We ask the tricky questions so you don’t have to. (No.3) Updated

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Following a conversation on Twitter, triggered by @twickerman, we wrote to ask Richmond Council why there’s a roadworks sign here. As Twickerman observed, it’s dangerous for cyclists, and it’s not even a particularly important notification, either.

So we asked the council to explain it. Here’s their letter:

Dear …

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the works currently ongoing in Twickenham Town Centre and in particular the Men at Work “End” sign.I will ask my Engineer to inspect the works to ensure it is correct and appropriately placed.

Unfortunately, removal of this sign is not possible as road works have to be signed and guarded to an acceptable level (Traffic Signs manual Chapter 8), failure to comply could lead to prosecution.I trust this answers your enquiry but please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information regarding these works.

Regards
… Senior Engineer, Highways and TransportEnvironment Directorate

(You can read the Traffic Signs Manual here. If you do, don’t forget to read this bit:
“O3.14.6 Where there is cycle provision, such as cycle lanes or tracks, efforts should be made to keep these open or to provide an acceptable alternative during the road works. They should not be blocked by signs, debris, plant etc.”)

To be honest, we didn’t think this particularly satisfactory. Given how much traffic can be pushed through this area at peak times, it seems woefully inappropriate to place signs like this. So we’ve written back to them, asking for some more details about what they normally do to ensure signs and appropriately placed (or at least more appropriately than this!).

Since then, we’ve been told of a second sign, on the opposite side:
We’ll keep on at the council to find out what’s going on here: it seems madness that one can claim fear of prosecution for putting signs in places that make cycling more dangerous and unpleasant than it already is!

And if you look at what happens in other countries, or even elsewhere in London, it isn’t impossible to think ahead and accommodate all road users when planning road works.

If you see something like this, let us know, and use Richmond Council’s fault reports page.

Update

The council has advised us over Twitter that the very poor signage in Twickenham will be fixed today, so credit to them for some fairly swift action. You can see the full thread on Twitter here.

Consultation Watch – Elsinore Way / A316

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TfL would like to make it a bit more grim for cycling and walking along the south side of the A316 apparently. (Consultation here, deadline to respond Friday 21 June.)

This is where the A316 runs by a little road called Elsinore Way

And, basically, they’re going to remove part of the cycle lane and pavement, make you jink to the right, beside the tree, then jink back out after the junction. (Here’s their PDF of the plan.)

You can view our initial view of the plan, and another local view on Cyclescape, here. We think this plan is a bad idea for a number of reasons, and we’d like you to get in touch with TfL (fill in the form or email them at STEngagement@tfl.gov.uk) to ask them to reconsider.

Key points you might want to make:

1. The fact that poor driving means people are over-running the kerb is not a reason to change the road layout.

2. This new design brings cyclists and pedestrians into serious conflict on what would otherwise by a reasonably quick, simple route for both.

3. Making it wider just invites people to take the junction faster – that can’t be a good thing when children could be happily running home from school down here. (Let alone anyone else using the pavement.)

4. There’s a perfectly simple, cheap solution: mark the eastbound side (FOUR LANES WIDE at this point) for longer vehicles to take a wider turning, using signs or road markings.

So check it out on Cyclescape, and then please tell TfL you’d rather not have another cycling facility spoiled for the sake of a few drivers who struggle to manage their vehicles. Deadline to respond is Friday 21 June.

River Crane Consultation

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Outside of the borough (it’s a Hounslow consultation) but one which affects a route used by many local people to walk and cycle along.

River Crane Railway Underpass Closure Consultation - Deadline Sunday 9 June

Consultation proposals - click for full document

The river crane is hidden gem in our borough and beyond (and this article about its history is fascinating) and has the potential to provide a quiet off road route all the way from Twickenham to Hanworth Park, Bedfont Lakes and even to Heathrow Airport as part of Hounslow Council’s exciting Greenway proposals. Friends of the River Crane (FORCE) have been really effective in recognising the potential of this area and really opening it up for everyone to enjoy. The London Green Grid 2012 also identified the creation of Crane Riverside Park as “a continuous, accessible link between Hounslow Heath & Twickenham Station”.

There are known issues with illegal motorbike use on the site of the former Feltham Marshalling Yards and surrounding open land and Hounslow Council is proposing to tackle the problem by closing off access along the Crane valley path.

Access under the railway proposed for closure blocking a vital link

Along with FORCE we have several concerns about these proposals:

  • This is an important link for pedestrians and cyclists to get past the railway line
  • New cycle paths are proposed for the adjacent open spaces linking de Brome Fields and Pevensey Nature reserve with Hanworth Park and Crane Park and this will be an important link to them
  • It conflicts with the current application to register a footpath through the site
  • It will not be effective in keeping out motorbikes (6 were observed coming through the gate at Pevensey Road in a 4 hour period in January)
  • Once it is closed it will be difficult to open it up again

We support FORCE’s approach of working to engage with local people who live in the area around Pevensey Road. A more effective method of dealing with the problem of motorcycles is to make the open space more attractive to local people so that they use it. So rather than close this route, developing a cycle path through to Feltham Marshalling Yards to join up with sites upstream would also help with this.

In addition, the council have already agreed to improvements to fencing and providing quad bikes to police officers to patrol the area (meeting minutes) so closure of this key path seems over the top.

A diagram is available showing the proposals – River Crane Consultation Document

We would ask you to take 2 minutes to contact the council to object to the closure of this vital link and highlight the additional considerations we’ve listed above along with any concerns of your own. Responses to the consultation are to be sent by email to leisure@hounslow.gov.uk. Do copy us on info@richmondlcc.co.uk so we can have an idea of how many people have contacted the council. We will also be sending a submission from RCC. Deadline is Sunday 9 June.

Review of Cycle Parking at Railway Stations

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Unbelievably, it is now three years since our last audit of cycle parking provision at the 14 railway stations in the borough. These two quotes from the DfT’s 2009 Better Rail Stations report (PDF) are as applicable now as then:

“Although half the nation owns a bicycle and 60% live within a 15-minute ride of a station, only 2% of passengers currently use their cycle to access the local station.”
Source – Dft

Compare this to the Netherlands where:

“All major stations in Holland provide extensive cycle parking, usually based around a cycle hub which also offers additional secure storage for a fee of about £1 a day, together with repairs and cycle hire for as little as £3 a day. A typical Dutch intercity station would store 4,000 cycles, but at Leiden this rises to 9,000 and the plan is to more than double this to 22,000 in the near future.” Source – Dft

Although a lot has changed since 2010, we are a long way from meeting the aspirations from that report (in fact, when you look at the National Rail website cycle section, it’s more about telling you what you can’t do – cycling and parking isn’t even mentioned under ‘Getting to and from the Station’ – see Kew Gardens example). South West Trains have been rolling out secure compounds with swipe card access at a number of stations and changes to Richmond railway station have removed the railings that were previously used by many. It is therefore a good time to carry out a new audit to update the information we have and to identify where changes are needed. Two recent examples illustrate this:

Lack of cycle parking space at Kew Gardens railway station

At Kew Gardens station, we were recently alerted by a local resident that cycle parking demand continues to outstrip supply and it is often impossible to find a space, leading to missed trains. Even two years ago we found this to be the case, with demand outstripping supply by nearly 50%. With parking provision for only 34 bikes, it is well short of the 250 spaces that would be needed to meet the DfT’s only target of 5% of passengers arriving by bicycle. Kew Gardens station is managed by London Underground – we’re asking everyone to raise it via their online form and to contact London Assembly Members – Tony Arbour (GLA Member for the area tony.arbour@london.gov.uk ) and Caroline Pidgeon (GLA Member for Transport – caroline.pidgeon@london.gov.uk) and also the Council’s Cycling Champion, Cllr Harborne (Cllr.KHarborne@richmond.gov.uk), to make the push for additional parking at this and other stations where needed (cc us in so we have a record)

New secure parking at Hampton station

Existing cycle parking marked for removal at Hampton Station

Narrow access along platform to Hampton secure compound

At Hampton station we were notified by a regular user of the station that South West Trains are taking out all existing parking provision and replacing it with a single secure parking compound on one platform only.

The secure parking is welcome and it is great to see SWT extend it to more stations but not everyone wants to use it (particularly if their bike is of low value), nor is it convenient if it is only on one platform and you’re rushing to catch a train on the other one.

Additionally, since the new enclosed racks at the west end of Platform 1 are to be the only racks, then ALL cyclists, on entering the station, will be forced along about 3 or 4 metres of the very narrowest part of the platform, conflicting with passengers standing there and cyclists coming the other way, creating safety problems that currently do not occur.

Cycle parking at Hampton station is currently at over 100% capacity – there is no reason why the existing provision can’t be kept to supplement the secure compound – as is the case at many stations with secure compounds e.g. Twickenham.

We have raised this issue with SWT and we encourage all of you who use this station to email their Customer Relations team: customerrelations@swtrains.co.uk

We know there are many more issues out there, so we’re asking for volunteers to review each of the 14 borough stations – counting up current racks and how many are occupied, and noting down any issues, such as poorly installed stands (e.g. too close), poor lighting, poor access. If you would like to join in, email us at info@richmondlcc.co.uk with which station you’re interested in and we’ll pass on some guidance and a simple one pager to fill in when you carry out your audit (like this example). We plan to complete this by end of June.

Reporting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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We seem to be going through a real time of change for cycling in the UK. In March, Mayor Boris Johnson launched The Mayor’s Vision for Cycling in London and in April the House of Commons inquiry published the Get Britain Cycling report. Along with The Times’s Cities Safe for Cycling campaign, you’d be forgiven for thinking the hard work was done. Or not.  As seasoned campaigner David Hembrow points out – now is the time for serious campaigning to start.  After all we have had already had a National Cycling Strategy (1996), a National Cycle Plan for England (2010), and the London Cycle Network come and go – with precious little to show for it… except examples such as this (more here):

A local farcility

Now we have a real opportunity to influence decision makers in the council and TfL. Outer London boroughs are being invited to bid to be ‘mini-Hollands’ as part of the Mayor’s cycling vision and the council will soon be developing it’s next Local Implementation Plans (LIP) outlining how they will implement TfL’s transport policy, including on cycling, in the borough. (this will be LIP3 – LIP2 is on LBRuT’s website, and here is the submission we made to the LIP2 consultation)

So where do you and I and RCC fit into this? We’ve previously used our ‘Veloteers’ to be our eyes and ears on the ground across the borough, and it has worked to good effect in the Twickenham town centre proposals and other recent consultations. But now we need to up our game.  As the actual users of the cycling infrastructure in the borough, we have the knowledge of where changes need to be made – our challenge is to gather this knowledge and use it to influence the decision makers.

Cyclescape in Action - Click on the picture to see more details on this example

To do this in a more effective way, we are adopting an online campaigning tool called Cyclescape (richmondlcc.cyclescape.org), developed by the sample people who brought you the Cyclestreets route planner (richmond.cyclestreets.net). This simple map based tool allows issues to be logged and collated in a much more powerful and structured way than before. (You can read more about it here). It allows us to engage with the council and TfL with a structured body of evidence cataloguing the issues and constraints that need to be addressed if we are to truly “get Richmond cycling”. But first we need everyone to start logging issues and suggestions for improvements.

So how do you get involved? Cyclescape is a very simple tool and it works like this:

  1. Sign up for a Cyclescape account – its free! (Link to sign up)
  2. Have a look through the existing issues – you can leave a comment with your own observations against them (Example of a discussion of an issue involving a cycle lane)
  3. Log a new issue – add a photo (optional – but so helpful if you do) and a description of why it’s a problem. (Link to log an issue)

When anyone logs a new issue in the Richmond Upon Thames borough, we at RCC get an email notification. We will confirm back to you that we have seen your issue (as most of us have day jobs, we aim to do this within two weeks). We will continually collate these issues and feed them into our ongoing discussions with the council and TfL. You can also set your preferences to be notified of any issues raised in your particular area of interest.

We are asking everyone to focus on the following priority areas which we’ve selected to be in alignment with the Mayor’s Cycling Vision:
  1. Safety issues across the borough (e.g. pinch points, dangerous junctions, parking in cycle lanes)
  2. Examples of poor infrastructure (e.g. poorly designed cycle lanes or shared use paths)
  3. Opportunities to improve permeability and interconnecting “Quiet Ways” via:
    1. Having contraflows in one way streets
    2. Opening up paths to shared use
    3. Creating new cycle tracks
    4. Dealing with other obstructions and issues
  4. Bicycle parking (either insufficient or not present)
  5. Signage (where signage for key routes is poor or missing or cyclist dismount signs where not warranted)

We cannot promise that the issue you raise will be immediately addressed.  What it will do is build the case for change. For example, you can send a link relating to a particular issue to your local councillor. It will allow us to maintain a history of what has been said and done in respect of each item.

Better by Bike – Hiring a Bicycle

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If you are visiting the borough as a tourist, or if you have friends come to stay, what better way to see the borough than by bicycle. As part of our Better by Bike series we’ve collated a list of places where you can hire a bicycle in the borough. Get in touch via our Contact Form if you know of somewhere that we’ve missed.

Action Bikes, Sheen and Whitton
Two stores in the borough, East Sheen (Map Link) and Whitton (Map Link)
Website - https://www.actionbikes.co.uk/hire-bikes/

They have hybrids and Bromptons for hire. They also have road bikes, useful if you want to do some laps of Richmond Park or further afield. The hire bikes are kept at Victoria, but with prior notice they can get them to their Sheen or Whitton shops.

Blazing Saddles, Richmond
Next to Richmond Bridge – (Map Link)
Website - http://blazingsaddlesbikehire.com

They have front suspension mountain bikes in a range of sizes

Park Cycle, Richmond Park

Located at the Roehampton Gate car park (Map Link)
Website - http://www.parkcycle.co.uk/

As well as adult trail bikes they also have children’s bikes, children’s trailers and tag-alongs for very small children and baby seats (which attach to the adult bikes). They even have tandems for hire if you fancy a try. If you fancy emulating Bradley Wiggins, they have road bikes as well.

Richmond Cycles, East Twickenham
Next to Richmond Bridge – (Map Link)
Website - http://www.richmond-cycles.com/content/cycle_hire_in_richmond.php

They have mountain bikes (29ers, so an opportunity to try the different wheel size) and hybrid bikes for hire.

Richmond Station Cycle Hire
Located within Richmond railway station, on the lower (platform) level – (Map Link)
Website - http://richmondcyclecentre.co.uk/

They have a selection of hybrids as well as Bromptons available to hire, useful if you want to try one before you buy.

For some inspiration on routes to try beyond the well ridden trails of Richmond Park and along the Thames, have a look at our list of over 90 routes to try out.

There is also information available on the council’s tourism site.

Richmond Rides for Everyone: Saturday 18th May – Isabella Plantation

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No takers ! – Too obvious a ride ? Cyclists don’t like flowers ?

Any ideas for short rides that would be useful please let me know.

Paul

Meet Strawberry Hill Station 10.15 am. We cross the refurbished Teddington lock footbridge and head up into Richmond Park. After a quick look at the renewals at Isabella Plantation we move on to the refreshment stall for coffee (weather permitting) before descending to Kingston Gate and making our way home by the riverside. Only about 8 miles so the hill up into the park can be taken gently/walked.

Route

please contact rides@richmondlcc.co.uk

Is that how you lock your bike??

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Have you had your bike tea leafed yet? Because the downside of being a borough where lots of people cycle is that there’s lots of bikes being stolen.

So here’s some key tips from the Police who attended the Cycling Liaison Group. You’ve probably heard a lot of these before, but we were surprised at how some obvious ones are still being ignored by locals.

  • Lock it to something solid 
  • Lock it through the frame
  • Spend some money on your lock. You don’t need to spend the earth on it, but you can be fairly sure that if you spend less than £20 on it, it probably won’t do a very good job for you
  • Lock it to a proper stand – British Transport Police told us that more bikes are stolen from ‘ad-hoc’ locking places like railings, than proper stands.

And, ideally, use two locks. This might be a bit of a pain, but putting two locks on a bike and following the above rules is really the best way to go about making sure no-one nicks your wheels. We’ve collated lots of advice on trying to avoid becoming another theft statistic on our bike security page.

Here’s Carlton Reid (from BikeBiz) with a video outlining all the key tips.

And finally, don’t give up hope! London Cyclist has some tips on looking for a lost bike

Rides for Explorers 5th May – Windsor Great Park and Chobham

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Meet Twickenham Riverside 10.30. We head up the Crane then some unavoidable suburbia across Shortwood common into Staines.  After going through Egham we climb to Englefield Green for lunch at  the Sun Inn. We then enjoy the traffic free roads across Windsor Great Park and make our way through Sunningdale and Chobham Common descending to Chertsey to return along the Thames. About 37 hilly but scenic miles.

 

A healthy eighteen of us turned up in Twickenham, including a lady and her grandson , and enjoyed a ride in  excellent conditions. A fitter group detached themselves occasionally for extra miles which was a good solution to varying levels of riding. Given the numbers we avoided the awkward gates to Shortwood Common at the expense of a bit of main road. We tried the NCR 4 through Staines but were unimpressed.

You can find a route for the ride here - Route