Proposed Cycle Lanes for Brentford High Street
Hi WestLondoners
2 cycle lanes (east-west, 1.5m each) are proposed from KewBridge to EalingRoad on London Road (BHS) - along the river northbank. This is partly to be achieved by road widening in the narrow section along Watermans Park by taking 10% or 3m from the park.
As a local cyclist this is a welcome proposal from Hounslow council/TfL. The road is a killer (further west at Brent Lea cyclist killed by lorry, children pedestrians killed there, moped rider killed at Somerfields, cyclist killed at KewBridge ....). Its high volume, narrow squeezing east-west traffic along it.
A local community group is objecting to the proposal - they want to keep Watermans Park untouched. They suggest a cycle path in Watermans park and leaving the narrow road as it is.
But many cyclists use the road and will not want to lose time by being diverted to the park and having the problem of coming out onto a busy road. The local residents plan will also involve cyclist/pedestrian conflict crossing the pavement and within park. Although a few cyclists do ride in the park those with time constraints ride along the road at the usual 12-18mph.
If you support the council's proposals of 1.5m cycle lanes for safer cycling then write to Chris Calvi-Freeman, Head of Transport Planning, LB of Hounslow, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow TW3 4DN.
The residents website gives details of the scheme - maps, council proposals and voting:-
http://www.hollandgardens.org/news_detail.cfm?ID=258
2 cycle lanes (east-west, 1.5m each) are proposed from KewBridge to EalingRoad on London Road (BHS) - along the river northbank. This is partly to be achieved by road widening in the narrow section along Watermans Park by taking 10% or 3m from the park.
As a local cyclist this is a welcome proposal from Hounslow council/TfL. The road is a killer (further west at Brent Lea cyclist killed by lorry, children pedestrians killed there, moped rider killed at Somerfields, cyclist killed at KewBridge ....). Its high volume, narrow squeezing east-west traffic along it.
A local community group is objecting to the proposal - they want to keep Watermans Park untouched. They suggest a cycle path in Watermans park and leaving the narrow road as it is.
But many cyclists use the road and will not want to lose time by being diverted to the park and having the problem of coming out onto a busy road. The local residents plan will also involve cyclist/pedestrian conflict crossing the pavement and within park. Although a few cyclists do ride in the park those with time constraints ride along the road at the usual 12-18mph.
If you support the council's proposals of 1.5m cycle lanes for safer cycling then write to Chris Calvi-Freeman, Head of Transport Planning, LB of Hounslow, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow TW3 4DN.
The residents website gives details of the scheme - maps, council proposals and voting:-
http://www.hollandgardens.org/news_detail.cfm?ID=258
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Comments
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That's one of my routes. To be honest I never have too many problems on it, although cars in the wrong lane going east at the McDonalds junction can be a pain.
While I've got no objection to having some more space on the road, I'd hope they did something about the lousy road surface on this route as well.
EC0 -
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by EvilCat</i>
That's one of my routes. To be honest I never have too many problems on it, although cars in the wrong lane going east at the McDonalds junction can be a pain.
While I've got no objection to having some more space on the road, I'd hope they did something about the lousy road surface on this route as well.
EC
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You're very lucky! It's got a 1700 cars per hour flow at peak and is one of most overloaded roads in London. What time do you travel? 8:00 to 9:00 and 17:00 it's very busy single lane each way, buses, lorries, cars. 17:00 onwards Chiswick to Hounslow is gridlocked, traffic hardly moves. There's no alternative east-west route on north bank except for A4/M4 1/4 mile away.
The recommended cycling route on London cycling maps is north of this A315 along Lateyards Rd, Green Dragon lane - and that road is OK at maybe 8-10mph for a cyclist because of its "local traffic" nature.0 -
I think a lot of motorists use it as a short cut or to avoid the M4/A4 which is quite often gridlocked. The road surface from Green Dragon Lane upto Isleworth station definately needs resurfacing though.
http://lifeonthetube.blogspot.com/0 -
Most of the proposals should improve conditions for cyclists - apart that is from installing the narrow cycle lanes.
If they just widened the road to create 4.5m lanes then it would provide plenty of space for safe overtaking. Particularly with the hatched centre line. By putting a narrow cycle lane next to a narrow general traffic lane they will just encourage people to squeeze past and cyclists to overytake on the left.
PetePete0 -
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Pete Owens</i>
Most of the proposals should improve conditions for cyclists - apart that is from installing the narrow cycle lanes.
If they just widened the road to create 4.5m lanes then it would provide plenty of space for safe overtaking. Particularly with the hatched centre line. By putting a narrow cycle lane next to a narrow general traffic lane they will just encourage people to squeeze past and cyclists to overytake on the left.
Pete
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Hi Pete
Aren't the size of recommended lanes 1.5m to 1.8m? In this area many cycle lanes are 0.8m and the max is 1.2m. This road is 8-9m wide. There's very heavy traffic and a restricted number of suitable roads as there's an east-west traffic flow along the Thames out/into London.
It's not practical to have 4.5m(!) cycle lanes in this situation. Very experienced club cyclists who ride on these roads daily say that even putting 1.2m cycle lanes will improve conditions for the utility or inexperienced level of cyclists who are often victims.
As I said providing cycle paths will not route most cyclists along them because of the delay involved.
Bus lanes which allow cyclists are an improvement.
These photos illustrate local traffic conditions for cyclists:-
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/ ... ndonRd.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/ ... nhamRd.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/ ... ndonRd.jpg
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r41/ ... icycle.jpg
]0 -
I wasn't talking about 4.5m <i>cycle</i> lanes but 4.5m general traffic lanes. ie do everything as per the plan except paint the stripe. The extra width will improve conditions for cyclists - but the narrow cycle lanes will remove some of that benefit.
The standard recommended in Cycle Freindly Infrastructure is 2m for cycle lanes, with a minimum of 1.5m. But, cycle lanes as narrow as that, while just about scraping through the minimum standard do mean that cyclists get less space
than they would without the lane present. See:
http://www.warringtoncyclecampaign.co.u ... -lanes.pdf
Cycle lanes that are even thinner than this are positively dangerous
as it is not possible to ride within them while maintaining a safe distance from the kerb.
PetePete0 -
Given that the KSI's on this road are not only cyclists but peds and in at least one case a moped rider (I can also recall plenty of serious car/car incidents on the Kew to the Marina stretch), isn't a cycle lane using a bandaid on a festering wound?
As EvilCat rightly points out, the surface on the road is awful and there are several points where I always need to pull out into the traffic to save my wheels. But wouldn't the simplest thing be just to install a couple of 'average speed' cameras?
<hr noshade size="1">I'll have an organic decaff skinny goats milk cappuccino with fairtrade chocolate in a recycled cup to go please0 -
Rode down there (Kew Bridge towards Hounslow) again yesterday morning when it was quiet. There's clearly space to widen the road (which would be a good thing in general terms) but they really do need to sort out the road surface. My road bike is fairly forgiving but it's still a painful ride at a decent clip.
EC0
