Hyde Park now connects to Marble Arch

Following construction of two new gates by the Royal Parks, the cycle route around Hyde Park now connects to the toucan crossings of Marble Arch.

You are advised to use these gates rather than the one onto Park Lane, where cycling is not allowed on the footway and you could be fined - see photo below.

More signs of insanity

Eagle-eyed cyclists may have spotted that the 'no entry' and 'cycles only' signs should be on each other's posts at this contraflow in Wardour Street. The current arrangement seems to say that cyclists are not allowed to use the gap on the left but should use the main carriageway on the right - risking collision with on-coming vehicles. And the 'cycles only' sign is facing the wrong way. Sorting that out is the easy bit!

Cyclists barred from Oxford Street

As part of the diagonal pedestrian crossing scheme at Oxford Circus, cyclists have been barred from Oxford Street.

According to signs attached to traffic signals,

• Cyclists approaching Oxford Circus from Regent Street (north or south) have to continue straight ahead and cannot turn into Oxford Street.
• Cyclists approaching Oxford Circus from Oxford Street (east or west) have to turn left into Regent Street and cannot continue along Oxford Street.
• Cyclists in Harewood Place have to continue straight ahead into Holles Street and cannot turn into Oxford Street.

This cyclist is making a prohibited manoeuvre!

These restrictions came completely out of the blue: they were not included in the original proposals. We have not found them either in the traffic management order covering the Oxford Circus scheme. So we have asked Westminster's Director of Transportation for a copy of the relevant order. The LCC have also told him that it would be most regrettable if this pioneering and welcome scheme were to be undermined by being cycle un-friendly. And the council member responsible for cycling is raising the matter with him.

Westminster's Unitary Development Plan has a policy to "normally allow cyclists to turn at junctions and enter streets where certain movements by motor vehicles are banned as part of a traffic management or environmental scheme, where safety issues permit." But the council sometimes ignores this policy, for example in the recent exclusion of cyclists from Lisle Street and their forthcoming exclusion from the south end of Wardour Street.

Long Acre Contraflow Unveiled

The long-awaited cycle contraflow lane has now appeared in Covent Garden's Long Acre.

The lane, running from Bow Street to Drury Lane, allows eastbound cyclists to ride against the one-way westbound traffic flow. This facility opens up a new route from the Charing Cross Road to Lincoln's Inn Fields.

The contraflow lane is part of an environmental improvement scheme in Long Acre, which also involved moving car-parking bays to the south side of the street (to the right in the photos). Work is now in progress to replace the mini roundabout at the junction with Bow Street and Endell Street with a pair of T-junctions as part of the same project.

You should note that 'no entry' signs are still in place at the entrance to the contraflow lane. This may mean that it is illegal to ride along it!

Concern has been expressed that the contraflow lane is little more than one metre wide. We understand that the original design was for a 1.5m lane. We are seeking to find out how the width was reduced.

Cyclists would dearly like to have a westbound contraflow lane along the western end of Long Acre. This is more difficult, however, because of the need to modify the traffic signals at the junction with St Martin's Lane. Signals had conveniently been removed from the junction with Drury Lane, making the introduction of the cycle contraflow rather easier.

Marble Arch becomes permeable

The Royal Parks have now opened cycle paths connecting Marble Arch with the cycle route around Hyde Park. The paths line up with the toucan crossings around the Marble Arch gyratory, enabling you to reach the roads radiating from Marble Arch via the central area. Although you avoid the traffic circulating around the gyratory, you may have to stop up to four times to wait for a green cycle signal.

Royal Parks' contractors apply the final touches to a cycle path.

Stanhope Gate crossing opens

A new cycle crossing of Bayswater Road bridges the link between two halves of a cycle route.

The crossing, just west of Marble Arch links the southern half of Route 5 (Chelsea Bridge - Hyde Park) with the northern half (Marylebone - Kilburn).

Until recently, cyclists had to dismount to use a zebra crossing at this point. The zebra has now been replaced by parallel pedestrian and cycle crossings, which provide a continuous route for cyclists.

A number of measures have been implemented in connection with the crossing, such as allowing northbound cycling in Stanhope Place. But the right turn from that street into Seymour Street has still to be allowed for cyclists. Some time ago the Royal Parks provided a connecting path from the cycle route around Hyde Park.

A cyclist using the new crossing.
Westminster Cycling Campaign does not recommend carrying bags on the handlebars, looking in the opposite direction to approaching traffic or cycling with flapping clothing!

A crossing at this point was first proposed in 2005 as part of the London Cycle Network Plus project. When council members rejected original proposals for a toucan crossing, engineers literally had to go back to the drawing board. Hence the long delay. This has unfortunately prevented them from making progress with other schemes.

Why LCN+ failed in Westminster

Despite expenditure of £2.16m on London Cycle Network Plus in Westminster over the three years from 2005 to 2008, very little actually happened to improve cycling conditions on Westminster's roads. How could this come about?

Only £165,000 was actually spent on designing and implementing cycle-specific features on Westminster's roads. So where did the rest of the money go?

£1,053,000	was given to the Royal Parks. This paid for generally worthwhile schemes, including crossings of the North and South and West Carriage Drives of Hyde Park as well as Marlborough Road.
£400,000	went towards streetscape enhancement in Whitehall and Parliament Street, the main feature of which was anti-terrorist bollards. But the wide bus lanes should make cycling easier. (See photo below.)

£248,000	paid for badly-needed surface improvements in Trafalgar Square, on Waterloo Bridge and at Hyde Park Corner - work that we would normally expect authorities to do out of their annual maintenance budget.
£162,800	paid for feasibility studies for schemes that have not materialised, including £57,400 to find out why cycling is not possible across the north of Kensington Gardens.
£87,000	was for Cycle Route Implementation Stakeholder Plans (CRISPs).
£42,000	went on reports to the Cabinet Member.
£2,263	was for preliminary discussions.

Work Starts on Long Acre Contraflow

As the photo shows, work appears to have started on a contraflow cycle lane in Long Acre.

The cycle lane will run along Long Acre from Bow Street to Drury Lane, in the opposite direction to the westbound traffic flow. Because of the limited width of the road, the 1.5-metre mandatory cycle lane will not have splitter islands at its entry and exit points. Car parking bays on the north side of the road will be moved to the south side to release space for the cycle lane.

Plans for the junction of Long Acre with Endell Street and Bow Street

The scheme, which is proposed as part of a renovation project for Covent Garden, also includes replacing the existing mini roundabout at the Endell Street / Bow Street junction with two T-junctions, separated by a zebra crossing - see plan above.

Camden has already removed the traffic signals from the junction of Long Acre with Driry Lane and Great Queen Street and to plans to convert the western end of Great Queen Street to a single carriageway, releasing space for a pedestian area.

The new contraflow in Long Acre will open up a new route for cyclists from the Covent Garden / Leicester Square area through to Lincoln's Inn Fields and Bloomsbury. Cyclists have been campaigning for this for many years,

Work Starts on Bayswater Road Crossing

After many delays, work has started on a new cycle crossing of Bayswater Road, to replace the current zebra crossing near the junction with Stanhope Place..

The new crossing will connect Stanhope Place with a path to the North Carriage Drive in Hyde Park.. The crossing forms an important link in London Cycle Network routes 0 (Hyde Park - Marylebone - Bloomsbury) and 5 (Chelsea Bridge - Hyde Park - Kilburn) and will enable cyclists on north-south journeys to avoid Marble Arch.  In addition to the new crossing, two-way cycling will be allowed in Stanhope Place and cyclists will be allowed to turn right from Stanhope Place into Seymour Street.

A plan of the new crossing.

A crossing of Bayswater Road was first proposed in the autumn of 2005. Following a council member's objection to the original design for a toucan crossing, engineers prepared new plans for parallel pedestrian and cycle crossings.

The project was further delayed when Thames Water dug up the road. As is customary, the council then waited a few weeks in case TW needed to dig the road up again.

An unfortunate consequence of this delay is that the budget for this project could not be carried over from 2008-9 into the current year. Because it will have to be funded from the 2009-10 budget, the council will have less money to spend on other projects.

New Crossings at Marble Arch

Cyclists are beginning to use new toucan crossings at Marble Arch. These have been installed across junctions on the south side of the gyratory system and connect the central reservation of Park Lane with Hyde Park and with the island where the arch stands. There is no crossing to the north of the arch, but signals stop the traffic just long enough to reach Great Cumberland Place from the arch and vice versa.

If you are thinking of crossing here, there are a number of points to note:

1. If you are coming south from Great Cumberland Place, you need to be in the right-hand lane in order to reach the arch.
2. If you are heading north towards Great Cumberland Place, the only time you could possibly start to cross the road from the arch is when traffic starts turning left out of Great Cumberland Place.
3. The Royal Parks have not yet allowed cycling along the paths connecting Marble Arch with the cycle routes around Hyde Park, but they are planning to do so.

Marble Arch is actually made of marble. It was designed by John Nash in 1828 and originally stood outside Buckingham Palace. It was moved to its present site in 1851, supposedly because it was too narrow for carriages to pass through.

Have your say on Piccadilly proposals

Transport for London are consulting the public about proposed changes to Piccadilly to improve the reliability of bus route 38.

The main proposal is to replace the existing westbound bus lane with a two-way 'bus-way' along the south side of Piccadilly. This would be separated from 2-3 lanes of general eastbound traffic by a wide footway. The diagram shows a cross-section of the proposed arrangement, looking east. The proposals include a contraflow westbound bus lane across Piccadilly Circus. Cycles do not seem to feature in the proposals except for cycle parking sites and an unconvincing statement that reversing the direction of Air Street would assists cyclists. You can find out further information from the Westminster Reference Library, St Martin's Street from Friday 7th to Monday 17th March. There will also be a 'mobile bus' stationed next to the London Pavilion on 5th and 6th March from 11:00 to 19:30. There is also information at http://www.busroute38.co.uk/. Consultation closes on 17th March.

Parliament Square

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has announced plans to transform Parliament Square with the aim of celebrating the history of British democracy in time for the London 2012 Olympics. The overall plan is to pedestrianise the south side of the square (nearest the Abbey) and to turn the other three sides back to two-way. The Mayor Ken Livingstone has commissioned Vogt Landscape Architects, the firm of modernist Swiss designers behind the landscape for the Tate Modern, to rebuild the square. A public consultation exercise is planned for May, with a view to submitting a planning application in the autumn. Colin Wing, co-ordinator of Westminster Cycling Campaign, said: "Cyclists find gyratory systems like Parliament Square a major deterrent. Turning the square back to two-way would remove a significant obstacle." Postscript: In the more immediate future, buses and cycles are to be allowed to turn right from Bridge Street into Parliament Street, towards Whitehall. Many cyclists coming into central London will find their journey quicker and safer as a result.