Centralised discussion space for TfL plans and cycling in London

I'd like this to go to court. Surely an injunction can be put in place pretty quickly.

But on what grounds? The highway authority is the highway authority and has sweeping powers over its highways.

As I've said in various places before, some campaigners in the past have tried to go down the legal route, but all that did was to cause authorities to dig their heels in further and to be even more obstructive on a legal defence footing. If that looks like an attractive route to go down, the ground for change simply hasn't been prepared properly. It's a lot of work--while the much-praised redesign of Kensington High Street all those years ago was good compared to what had been there before, it wasn't all that good, and streets like it do need updating every decade or so, so there's a natural process that people wanting the street to change need to get involved in. Having things plonked in from a great height generally doesn't work.

Hopefully tfl just takes the street over.

Well, TfL can't just 'take a street over'--it would require primary legislation. (I'm not a legal expert, so my understanding would be incorrect here, apologies if so.) Its powers over the TLRN (or 'GLA Roads') stem from the 1999 GLA Act (basically, with quite a few changes, taken over from the Traffic Director for London's office). I have no idea how that would work politically; it seems that the Tories don't like the fact that the Mayor of London is Labour again and they have greatly damaged the function of TfL in the last five years or so (as they have damaged local authorities, but of course K&C to them isn't just any old local authority, so undoubtedly it suffered much less than others; still managed to cause the Grenfell disaster somehow). With their general anti-statist tendencies, somehow I can't imagine that they'd want the GLA/TfL to acquire more power over streets in London, but maybe I've missed something somewhere.

Well, TfL can't just 'take a street over'--it would require primary legislation.

They literally can, but it requires the consent of either borough or the Secretary of State. See section 5:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/29/section/261

I can’t see them siding with the Mayor over K&C, even if the bike lane policy and cash comes from central government.

(I’m as puzzled how the lane ever came into existence given what we know about K&C)

Sorry, my point wasn't clear--I meant that in order for TfL to 'just take a street over', i.e. without the safeguards in the GLA Act, that would require primary legislation, to establish some kind of unilateral power. I lost the point because I started going on about something else.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/protest-kensington-high-street-cycle-lanes-b127523.html

Thank you to everyone who came yesterday and to those who sent support.

On location livestream here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CIQlZXHndLK/?igshid=18xpkf148jbys

Our action page to lobby the council here https://membership.lcc.org.uk/tell-kc-keep-kensington-high-street-cycle-lanes-today

Local group Better Streets For Kensington are filing for judicial review via solicitors Environmental Law Foundation

https://twitter.com/betterstreetskc/status/1334200636532011010?s=19

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The lanes were clearly not designed to be long term, but surely its should complete the trail period.
The business have submitted no data, other then a petition that its made deliveries more difficult, and increased traffic.
The initial part of the 7 weeks was also blighted by works to services, how this is considered due process i dont know.

LFGSSites

Please bring yourself and others who care about cyclist safety to Kensington Town Hall at 7:30 PM today.

https://www.facebook.com/events/301047271158266

Video from yesterday summing up this dangerous and senseless proposal by the council https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXIPoSAznmA

Emailed. All power to you. Everything crossed.

Let us know how you think the highbury west scheme is doing as it beds in. Maybe we'll cross paths again canalside - would be good to understand any knock on impacts etc. Islington's St Peters LTN is still doing well as far as i can tell, and fewer anecdotes of reactionary anger five months in.

Thanks for the video and updates. Good luck to all those involved

The mail is just really rubbing it in.

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https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/sadiq-khan-high-street-kensington-cycle-lanes-b151022.html

Let's see if this is hot air or not.
I think the headline is a bit stretching given vagueness of his comments

I think it goes live in the new year, I've been watching the traffic on Mackenzie rd for a bit to get a feel for "normal", I'll speak up here on how it changes.

I hope that the spread in time of installation doesn't hamper the potential benefits due to the eto's expiring before the final implementations are bedded in.

Would have attended if I could. Today roads from Chiswick to Hyde Park pretty much gridlocked I'm guessing people now going christmas shopping now they can and deciding to drive.

Satnavs route drivers to 'available roadspace' - by 'widening' roads, instead of creating 'breathing space' for what traffic is already there, waze and google maps direct more motors in to fill what gaps were made. So people who would otherwise be using the A road (Cromwell Road or Holland Park Ave/Bayswater, or the Westway, are directed by their phones to use Kensington High St instead.

All predictable, all avoidable.

Have to go into central from West London today. Anyone know what Kensington high Street is like now? I'm guessing it's gone back to being an obstacle course.

Can't believe you aren't following https://twitter.com/KensingtonVan !

Is anyone familiar with the new cycle lanes that have been put in around Camden over the last couple of months? Some of them seem very poorly implemented, my current fave is the segregated lane on York way between agar grove and market road. What was previously a wide and fairly innocuous stretch is now a segragated bike lane through the bus stop, with parked cars on the right. The road is significantly narrowed which seems to have worsened the traffic going north.

It makes the right turn onto market road really dangerous as there is no space or time to pull out from the bike lane, across the line of parked cars and traffic which is mostly going straight on, and then onto the roundabout. If I take the road then I just get abuse from arseholes telling me to use the bike lane.

I'm all for improving cycling infrastructure but it's frustrating when it seems to make life worse for cyclists. Is there anywhere I can send some feedback, or perhaps gain a better understanding of the overall plans for the area?

. The road is significantly narrowed which seems to have worsened the traffic going north.

Are you sure this isn't just the roadworks still in place? But I agree the right turns have been almost entirely neglected, with the expectation that you are continuing North across Camden Road. The right turn into Goods Way heading South at the other end is definitely sketchy.

Overall I think they improve the route but you need your head screwed on at the junctions which Camden seem particularly poor on, cf Gower Street.

Perhaps the roadworks further up are causing the heavy traffic. It will be interesting to see how things settle down, maybe there is further work to come with the roundabout which has always been a bit crap

Traffic north along there is constrained by the limited green time to cross Camden Road. The cycle lane makes no difference, though maybe it makes the queue seem longer.

As always, if you consider the existing road to be innocuous, the lane is not for you. Though right turns on all of the temporary schemes are awkward at best. There are plans to properly rebuild some of the junctions in the near future including York Way.

I'd like Islington to filter Market Road as part of their pledge to LTN the whole borough, but I'm not sure they have the guts. If they did that they could rethink the mini-roundabout.

The street space consultation ends in a few days - https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/general/streetspace/

Ideally this would be a sticky in the main forum. The feedback really matters and this affects us all.

Have you asked @Velocio to make it a “sticky”?

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/01/removed-london-bike-lane-blocked-by-parked-cars-most-of-the-time-study-kensington-and-chelsea-council

Who would have guessed? Travel times go up for cars when you remove a bike lane that serves 4000 people per day

""Bike is Best submitted a freedom of information request to ask how the council had formally assessed the success or otherwise of the Kensington High Street scheme. The council responded: “No criteria or metrics were developed by which the scheme was to be assessed.”

"Since the decision we have received a letter signed by 25 residents’ associations, which represent 3,400 households, welcoming the decision to remove the lanes. We have had over 1,300 emails from residents and 85% were against the cycle lane.”

This updated total of 1,300 residents represents 0.8% of the borough’s population"

Says it all.