Sunday 27 March 2011

New southbound cycle lane on Chelsea bridge

As part of the works for Cycle 'Super' Highway 8, Transport for London are proposing to introduce a mandatory southbound cycle lane on the bridge itself leading into a 2 metre wide advisory cycle and at the Wandsworth end.

The general nature and effect of the Order will be to facilitate the passage on the road of cycle traffic by introducing a new cycle lane on Chelsea Bridge in the London Borough of Wandsworth. 
The section of Chelsea Bridge that would be affected by the Order extends southwards from the borough boundaries of Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea on Chelsea Bridge. The cycle lane would be 2-metres wide measured from the pedestrian footway kerb edge into the carriageway parallel to the bridge wall on the east side to a point opposite the middle of the junction of Queenstown Road and Carriageway Drive North, 21metres short of the pedestrian crossing on the southbound carriageway.

We propose to support this proposal, but will note that the accompanying plans show only a 1.5 m lane whilst the text of the traffic order properly states that the lane should be 2m wide.  See the plans here.
Before you ask, there are no proposals to allow 'shared use' cycling on the wide pavements on either side of this bridge because of Kensington and Chelsea Council have totally opposed any suggestions and regularly set the police to fine cyclists on the pavement.   Please contact the leader of that Council if you wish to complain.

Our response is shown as a comment.

1 comment:

  1. Here is the response we sent to TfL to meet their deadline:

    Thank you for sending details of this Traffic order for consultation by Wandsworth Cycling Campaign. Our response is as follows:

    1. On a general point we note that you sent the consultation to us by e-mail on the 17th of March requesting a response to have reached you by 31 March. It is our view that such a short (13 day) response time is unacceptable and is in breach of the Voluntary Sector Compact. We are all volunteers with busy jobs and lives and are responding to your plans in our spare time. I ask for an assurance from TfL that future consultations be sent with a reasonable time for response from community groups.

    2. We support the proposals as set out in the draft Traffic Order you sent for a 2-metre wide advisory cycle lane. However, we note that the plans sent with the text show a lane of 1.5 metre width for both the southbound mandatory cycle lane on the bridge and the advisory continuation that is the subject of this Traffic order. We ask that the plans are corrected before work begins and that you confirm to us that this has been done, and send us the revised plans.

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