The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has set out final plans for the construction of Europe’s longest substantially-segregated urban cycleways, the centrepiece of his US$1.3 billion commitment to get more Londoners on their bikes.
Subject to approval by1466 Transport for London, construction of the routes will begin in March.
Two continuous cycle routes, almost completely separated from traffic, will cross central London from east to west and north to south, opening up thousands of new journey opportunities.
Acting on concerns about delays caused to traffic by the east-west route, the final plans now retain two westbound traffic lanes on Upper and Lower Thames Street and Victoria Embankment, while entirely preserving the continuous, kerb-segregated cycle lanes and junctions.
These changes reduce the whole-route traffic delay in the morning peak hour, the worst affected time, by 60 per cent compared to previous proposals.
Responding to the announcement, the6983 Freight Transport Association (FTA) has voiced its disappointment and concern.
FTA has stated that whilst it isn’t opposed to cycle superhighways in principle, it is concerned over the speed that the plans are to be introduced saying that these projects will be in place for decades and more time should be spent now getting all of the aspects understood and correct before work begins.
The Association added that the root of the problem is the speed with which the Mayor, Boris Johnson, appears to be pushing the changes through. FTA raised the point that the environmental impact report and business case were only recently published, when versions of these should have been involved in the consultation, and that the final picture on loading restrictions is still not set.
FTA’s head of Urban Logistics Christopher Snelling commented that despite there being ‘positives’ in the announcement today, overall the package of routes still raises cause for concern: “The information published on delay times still does not reflect how industry and private motorists actually use these roads. And yet the first road-works to build these superhighways will start in just a few weeks’ time. By this April we will see works underway on all the proposed routes, affecting some key routes into the centre of London. It seems that the target pushing this is the aim to finish the routes by May 2016 – when the Mayor leaves office.”
FTA has also said that there will still be considerable impact on traffic not just on the routes themselves, but also across London and even out to the M25, as TfL re-sequences red lights to make it harder for motor traffic to get on the routes.
Snelling added that, given the tight constraints of drivers’ hours rules, this could result in significantly increased costs to the logistics industry, increasing costs for the businesses and residents in London who rely on them.
He concluded: “The improvements that have been announced today show how careful work can improve the situation to better reflect the balance of London’s transport needs, and the revised plans issued are an improvement on those previously put out – traffic delays have been reduced somewhat and more loading capacity has been added than was planned before. TfL has also committed today to work further with the freight industry to refine the loading facilities on the routes before they go live, which we welcome.”
Subject to approval by
Two continuous cycle routes, almost completely separated from traffic, will cross central London from east to west and north to south, opening up thousands of new journey opportunities.
Acting on concerns about delays caused to traffic by the east-west route, the final plans now retain two westbound traffic lanes on Upper and Lower Thames Street and Victoria Embankment, while entirely preserving the continuous, kerb-segregated cycle lanes and junctions.
These changes reduce the whole-route traffic delay in the morning peak hour, the worst affected time, by 60 per cent compared to previous proposals.
Responding to the announcement, the
FTA has stated that whilst it isn’t opposed to cycle superhighways in principle, it is concerned over the speed that the plans are to be introduced saying that these projects will be in place for decades and more time should be spent now getting all of the aspects understood and correct before work begins.
The Association added that the root of the problem is the speed with which the Mayor, Boris Johnson, appears to be pushing the changes through. FTA raised the point that the environmental impact report and business case were only recently published, when versions of these should have been involved in the consultation, and that the final picture on loading restrictions is still not set.
FTA’s head of Urban Logistics Christopher Snelling commented that despite there being ‘positives’ in the announcement today, overall the package of routes still raises cause for concern: “The information published on delay times still does not reflect how industry and private motorists actually use these roads. And yet the first road-works to build these superhighways will start in just a few weeks’ time. By this April we will see works underway on all the proposed routes, affecting some key routes into the centre of London. It seems that the target pushing this is the aim to finish the routes by May 2016 – when the Mayor leaves office.”
FTA has also said that there will still be considerable impact on traffic not just on the routes themselves, but also across London and even out to the M25, as TfL re-sequences red lights to make it harder for motor traffic to get on the routes.
Snelling added that, given the tight constraints of drivers’ hours rules, this could result in significantly increased costs to the logistics industry, increasing costs for the businesses and residents in London who rely on them.
He concluded: “The improvements that have been announced today show how careful work can improve the situation to better reflect the balance of London’s transport needs, and the revised plans issued are an improvement on those previously put out – traffic delays have been reduced somewhat and more loading capacity has been added than was planned before. TfL has also committed today to work further with the freight industry to refine the loading facilities on the routes before they go live, which we welcome.”
