Here’s our newsletter for February. If you want it straight to your inbox, then sign up here.
This month we have an update about the Dunwich Dynamo, news about upcoming consultations in Southwark, changes to Cycle Superhighway 7 and Cycleway 4, and we tell you about a new campaign to keep the pedestrianisation of Rye Lane, the topic of the next Better Streets Talk.
Rye Lane Pedestrianisation
A new campaign to make the pedestrianisation of Rye Lane permanent has launched with a petition on Southwark Council’s website. If 500 people sign then the issue will be raised at a cabinet meeting so please take the time to sign. To stay up to date with the campaign follow them on Twitter.
We’ve seen a massively positive change to Rye Lane since it has been pedestrianised with cycle access. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic footways were too narrow and Rye Lane needed major motor traffic reduction. The campaign group is currently speaking with businesses and stakeholder groups to get their feedback on how the pedestrianisation of Rye Lane can work for everyone, including what can be done to make buses in the area more accessible.
Upcoming meetings
The next Better Streets Talk, run in partnership with Better Streets for Southwark, will be about the campaign to pedestrianise Rye Lane. The meeting will be on Wednesday 24 February at 6:30pm. Sign up here to attend.
You’ll be able to find future Better Streets Talks here. In March we’ll be visited by TreeTalk.
Our Southwark Cyclists meetings are on the second Wednesday of the month. The next one is 10 March at 6:30pm. If you’d like to attend, email us at Southwark@lcc.org.uk.
Changes to Cycle Superhighway 7 and Tooley Street extension
TfL has just announced upgrades to CS7 south of Elephant and Castle and into Lambeth. These changes will include new sections of 24 hour bus lanes, with some being widened, restricted parking and a banned turn onto Kennington Lane.
Cycleway 4 will also be extended along Tooley Street and Duke Street Hill. There will be sections of wand protected cycle lane, a banned turn onto Queen Elizabeth Street and a right turn pocket onto Bermondsey Street.
Both of these will be implemented as experimental schemes and while welcome, as they will improve conditions for people using these routes, we do not believe they will make the roads safe enough for families and the many people who do not cycle due to concerns over motor traffic. We hope these are a stepping stone and TfL will implement more ambitious plans after the trials complete. Both links above lead to consultations on these schemes and we urge you to ask for more ambitious plans in these locations.
Streetspace Reviews
Southwark Council will be starting the review process for Streetspace schemes soon. This will begin with schemes in Dulwich. As soon as we know the details we’ll share them with you. It’ll be important for the council to get feedback from residents and people that travel through the area.
Dunwich Dynamo
Dunwich Dynamo coach tickets would normally be on sale around this time of year. If you haven’t heard of it, the Dunwich Dynamo is an annual 200km nighttime ride from Hackney to Dunwich on the Suffolk Coast that takes place during the summer. While there is no official organiser of the event, we have been organising the main convoy to bring people and their bikes back to London for over 20 years.
We’re assessing the situation but think it is unlikely that we will be able to run the transport given physical distancing requirements that will likely still be necessary in early summer. We also don’t anticipate that enough of us will have had the vaccine. With this uncertainty we’re unable to put down the necessary deposits required but are looking at options for a smaller scale operation (typically we transport 1,000 people and their bikes) that we would be able to plan with less time. We’ll keep you up to date no matter what we do, but for now we’ve decided not to sell tickets. If you have any questions on other aspects of the Dunwich Dynamo, the best place to ask is the Facebook group.
Thanks for reading and happy cycling,
Jakub
