedestrian flows and behaviour are. The cyclist flows may increase when CSH9 is constructed. The crossing should be designed with these figures and behaviours in mind.

I would like this link from the bridge to the CSH9 to be included in the CSH9 funding from TfL

CB We will try for that, but I think that TfL are trying to cut back on costs as much as possible and it is some distance from the main route. These measures would also be quite expensive .

JG Also. you have this beautiful avenue sweeping down past St Pauls Church and then the footway gets narrowed by the green area in front of the Queen Caroline estate. It would make sense in terms of the urban realm to transfer a strip of it to highways to make the approach to the bridge a bit grander. This would also allow the road to be widened a little if room was needed for a central refuge for cyclists.

NB That land is not really being used at the moment.

HAMMERSMITH BRIDGE

LCC Today the traffic was going very slowly, and there was not much of a problem cycling across. But at times it can be very scary and a lot of cyclists will not even attempt cycling on the carriageway of the bridge.

JG We would like to see a 20mph speed limit and cycle logos on the road to indicate to drivers that cyclists are likely to move out to take the lane at the narrow parts. And perhaps signs to indicate no overtaking of cyclists.

NB I can see that moving out at the narrow points is a problem. I would suggest bringing in the kerb side lane marking so that it is a straight line all the way across the bridge. The area outside this line where the bridge is wider could be hatched.

JG I think some consultants suggested that once.

NB If it was made 20mph, how do you envisage policing that? Cameras, humps? The police are not very keen on policing things?

LCC Not humps.

NB Can we have road markings, signs on the bridge.

CB There are no regulations about road markings. As to signs on the bridge, it is an historic monument. But then there are signs saying Weak Bridge.

NB How do you feel about making the footways shared use, instead of making changes to the roadway?

JG I don't see it as an alternative, both could be done. There are still going to be people to frightened to use the bridge whatever is done to the roadway. The problem is that with all these roundels on the footway, and signs saying no cycling, pedestrians become very righteous, and scream at cyclists when it is not crowded and the cyclist is being considerate.

CB We have successfully removed "no cycling signs" from the path beside the river. There are now discreet shared use signs, cycling with pedestrian priority. We still have some complaints, especially from the pubs, who object to high speed cyclists zooming through. But much less than before.

NB You always get a few inconsiderate ones like that.

LCC There are restricted sightlines on the footway. But a cyclist cycling takes up less room than one pushing a bike, and you won't have pedals knocking ankles.

CB Large numbers of cyclists do use the bridge at present. In our survey in July 2008, northbound in the morning peak hour (8-9am) there were 715 motor vehicles and 344 cyclists, so cyclists made up almost a third of the traffic. Over the 12 hours from 7am to 7pm, there were 8180 motor vehicles and 830 cyclists travelling north, so cyclists made up 10% of the total.

RUTLAND GROVE
LCC It is difficult to turn right out of Rutland Grove to go towards the bridge.

CB You could go onto the pavement and use the refuge, but that is not clear.

LCC You could have hatched markings in the roadway as a keep clear zone when the northbound traffic is stationary.

THANK YOU

LCC We were all very pleased with today's meeting. Thank you very much for coming. We hope to work closely with the Councillors in the future and hope some significant improvements for cycling will result from today's meeting.