2014-06-06/07 Hackney Cycling Week-end

Hackney's upcoming cycling week-end, just ahead of Bike Week, will include the Hackney Cycling Conference but also the Hackney Cycling Showcase in and around Haggerston Park.

Activities and exhibitors include: bike fixing lessons with Hackney Bike Workshop and Bike Yard East; BMX taster sessions and skills exhibition with Hackney BMX; jumble sale courtesy of London Bike Kitchen; cargo bike display; and a bike polo exhibition courtesy of London Hardcourt Bike Polo Association.

The Conference features skydancer as a speaker, and I'll do a session on the emerging Vision for Hackney as part of the Strawbale Sessions. Other than forumengers, there are also a lot of other excellent speakers.

Watch Streetfilms at the Hackney Picturehouse on Friday evening and/or come to the Hackney Cycling Social at Hackney City Farm on Saturday evening.

Check out the June part of the 2014 diary for loads of events happening in and around Hackney.

http://hackney.cc/diary14.html#jun

Hope to see you there!

Hello Oliver & everyone,

I'll be going to the conference as a (new) councillor from Clissold - under old boundaries it was London's cycliest ward - and I'm happy to put any questions people have to the speakers.

Oliver I posted a question on twitter but no-one from Hackney LCC got back to me - I assume that re-introducing right-hand turns at Dalston Junction will be part of the Dalston Vision draft? Needs to be taken up with TfL rather than the borough, but it seems to me a no-brainer.

re. Stokey, as the Vision for that part of the borough notes, the bottom section of Albion Road remains a headache: heavily used by bikes, cars and buses with the latter two accelerating to above 20mph and decelerating back to 0 very quickly.

Good to have you on here, Sophie/Ned/Sade (delete as applicable :) ). As to Dalston Junction, yes, it is our general principle that all turns should be permitted at all junctions, with very few exceptions, and it's a principle that we would always apply here, as fully as possible. Obviously, cyclists can get off and push their bikes along the footway, crossing at pedestrian crossings, but that's not good enough.

However, as you probably know, Dalston Junction is on the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) and Hackney has little say over it. The problem with TfL is that they are extremely unlikely to want to re-introduce all the turns here. There is, of course, a reason why turns are banned at junctions; it's to emphasise and prioritise certain alignments over others, in this case east-west traffic (mostly bound for or from the motorway at Hackney Wick or the A12 Lea Interchange, or the Lea Bridge Road). If you permit all turns, particularly right turns, you generate delays to the passage of motor traffic in one (or two) dominant directions, and this is not something that TfL wants. They would try to 'model' (motor) traffic here and tell you that it 'couldn't be made to work' or some such phrase because it would lead to longer queues and more congestion. By contrast, we would argue that there wouldn't be longer queues or more congestion because some existing motor traffic would simply 'disappear', i.e. people would switch their trips to other modes. This is a phenomenon known as '(motor) traffic evaporation' and it's not something that's taken sufficiently seriously by TfL. Needless to say, we will continue to push the case. We want permeability in all directions at all nodes precisely to reduce the amount of through motor traffic.

The right turns would be particularly unlikely to be re-introduced here, so that, for the time being, it would make sense to reintroduce the left turn from Ball's Pond Road to Kingsland High Street at least. Even that would be looked at askance by TfL, though! It's not such a problem for cyclists who are willing to ignore traffic rules (it's pretty easy to turn left there), but we obviously want them to be able to do it lawfully.

Albion Road: As you've probably read in the draft Vision, we want all of the street network away from the main streets to be modally filtered, so that all through motor traffic (as opposed to motor traffic which actually has a destination in an area) uses the main street network. We would want this to be done to all streets in Clissold Ward. It would even be nice to do something like this to Albion Road.

This will probably be something that's quite far in the future (10-20 years, or could it happen more quickly?), but it's certainly conceivable to make it a through route only for buses and cyclists. It will depend on how cycle and bus traffic develops in the area, and then the traffic 'cell' (within which all streets are modally filtered) could eventually be extended to include all of Stoke Newington and parts of Dalston between Green Lanes, Church Street, the A10, Ball's Pond Road, Newington Green Road, and Newington Green.

As councillors, it would of course be great if you could drum up political support for all of it. :) If it was supported by a large majority of the local population, it could certainly happen more quickly than I envisage above.

(We're always available if you want to do a walkabout and talk about traffic issues in the area.)

Will be good to meet you at the conference.

Thanks, Oliver (yes, somewhat sadly and predictably it's Ned rather than Sophie or Sade).

I guess I think, re. turns for cycles at Dalston Jct, that we have to at least ask (and keep asking) - it reminded me of the illegal right-turn from northbound on Norton Folgate into Commercial Road, where bikes are supposed to follow cars into a ridiculous question mark shaped route, if that's where they want to go. In the meantime yes, I guess we keep making all turns, illegally.

Through route for buses & bikes only on Albion Rd is interesting - are there examples in London of such a scheme (I can think of some in Cambridge)?

Would be happy to do a walkabout before too long, ideally with someone from Living Streets and someone from the 'neighbourhoods' part of the council. Clissold is certainly somewhere we can push to go further, faster, since the popular support is likely there, if it can be mobilized (a starter campaign could be for resurfacing of Nevill Road which is heavily used by cycle commuters and in a pretty poor state).

See you Friday!

The contra flow on Theobalds is bike/bus only

Thanks, Oliver (yes, somewhat sadly and predictably it's Ned rather than Sophie or Sade).

However that may be, I didn't predict it. :)

I guess I think, re. turns for cycles at Dalston Jct, that we have to at least ask (and keep asking) - it reminded me of the illegal right-turn from northbound on Norton Folgate into Commercial Road, where bikes are supposed to follow cars into a ridiculous question mark shaped route, if that's where they want to go. In the meantime yes, I guess we keep making all turns, illegally.

You probably mean Commercial Street. Yes, as the engineer working on the Shoreditch scheme said to me at the time: 'If you can make that junction do what you want, you can solve the whole area.' One aspect of making that junction do what TfL wanted (i.e., prioritise through motor traffic along the new Inner Ring Road) was to mainly emphasise the east-west flows, resulting in the banned turns. It's fairly standard traffic engineering practice, and the only alternative they would see would be knocking down houses. Needless to say, with the right political support these problems can be solved (and de-technicised).

Through route for buses & bikes only on Albion Rd is interesting - are there examples in London of such a scheme (I can think of some in Cambridge)?

Well, there used to be the Narroway, but that was one-way and you know how it's now much better. There are plenty of bus-and-bike priority schemes, but I'm pretty sure I don't know of an example in London that isn't a shopping street (as, for instance, Rye Lane) where it's buses and cycles only. The example Nic mentions is obviously not buses and cycles only eastbound.

If anything innovative happens to Albion Road, it'll probably not be the first step. If you were able to gather the necessary support, it would obviously be good, but the first step would generally be to filter the more minor streets, creating smaller traffic 'cells' and only then moving on to more major streets like Albion Road. I'd be pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong here, of course.

Would be happy to do a walkabout before too long, ideally with someone from Living Streets and someone from the 'neighbourhoods' part of the council. Clissold is certainly somewhere we can push to go further, faster, since the popular support is likely there, if it can be mobilized

I can't wait. :)

We could certainly rustle up someone from Hackney Living Streets for the purpose. Obviously, as a councillor you now have the ability to summon someone from Streetscene to attend a walkabout and answer residents' concerns in detail. :)

(a starter campaign could be for resurfacing of Nevill Road which is heavily used by cycle commuters and in a pretty poor state).

Re-surfacing is always a good idea. Get in touch with Highways about that. They establish their work programme quite far in advance and it's worth getting it in there early.

This just in:

Camden WED V4 / Low Res - YouTube

Tottenham Court Road will be walking, buses and bikes only (but again a shopping street).

This sounds great, Oliver. Hope to see you there for some of it.
Ax

Hackney's upcoming cycling week-end, just ahead of Bike Week, will include the Hackney Cycling Conference but also the Hackney Cycling Showcase in and around Haggerston Park.

The Conference features skydancer as a speaker, and I'll do a session on the emerging Vision for Hackney as part of the Strawbale Sessions. Other than forumengers, there are also a lot of other excellent speakers.

Watch Streetfilms at the Hackney Picturehouse on Friday evening and/or come to the Hackney Cycling Social at Hackney City Farm on Saturday evening.

Check out the June part of the 2014 diary for loads of events happening in and around Hackney.

http://hackney.cc/diary14.html

Hope to see you there!

This just in:

Camden WED V4 / Low Res - YouTube

Tottenham Court Road will be walking, buses and bikes only (but again a shopping street).

aimed at the students(resident) of that area surely?

what's with the err straw bales?

I know, it's terrible isn't it. You would have thought Oliver of all people would know that straw bale is two words, not one. Tsk.

aimed at the students(resident) of that area surely?

what's with the err straw bales?

I know, it's terrible isn't it. You would have thought Oliver of all people would know that straw bale is two words, not one. Tsk.

Oliver must have been strohgeballert?

Total zugeballert.

what's with the err straw bales?

I know, it's terrible isn't it. You would have thought Oliver of all people would know that straw bale is two words, not one. Tsk.

In my defence, that flyer was produced by an Englishman and the initial name suggested by a Kiwi. I had no part in the production. :)

Spelling of 'Straw Bale Room' now changed in the image, but the session name stays, as it's just a proper name.

The talks are in the Straw Bale Room of Hackney City Farm. Hence the bales. And the farm. And the city way over yonder on the horizon (perhaps).

Thanks to all who came down on a surprisingly sunny day. Hackney Cycling Showcase with added cornelius blackfoot and Gustav.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3861/14354195336_141699bc97_b_d.jpg

(And Buffalo Bill, WillMelling, thedutch, io78, Ana Sanches, and various other forumengers.)

More photos here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/15429128@N07/sets/72157645079725064/