Westminster Cycling Campaign News: February 2010

This month:

• Report Calls for Improvements to Canal Route
• Hyde Park now connects to Marble Arch

Sunday, 14 February 2010

Report Calls for Improvements to Canal Route

As part of the London Greenways project, a Cycle Route Implementation and Stakeholder Plan has now been published for the Westminster sections of the Regent’s Canal and the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal.

The aims of the study were:

• to provide a continuous east-west route for cycling which is currently not available
• to encourage faster-moving commuter cyclists to use the off-towpath route
• to make minor improvements to the towpath that will provide more comfortable pedestrian and recreational cycling use
• to encourage more people to use the towpath for recreational pursuits
• to resolve conflicts with other road and towpath users and ensure they have a greater awareness of cyclists.

The highest-priority recommendations are for contraflow cycling in Blomfield Road and a shared-use path along Delamere Terrace. These schemes will allow the canal route to work in both directions.

Other recommendations include:

• improving the lighting and surface of the path under the Marylebone / Metropolitan railway bridges
• replacing the barriers along the path in front of the Lisson Green Estate
• a staggered cycle path leading from the Toucan crossing of Lisson Grove to the Lisson Green canalside path, with separate entrances for pedestrians and cyclists
• improving the route through the streets where the canal runs through a tunnel

The total cost of recommendations made in the report amounts to an estimated £1,676,500.

The executive summary is now available at http://www.westminstercyclists.org.uk/canalcrisp.htm Please email info at westminstercyclists.org.uk for the full 7.4MB report.

Sunday, 14 February 2010

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.