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It’s good to talk: Council highway engineering schemes

26 January '12 by nick, under All Posts, Campaign, Consultation, Cycling Liaison Group Meeting.

We’ve found 2 more schemes proposed by the Council we’d welcome your thoughts on if you cycle there:

1. A310 Twickenham Road 

Click here to read the report to the Cabinet Member.

We were told, but not asked, about this at the last Cycling Liaison Group meeting.  The Council Officer said it wasn’t a scheme they consult on beause it’s classed as “maintenance” [See Section 5 of the report headed Consultation] 

This prompted discussion about consultation between Councillor HEAD [the current Mayor, the previous CLG Chair and a councillor for South Twickenham ward in which some of the work is taking place] and the Council Officer from Highways and Transport whose turn it was to represent the department at the meeting [remember the Council don't have a Cycling Officer and replaced the Cycling Single Point of Contact with a generic Highways and Transport e-mail address]

They agreed to carry on the discussion outside the meeting, which was a shame because we’d like to know what they decided.  Needless to say, we took the opportunity to re-start our long-standing argument about not being consulted on any schemes at all, maintenance or otherwise, which prompted the revealing reply ”but we don’t consult the AA“. 

However, we would like to comment on this scheme as it includes the words ”cycle lane improvements“. 

Councillor Elloy, the Opposition Spokesperson for Transport and a regular attendee at the CLG, suggested impact on cycling is included in the reports the Officers write for the Cabinet Member.

Now, interestingly, coincidence or otherwise, the recent Meadlands Primary School – Proposed Safety Measures  report to the Cabinet Member for Highways and Streetscene [click here to read it]

which should itself be read together with the Borough-wide review of School Keep Clear Markings [click here to read that, noting the emphasis on not losing parking spaces] 

includes in Section 6. Policy Implications and Considerations this statement:

“proposals are in line with the following policy statements from the Development Management Plan:

DM TP 7 – To maintain and improve conditions for cyclists, the Council will ensure that new development or schemes do not adversely impact on the cycling network or cyclists and provide appropriate cycle access and sufficient, secure cycle parking facilities.”

Now, this isn’t consultation, and we weren’t consulted, but at least it shows some awareness, and consideration, of people who cycle.  Why here?  We’re guessing it’s because National Cycle Network 4 passes by the school in that bit of the route between Lock Road and Riveride Drive to, or from, Teddington Lock.

2. Hampton Court roundabout does appear as a public consultation, but not one we’ve been told about, on the Council website [click here to see the plans, read the consultation letter and the map of who's consulted]

We talked about Hampton Court in a previous posting in March last year [click here] and in our view these plans fall way, way short of what needs doing here.

3. Kew Bridge 

Last, but not least, in a posting last July [click here] we highlighted the problem of uncertainty about cycling on the footways over Kew Bridge, so credit to TfL for proposing to make it very clear you can [click here] 

We’ll be interested to know what happens when you get here, particularly as the road on the left at the end of the footway is now the entrance to blocks of flats:

Hopefully, we can sort this out as part of the connection to the Cycle Superhighway.

By the way, TfL are doing this using the law we suggested the Council used to adopt the elevated section in The Terrace and Lonsdale Road but which they told us they wouldn’t because of maintenance costs.

E-mail your comments to: campaign@richmondlcc.co.uk

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21st January – Rides for Everybody – Chiswick House

21 January '12 by Paul Luton, under All Posts, Events, Ride Reports.

We meet a Mortlake station on the Green side at 10.30. A riverside ride takes us to the pioneering landscape gardens of Chiswick House and coffee. We then cross Kew Bridge and return to Mortlake along the South Bank of the Thames.

Four of us met at Mortlake and enjoyed a riverside ride to Chiswick.

During the coffee break another two riders, who had been uncertain of the start,  joined us and the six of us rode against the wind to Kew before being blown back along the towpath to Mortlake.

Notable – toucan crossings without visible permission to ride on the footway to be able to use them.

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Twickenham Town Centre

18 January '12 by nick, under All Posts, Campaign, Consultation.

 

If you live, work or spend time in Twickenham, including cycling to or through it, you’ll be interested in the public consultation on the Twickenham Area Action Plan that began on 16th December and runs to Friday 10th February.  We’ve talked about this in June during the 1st public consultation. 

Click here to go direct to the consultation page on the Council website and note the opportunities to talk to real people on:

  • Friday 27 January, 6pm to 8pm at the Atrium in the Civic Centre, Twickenham, and
  • Saturday 28 January,10am to 2pm in the same place.

Click here to have a look at the 99 page Action Plan, in particular Section 4 Transportation, pages 19 to 25, and Section 7 Area Specific Proposals, pages 38 to 67.

In preparing to respond to the consultation some RCC members spent time in Twickenham and have written about it.  Click here to read it and please e-mail your comments, suggestions etc etc, to campaign@richmondlcc.co.uk  as soon as you can so we can use all our knowledge and experience to fill out the Action Plan Consultation Response Form and submit it before 10th February. 

This form is 1 of 3 ways to respond to the consultation:

While this consultation gives us an opportunity to describe the challenges of cycling in Twickenham there are  similar challenges in Richmond and Teddington town centres we would like to tell the Council about.  So if you cycle to, or through, Richmond and Teddington e-mail campaign@richmondlcc.co.uk to help describe what it’s like for you.

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8th January 2012 – Rides for Explorers – Box Hill

08 January '12 by Paul Luton, under All Posts.

Our traditional antidote to Christmas Pudding.

We meet at 10.15 on Twickenham Embankment (by Eel Pie Bridge) and cycle through Horton Country Park and Ashsted Common to the cycle track through the Mole Gap. Then we go up Box Hill (not actually that steep) to be rewarded by a spectacular view and lunch at a friendly pub. The way back is mostly downhill so not too late back but do bring lights.

Wow – thirty one of us met up so thanks to Jonathan as back-marker for avoiding losses en route. The mild but cloudy weather still made the country park and common attractive and the view from Box Hill is always special. A shock however to find our usual accommodating pub converted into an up-market pub-restaurant. After a drink most of us pressed on to Headley Common where the refreshment van came up with a variety of snacks.

The reunited group then enjoyed the downhill ride with flashes of sunlight getting back to Twickenham by about 4.30.

Thanks to Andy for the route profile:

How many helpings of Christmas pudding make 2,076 C ?

Not certain how to play this route next year without a suitable sheltered lunch spot on the top. Any suggestions gratefully received.

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Cycling Liaison Group 9 January 2012

03 January '12 by nick, under All Posts, Campaign, Consultation, Cycling Liaison Group Meeting.

The next meeting of the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames Cycling Liaison Group is Monday 9th January 2012, 630pm, York House, Twickenham.

Click here to read the agenda which includes a report from the police on bike theft and an update on the Cycling Strategy.

Click here for our proposed agenda items which includes asking for an update on the 2nd Local Implementation Plan for Transport and for cycle collisions at identifiable locations, including Richmond, Teddington and Twickenham town centres, to be a priority for action.

Click here to read notes of the last meeting in October, including:

Item 8: Cross Deep, Twickenham

“LBRuT is working in partnership with LB Hounslow, LB Ealing and Royal Borough of Kingston regarding cycle direction signage for LCN Route 75.  The Heath Road / Cross Deep junction has been identified as an important junction on the route and the consultant’s proposals for how people follow route 75 and join / leave this route are awaited.”

Now interestingly, London Cycle Network Route 75, appears to run along Strawberry Vale, Cross Deep and London Road, including the long-standing problem of the roundabout on A316 Chertsey Road.  The route includes significant clusters of cycle collisions at the junctions with Ferry Road in Teddington, Waldegrave Road, Heath Road, King Street and Whitton Road so we’re very interested to know what the consultants have to say about “improvements to route continuity“ and how this fits with the Twickenham Area Action Plan and Item 6 on next week’s CLG agenda A310 Strawberry Vale and Twickenham Road Improvements Update

Item 5 20mph zones and limits confirms the requirement for at least 51% households to agree.  We note this is 1 of 4 issues the Liberal Democrat candidate for this year’s London Assembly elections is campaigning on.

Item 8 Adoption of the Elevated Footway in the Terrace includes the Council’s decision on our suggestion, which is ”Given the additional responsibility of taking on maintenance of this area, adoption was not possible.“  So, no change here then, which we think is a missed opportunity.

E-mail campaign@richmondlcc.co.uk with your thoughts, comments, questions, issues to raise: we’ve already been asked about the planned works on the footbridge at Teddington Railway Station.

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“War: what are we fighting for?”

13 December '11 by nick, under All Posts, Campaign, Consultation, Cycling Liaison Group Meeting.

Safe Cycling on a Cycle Lane in Richmond

Richmond Cycling Campaign, the local group of the London Cycling Campaign, exists to encourage people to cycle.  We do this in different ways:

  • organising two rides a month;
  • running maintenance workshops at different places in the Borough;
  • asking the two relevant highways authorities, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Transport for London, for safe and convenient routes to cycle in the Borough;
  • asking the Council for sufficient cycle parking to meet the need;
  • asking the police to work on the problem of bike theft.

No one of these activities is more important than another which is why we supported Sky Ride Local this year, funded by the Council in partnership with British Cycling [click here for their review of the 2011 programme] and why we wouldn’t argue with Councillor Harborne, our Borough Cycling Champion, about the value of “promoting an exciting programme of events to get more people cycling, more often, safely and for fun”.

But because no one of these activities is more important than another we think Councillor Harborne should be concerned when cycling is not safe and is not fun on the Borough’s roads.  That’s why we wrote to the Council, after Liverpool City Council and the local Primary Care Trust agreed to jointly fund 20mph schemes, to ask if:

“there are any comparable discussions going on between the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and the Primary Care Trust about the public health benefits of 20mph limits?  Are there any plans to do so?”

We received this reply from our Borough Cycling Champion:

“Did you know that:

There are already 46 20 mph zones in the borough and large parts of the rest of the borough where there is no record of any accidents at all, ever.

We are the 3rd safest LB out of 33. Obviously we should be the safest, but that’s a work in progress.

Sometimes campaigning to improve safety is counter productive. It puts potential new cyclist off. Is that what you want to do?

Particularly when the fear of accidents is not backed up by statistics. Don’t you think?

Can we please have RCC encouraging people to cycle not putting them off.  It would be better for everyone.”

Now, we exist to encourage cycling so being told we’re putting people off is a worry, so we wrote back to our Borough Cycling Champion:

“very helpfully we have a map of cycle collisions recorded in the Borough between 2006 and 2010 so we know exactly where they do and don’t happen which is why we’re particularly concerned about the 4 clusters identified below

[Click here for our previous post about where collisions happen in the Borough and here for a searchable map of all collisions for the last 10 years]

As a campaigning group we constantly wrestle with the problem of unintentionally discouraging people from cycling but it’s our view that people make informed decisions about risk when they know the facts, hence our concern about these four clusters.  I am very happy to publicise the fact we are the 3rd safest Borough in London if you tell me the meaning of ”safe” and the statistical source.

Do you have a list of the 46 zones in the Borough and do you know how this compares with other Boroughs, say the neighbouring Boroughs of Hounslow and Kingston with whom we share our Assembly Member?  It’s been suggested Richmond has the 2nd lowest number of zones in the country, do you know if that’s the case?

Are you able to answer my original question about talks with the PCT?”

We haven’t received a reply to date.

Early in the New Year LCC will launch ”Go Dutch – clear space for cycling on London’s main roads“ the single issue campaign to accompany the London Assembly elections.  It’s about safe and convenient cycle journeys not least because of the cyclist fatalties in London this year.

The campaign aims to get 100,000 signatures on a petition and 10,000 cyclists on the road to persuade the candidates for the London Assembly that this important, not just for cyclists, but for everyone who want to improve the quality of life in London, who want people-friendly streets.

Which is what we want in our Borough.  We want Richmond, Teddington and Twickenham town centres to be people-friendly, which is not how you could describe them now.  Was it coincidence that last week’s Richmond and Twickenham Times had “High street havoc” on the front page and Tim Lennon’s excellent letter ”Deal with this congestion” inside?

Which is why we’ll go on commenting about the effect of planned highway engineering schemes even though we have to search for them and even though we were told in September we can’t go to the Transport Management Liaison Group.  And thank you to all the Veloteers who replied to our request for comments on these schemes.

[Click here to read what we've done this month]

Which is why we’ll go on asking the Council what they’re doing for people who cycle even though few, if any, of our Manifesto requests at the 2010 local government elections have been realised.

Which is why we’ll keep going to the Cycling Liaison Group and ask the Council questions about cycling in the Borough.

[Click here for the issues we've raised ahead of the next meeting on Monday 9th January 2012]

E-mail your comments to: campaign@richmondlcc.co.uk

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Richmond Entries for Cycling Facility of the Month ?

03 December '11 by Paul Luton, under Uncategorized.

A nice clear logo to show where cyclists should ride

(Staines Rd Twickenham)

Textured paving and sign clearly show the end of shared use of footway. Just turn right to move to carriageway — over the fence !

(Sixth Cross Rd Twickenham.)

Fortunately there’s a convenient warning painted on the ground in case you don’t see the car before you hit it head on!

(Church Road, Richmond)

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Community and Police Partnership meeting report

30 November '11 by Paul Luton, under Community.

A few items of cycling interest.

Bike Theft. – the police reported 506 bikes stolen (from street ?) and 683 “non-residential burglaries (mainly bikes stolen from sheds) for the year so far. The latter is a 7% increase. I did ask whether this usually unlocked sheds – apparently not always.  Expensive bikes are being targeted. One decoy bike was stolen and quickly taken to Westminster. The Borough Commander – CSI Chalk who is himself a regular cyclist – will send on more details and I will add them here.

Sgt Boulton of  Richmond Park Safer Parks Team told me that they had a problem with cyclists not wanting to mar their lightweight bikes with a lock and then leaving them outside a cafe. They will tag bikes on request.

Usual complaints from an individual about cyclists on the footway in Broad Street , Teddington. Why on earth would anyone do that when congestion traffic-calms the road pretty effectively ?

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“On your bike” – Proposed Highway Engineering Works

29 November '11 by nick, under All Posts, Campaign, Consultation, Cycling Liaison Group Meeting, Veloteer.

This post has been updated on: 15th December 2011

Thank you to all the RCC Veloteers who responded to our request for comments on these 3 schemes.  Click on the locations to read our submissions:

Hanworth Road Whitton, Stanley Road Teddington and Terrace Yard Petersham.

It’s worth noting we have been consulted about a proposed Advisory Cycle Lane in Richmond Road, East Twickenham, but this may be the result of a long-standing working relationship with the Highway Engineer: click here to read our response.

——————————————————————————————————–

Since the Council told us earlier this year that we couldn’t go to the Traffic Management Liaison Group anymore, and while we wait to hear how they will consult us about the potential impact of proposed highway engineering works on people who cycle, we’ve been picking up proposed work through Richmond Council’s Digest, an e-mail list of Council activity [click here if you want them to tell you what they're doing]

There are 3 this week, all relating to proposals to spend Section 106 Town and Country Planning Act money on highway improvements at:

1. Terrace Yard, Petersham Road, Richmond

2. Stanley Road, Teddington

3. Hanworth Road, Whitton

1. Terrace Yard, Petersham Road, Richmond

“3.2 The new layout of the development and the new crossover access to the site has impacted on the existing pelican crossing. To ensure that the crossing is safe for pedestrians it is essential that the crossing is relocated away from the vehicle crossover. Associated footway and surfacing works are considered necessary to ensure that the approaches to the relocated crossing are to an appropriate standard.

3.3 This project will comprise two main elements:

  • A slight relocation of the existing pelican crossing to ensure that it is mid way between the two vehicle crossovers and not partly over one as is the current position;
  • Improvements to the footways and road surfacing in conjunction with the changes to the pelican crossing, with the addition of anti-skid surfacing to improve road safety.”

2. Stanley Road, Teddington

“3.2 Residents have reported ongoing issues with vehicles parking on the zig-zag markings on the approaches to the Stanley Road Zebra Crossing and illegal manoeuvres associated with the one way restrictions at the junction of Fulwell Road/Stanley Road. The development site is opposite the junction of Fulwell Road/Stanley Road and just north of the Stanley Road Zebra Crossing.

3.3 This project will have two main elements:

  • Footway widening at the junction of Fulwell Road/Stanley Road to improve the start of the one way working;
  • The introduction of a central refuge on the zebra crossing outside the parade of shops, just south of the development to shorten the crossing distance and discourage parking on the zig-zag markings.”

3. Hanworth Road, Whitton

“3.2 The junction of Hanworth Road/Powder Mill Lane has a history of Personal Injury Collisions.  The junction is currently controlled with a mini-roundabout and has a Puffin Crossing in close proximity to the mini-roundabout.

3.3 The project comprises:

  • Relocation of the existing crossing and the possible provision of a new crossing facility or signalised junction (subject to feasibility/design)
  • Realignment of the mini-roundabout to increase deflection and alterations to the existing parking arrangements.”

E-mail: campaign@richmondlcc.co.uk if you know any of these locations and think there’s an opportunity to make things more safe and more convenient for people who cycle, or you think that what’s proposed could make it unsafe and inconvenient.

And why not e-mail the Council as well: HighwaysAndTransport@Richmond.gov.uk

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