By way of context, the spine was announced as Southwark's flagship cycle route in Oct 2014 for completion by April 2019. Other than widening traffic islands and now tweaking kerbs on Crystal Palace Road nothing's happened yet. [
www.southwark.gov.uk]
According to police data, the most dangerous junctions on it are where it crosses Peckham Road (Kelly/ Lyndhurst), East Dulwich Road and by Borough Road.
There's lots of different stages of the spine, so maybe easiest to update from north to south below.
- Borough Road to Burgess Park: has been quietly dropped even though critical for new housing developments, the most deprived areas and to relieve congested crossings of New Kent Road
- St George's Way to Kelly Avenue: recently approved this is the best bit but does propose some right angle bends even worse than those recently introduced on Rodney Road/Heygate, not accessible for all types of cycle
- Peckham Road: this is TfL's responsibility and being considered as part of the long delayed Peckham Town Centre scheme to tackle pedestrian fatalities. Apparently plans were just gesture engineering so have been sent back for a rethink and strengthening, unclear if consultation will still happen in 2019
- Lyndhust to Chadwick: plans were strongly rejected in public consultation, in particular by people who cycle, but officers fiddled the figures, withheld Southwark Cyclists' consultation response from the decision maker and after 2 years of making a few tweaks is pressing on with statutory consultation. See attached showing how segregation (in green) won't tackle cycle collisions (as stars), worse still it creates car/cycle conflict by forcing people to cycle in the wrong place around the gyratory then cut across drivers. It also delays drivers and in particular the P13 by being as tight as east end of Chadwick Road but also inadequate even for current peak hour cycle flows
- Bellenden parade: being redesigned, don't hold your breath for action to tackle this rat run
- Maxted Road to Goodrich Road: more statutory consultation, again mixture of badly designed and simply waste of money interventions while not targeting problems actually faced cycling. Typical example are Southwark's unique speciality of "traffic carpets", expensive paving that is disruptive to install but then obliterated with markings painted all over (rather destroying the point), that become loose within months. Examples are at top (ED end) of Camberwell Grove and much of quietway 1, council has been wasting money like this for years.
- southern end: pointing towards the golf club and woods, unclear where route is actually leading to or how will get there other than some very circuitous manoeuvres over Lordship Lane
Southwark Cyclists is preparing a legal objection to the new traffic orders, calling for a return to previous plans to remove the gyratory that won majority support. It's not just a case of these proposals being a waste of money but because the plans deliberately create conditions that will in places be more dangerous and unpleasant for cycling.
More generally the council still pretends simply putting in a few cycle logos and humps will make rat runs accessible for a wide range of people to ride on, e.g. Adys Road (pictured in rush hour) will just get a few cycle logos.
As one councillor recently observed: "Proof that Quietways aren't working. Canvassing on Q7 in Dulwich Village and all the families I've seen this morning have been cycling in the pavement." When will the council listen or learn?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit was september 21, 08:12am by rollflick.