London Cycle Network Route 8 (LCN R8)

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Angel crossing of City Road and Goswell Road

had this thought re-occur a few times on my daily commute: that the marked cycle path on the LCN R8 Angel crossing of City Road and Goswell Road could do with having much more width (along with most of the marked cycle-paths in central London!), or perhaps have another marked-path in the spare pavement space being the same width for cyclists travelling in the opposite direction;

priority for cyclists at this junction - via the traffic lights being in-sync and favouring the bicycle traffic - would be good too!

It's a discussion that's been going on for years, Howard--not so easy, though. You'd need to modally filter Colebrooke Row at that point. Also, the last time a scheme was done, some (two, I think, but memory's hazy) mature trees were cut down.

For my money, it's mainly Owen Street which needs a different layout, but there there's the difficulty of it apparently being some kind of private road. Again, I can't remember all the details.

It's been debated on the Islington Cyclists' Action Group (ICAG) mailing list in the past.

You'd need to modally filter Colebrooke Row at that point.

reckon Colebrooke Row is fine left as it is; its the paved island inbetween City Road and Goswell Road that gets a little congested; and of course the traffic lights that could be more in-sync for the cyclists crossing both roads.. who sometimes / often get a green light one side, then frustratingly a red the other, causing some of us to simply continue on our journey where the road is clear - as it often is - as there's helpfully 'KEEP CLEAR' markings on that bit of Goswell Road, :-)

For my money, it's mainly Owen Street which needs a different layout, but there there's the difficulty of it apparently being some kind of private road. Again, I can't remember all the details.

agree that Owen Street could be better: after crossing Goswell Road, cyclists often cycle on the road instead of the marked cycle path; perhaps a similar makeover to Hackney's Goldsmiths Row would be a good solution: changing more of the road into a marked cycle-route?

this morning, there was some TFL-funded traffic-counting happening at the cross-roads where Popham Road meets New North Road..

ref. the aftermath of a horrific accident that happened on 28-Nov at the Popham Road / New North Road cross-roads

suffered a near-miss at this roundabout last night (Northchurch Road riding east across Southgate Road); despite right-of-way and bright lights, somebody inconsiderate and distinctly dangerous approached at speed from the north and declined to give way (!) - reported via RoadSafe,

ps. just noticed that Southgate Road has a 20mph speed limit, might be useful to have a well advertised speed camera at key LCN junctions such as this - to ensure that people slow down, as the traffic calming measures seem to be insufficient in persuasion for some people!

Happens all the time at that roundabout. Most people seem to treat it as a T-junction and the only reason traffic from the north slows is the speed bump.

You have to approach that round-about with extreme caution. I've had to follow many cars there and politely explain to the drivers how a round-about works.

It's poorly designed to begin with. Traffic lights would make more sense but they probably don't want to disrupt traffic flows on Southgate road.

I got really frustrated with this route and decided to just ride down upper street and through Angel, it's much better than being treated as a 2nd class road user at every junction you go through.

It's a known problem, a little more serious here than at other mini-roundabouts (of which a great number were installed mainly because if they were part of local safety schemes, authorities used to get quite a lot of additional money; they're not all bad, but this one definitely is). The junction needs proper speed control measures at the northbound and southbound entry points. (Signalisation would be overkill and conflict with existing signals at Downham Road.) The 20mph limit is very recent and hasn't been tested yet, although Southgate Road would certainly be an excellent spot for targeted enforcement. A recent scheme by Hackney improved the situation a little by making the presence of cyclists crossing E-W more obvious, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

as always, nice to know our activist and active friends have such issues on their radar!

keep up the good work!!

ps. did anybody else notice and enjoy the ALLEZ! crowd at the LCN R8 Angel crossing the other day??!

{searching for web mentions}

looks like a re-branding to take effect on this route soon..

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/quietways-bloomsbury-walthamstow-map-2015.pdf

{per a link from the LCC newsletter}

based on a near-miss experience at the Northchurch Road / Southgate Road (B102) roundabout, and sight of the end of other similar instances, consider the roundabout junction there to currently be unsafe, and in need of further traffic calming either side of the junction;

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.541745,-0.0849316,18z

especially before any promotion as a Quietway route..

fyi, @charlie_lcc, @Oliver Schick,

That roundabout is horrible if you're going south on Southgate rd and then turning right onto Northchurch, never know if cars will give way to you or not. One of the reasons I changed my route and approach roundabout from east Northchurch and go straight over. Feels much safer.

That and there are some asshole drivers on Southgate, who really love a punishment pass. Got told once I was in a drivers way and if I can't go the speed limit I should get off my bike and walk!

Almost knocked off again while crossing this roundabout from W-E...driver heading N-S set off from the give way lines as I was on the roundabout but had their eyes focused on their lap, probably texting. I braked and stopped, and they fortunately looked up at the last second and brake, stopping mm from my forks and front wheel. Idiot.