Wellesley Road Plans: An open letter to the council from the Croydon Cycling Campaign

Dear Tom,

I am writing to you on behalf of Croydon Cycling Campaign, the local branch of the London Cycling Campaign, (which is the world’s largest urban cycling group and the voice of over 11,000 people who cycle in the capital).

We welcome the plans for toucan crossings to be put on Wellesley Road at its junctions with Bedford Park Road and Lansdowne Road. This is a positive move, both for cyclists and pedestrians, and its achievement through the removal of the subways is something that we hope to see replicated elsewhere in the borough.

However, we have some concerns that we would like to be addressed by us working jointly with Council Members, officers, consultants and other interested parties.

There is a lack of strategic ambition in the proposal and in the original report behind it. No reference is made in either to targets to increase cycling across London in general and Croydon in particular. Our borough lags behind others, with cycling making up c1% of all journeys, while the capital average is 2% and our London Assembly member, Steve O’Connell, put his name to the November 2012 GLA report, “Gearing up” that called on Boris Johnson to increase his target of having 5% of journeys made by bike by 2026 to 10%.

In March 2013, Boris responded with his Vision for Cycling in London in which he said that “Cycling levels will have doubled in the next 10 years. This will be supported by ensuring that in every borough, cycling is a mainstream and popular mode of transport which attracts people of all ages and backgrounds.”

We therefore need plans that reflect and enable such goals to be achieved. These proposals neither recognise nor go far enough to reach such important ambitions. The more people that cycle in Croydon, the less air pollution and road congestion there will be.

There are currently no plans to provide safe space for cycling along Wellesley Road, a multi-lane highway with a tram line running down it, despite the fact that the proposals aims to remove considerable space for all road vehicles.

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Instead, once safely across the junctions at which Toucan crossings are to be installed, cyclists are then expected to compete with pedestrians or buses, which may either be waiting at bus stops or accelerating from them. This does not make for a welcome, safe cycle-friendly environment; what we, the London Cycling Campaign and thousands of cyclists want and need is safe space for cycling. The pictures below illustrate this point – in the second, you can just see a man riding a bike (wearing a yellow “hi-viz” jacket).

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Living Streets (formerly The Pedestrians Association and the Pedestrians Association for Road Safety) state in their policy briefing on Pedestrians and Cyclists that “Off-carriageway provision for cyclists must never come at the expense of pedestrian space, safety, or amenity”, adding that “If cyclists are fearful of driving on the carriageway, it is wrong then to cause disruption or anxiety to pedestrians on the pavement”. That is why they, us and other organisations support the introduction of 20mph speed limits in built-up areas and segregated cycle lanes on the busiest roads.

Given that nearby George Street is already a 20mph zone, the planned introduction of the new toucan crossings along Wellesley Road, the 53 “accidents” euphemistically referred to in the report to the 24 June 2013 Traffic Management Cabinet Committee and the risk of further collisions caused by arguably reckless driving, reducing the speed limit to 20 and providing safe space for cycling are “must haves”, not optional extras. The impact of a 20mph on journey time along this road will be negligible, and will have positive benefits by encouraging and enabling cycling and reducing the risk of motor vehicles colliding with each other, which leads to gridlock while the emergency services sort things out.

There are references, in the unsuccessful July 2013 Croydon bid for Mayor of London funding for “mini Hollands” to providing segregated cycling facilities on Wellesley Road – that would be fantastic. However, we see no evidence of that thinking in this Connected Croydon scheme. Worryingly, it seems that such a scheme for Dutch-style cycle-friendly infrastructure will in fact be prevented by the otherwise welcome plans for a Las Ramblas style tree-lined central reservation.

The Toucan planned for the junction of Poplar Walk and Bedford Park Road, while welcome, does not provide an effective two-way crossing for cyclists.

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Taking the perspective of a cyclist currently exiting Poplar Walk, there is no “straight ahead” option into Bedford Park – see the picture above. Equally, because Bedford Park is – unnecessarily for cyclists – a one-way street – the same is true for the reverse journey – see the photo below.

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The practical value of this particular Toucan would be significantly enhanced for cyclists if the line between Poplar Walk and Bedford Park were made two-way for cyclists, not an awkward one-way path as is the case now and will remain so, if these proposals are not upgraded. Minor modifications of the junctions concerned would permit this, and a cycling contraflow could easily come later.

Similarly, there is a missed opportunity at Sydenham Road, which again is one-way for motor vehicles, but need not be for cyclists – see the picture below.

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Since Bedford Park and Sydenham Road connect with the London Cycle Network route 23 from East Croydon to Norbury, the importance of above should not be under-estimated, if Croydon Council is to realise the potential of what Councillor Mike Fisher described, in his introduction to Croydon’s funding bid, as “outer London’s cycling sleeping giant”. It’s time we all woke up.

It is not clear how cyclists will be affected by the plans for the exit from Lansdowne Road, which is set to become a right-turn only; only the detailed map produced by consultants Peter Brett Associates suggests that there may be provision for shared-use pavement. Cyclists need to continue to be able to turn left easily and safely, and we need the well-intentioned but ultimately hopeless cycle junction at the Wellesley Road to be removed – see the picture below.

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The contraption depicted above suggests that cyclists should avoid decelerating, slow-moving trams by cycling out into a dual-carriageway containing accelerating motor vehicles. Given that there are roads in Croydon which are used safely by both trams and cyclists – George Street, Church Street and Addiscombe Road being among them – then cyclists should be given the option of cycling along the tramway between Lansdowne Road and the junction of Wellesley Road with George Street.

In summary, we welcome plans to make Wellesley Road more cycle-friendly than is currently the case, but want to see a greater level of ambition and provision to complement the ideas contained in the mini-Holland bid. While the bid may have failed Boris’s selection test, that is no reason to abandon it. Instead, alternative ways must be found to carry its plans forward. As Councillor Jason Perry put it in his endorsement of the bid, “we have concluded we must rise to (the challenges) and believe we have the appetite, capability and capacity to deliver”. We hope so too.

We’d welcome the opportunity to cycle along Wellesley Road with councillors and officers working on this development, so that they can experience for themselves what we currently face, and see the need for the changes described. In the summer of 2009, Cllr Dudley Mead participated in such an event, and I believe he found it instructive. For those Members without their own bikes, I feel sure we can lay some one courtesy of our friends at the Wheels for Wellbeing at the Croydon Arena.

Yours sincerely,

Austen Cooper
for Croydon Cycling Campaign