An unofficial cycle lane in Charing Cross Road is to be removed as part of a pedestrian scheme.
The hatched area shown in the photo is popular with cyclists wishing to reach the head of the traffic queue, even though entering it, except in an emergency, is against the law. For many years we have tried unsuccessfully to get Westminster to legalise the situation by turning the hatched area into a cycle lane.
Westminster is now proposing to widen the footway to accommodate the crowds of pedestrians who often wait to cross the street at this point, eliminating the hatched area.
The distance between the kerb and the central refuge will now be four metres. Westminster believes that this is sufficient for a large vehicle to overtake a cyclist, even though the Government's Cycle Infrastructure Design guidelines require a width of 4.6 metres for a bus or HGV to pass a cyclist at 20mph.
We pointed out that the proposals failed to provide advanced stop lines for cyclists on all arms of the junction, in contravention of the London Cycling Design Standards. The council replied that it was not its policy to install these except on designated cycle routes, even though the standards are 'aimed not just at designers of cycle route schemes but at all designers of infrastructure that cyclists will use or that will affect cyclists'.