Cycle routes should be safe for all to use. The plans for this one are not good enough. 

What is it?

Southwark council are consulting on a new cycle route from Rotherhithe to Peckham (essentially Surrey Quays Station to Queens Road Peckham Station and with a branch down Meeting House Lane

The deadline for the consultation is Sunday 21 May 2023 

It’s really important to get as many responses as possible to the council. The consultation is here, and this is how we suggest you respond to the key questions:

Proposed consultation response

• Question 3. Strongly Agree BUT also in the comment, say something to the effect that the scheme needs to be greatly improved and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are essential to reduce motor traffic in the general area.

• Question 6. Hawkstone Road should be filtered to remove through motor traffic. 

• Question 8. A route should not go through alleys and parks

• Question 10. Cycle tracks on Ilderton Road should have continuous tracks and continuous footways across side roads.

• Question 12. Meeting House Lane, Asylum Road and the surrounding streets should be filtered to remove through motor traffic.

Overall review of the proposals

Sadly it’s not very good. Their proposals don’t create a safe and inviting route and won’t create the shift from motor traffic to cycling that we all want to see.

1. They aren’t proposing to filter streets to remove through motor traffic – an essential component of good cycling schemes 
2. The cycle tracks they have proposed on bigger roads are bad designs
3. The route goes through two parks and an alleyway which at night can be very scary and put people off cycling
4. At under 2 miles long, it is very short and could usefully be extended in both directions.

TFL has criteria for judging routes called “Cycle Route Quality Criteria”. Throughout this proposed scheme, Southwark seems to be trying to do the bare minimum to pass the criteria, rather than achieve a good score and create a good route.

What we want to see instead

1. Traffic Reduction and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods

• Hawkstone Road, Asylum Road, and Meeting House Lane are all roads which we think have too much traffic and therefore need traffic reduced via modal filters (or bus gates). (Southwark Council haven’t provided traffic counts in the consultation)
• Since filters can’t work in isolation, we need a network of filters, i.e Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Below we have mapped out suggestions for where these LTNs could be
• The most important priority for this area should be to expand on the existing North Peckham LTN and extend it to Old Kent Road and Queens Road.

Existing LTN and filters around Meeting House Lane VS Proposed LTN and filters (red = new filters, blue = bus gates)

2. Alternative route(s) 

• Some of our members would say it is sexist planning to put a route through parks and alleyways which even with good lighting will not be used by many people during the darker hours.
• This is why we don’t advocate for individual routes and instead prefer Low Traffic Neighbourhoods which create a network of possible routes.
• Southwark and TFL need to then design safe crossings between the different areas created by the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. For example, a safe crossing of New Cross Road joining Pomeroy Street and Avonley Road would enable people to cycle to the east of Bridgehouse Meadows.

3. Improved junction designs
   
   The scheme includes a number of new junction designs which should be greatly improved to be higher quality.

• Hawkstone Road: Entrance to the Southwark Council Car Park.
  • The junction is too “open” with wide angles that create a risk of cyclists and pedestrians being hit by drivers coming in and out of the park. 
  • The junction should have a “straight across crossing” with much tighter turning angles.
• Hornshay Street / Ilderton Road Junction
  • This is a poor design that builds in a lot of conflict between cyclists and pedestrians and will create risks due to non-compliance and misunderstanding.

• Ilderton Road
  • The proposed cycle tracks are poorly designed. The cycle tracks and pavement should be continuous over side roads, and not be broken up by carriageway crossing from Ilderton into the side roads.
• Meeting house Lane/Culmore Road/Asylum Road junction
  • This junction is perhaps the worst of the lot. There are lots of risks built into the design for people cycling from every direction. 
  • Here, a bus gate on Asylum Road, and additional modal filter to stop traffic on Meeting House Lane would be a far better choice. The junction could be left as it is, saving a significant amount of money in the process. 
• Goldsmith Road
  • The western route ends at the junction of Goldsmith Road and Peckham Hill Street. There needs to be a safe continuation to Peckham Library to link to other routes.
• Asylum Road / Queen’s Road / Lugard Road
  • The eastern route ends on Asylum Road. There needs to be a safe crossing between Asylum Road and Lugard Road to continue a route there.

We’ve had lots of members get in touch to say they were excited by the idea of a route but feel very disappointed in the proposals. These comments from Twitter sum up the general mood.