Residents, businesses and visitors in Westminster are being asked to
help shape the future of parking policy by taking part in a wide-ranging review.Residents, businesses and visitors in Westminster are being asked to
help shape the future of parking policy by taking part in a wide-ranging review.
As part of the review, the borough's most comprehensive in a decade, Westminster City Council will be holding a borough-wide consultation exercise to determine how parking in the city can best be managed to benefit residents, businesses and visitors.
The council now recognises that the private car has often taken an inequitable share of permanent kerb space and that the charge-free unregulated parking of cars throughout the evening on the streets of central London has often thwarted the implementation of evolving projects, including cycle hire stations and 'better regulated' cycle routes.
The council expected the consultation would begin in late October 2010, when a questionnaire would be available to download online from its website (www.westminster.gov.uk/services/transportandstreets/parking/review-of-parking-policies/). But is has still not appeared. Paper copies should also be available in all public libraries and One Stop Services.
From
time to time Westminster has money available for cycle parking and may ask us
where more is required.
So let us know of any sites where the stands are regularly full - or where there are none at all and some are needed.
It could also help to pass your suggestions directly to Westminster at www3.westminster.gov.uk/forms/emailform.cfm?AliasID=167
Westminster is usually fairly amenable to putting in cycle parking stands so long as:
Our recent monitoring has shown some improvement in
motorists' behaviour at advance stop lines.
At the junction of Bridge Street with Parliament Street, 33% of motorists failed to comply with the law to stop at the first stop line at a red signal, leaving the reservoir ('bike box') free for cyclists. This percentage was down from 53% in 2005.
Motorcyclists remain the group most likely to break the law, with 47% doing so, down from 71% in 2005.
Don't forget that you can encourage motorists to stop in the right place by stopping on top of the cycle symbol.
The recent improvement may be partly due to a six-week long operation by the police in the summer to target road users who disobeyed traffic signals, encroached on advance stop lines (ASLs), cycled carelessly or on pavements, or used their mobile phones. The operation resulted in over 900 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued to drivers and motorcyclists and over 400 FPNs to cyclists. Officers also focused on education and engagement with road users on ASLs, explaining the dangers of infringement.
Victoria Embankment: cycle lanes now openNew cycle lanes have now been opened along much of the Victoria Embankment in the downstream (City-bound) direction. These can be particularly useful for overtaking queues of stationary or slow-moving traffic. Although they are interrupted by bus stops and parking bays, there is only one London bus route and most of the parking bays function only outside peak hours.
A hazard along this route has always been conflict with left-turning vehicles at the junctions with Northumberland Avenue and Temple Place. Transport for London have attempted to reduce this conflict by rearranging the street to make it easier for cyclists to approach these junctions in the second lane.
The cycle lanes are far shorter in the upstream (Westminster-bound) direction. That is because much of the kerbside lane is taken up by coach parking.