The improved Central London cycle grid on Whiston Road

Last October Hackney Council consulted on improving a section of the Central London cycle grid along Whiston Road, and I wrote about it here whilst the consultation was still open. This section of road was historically known as LCN+ route 16 but is now referred to as the Central London Grid, which forms part of the 'wider quietway route'.

The Central London Grid is a matrix of safe, connected quietway routes and is aimed at new cyclists and people who like to cycle away from heavily trafficked roads. The CLG network will provide continuous and connected routes for cyclists linking key destinations. The intention of the CLG quietway routes is that they will follow direct back-street routes, through parks, along waterways or tree-lined streets. The routes will overcome barriers to cycling, targeting less confident cyclists who want to use low-traffic routes, while also providing for existing cyclists who want to travel at a gentler pace.

However Whiston Road is also a busy road as there are no restrictions for motor traffic and so many drivers use it as it is the most direct and fastest route from Hackney Road or Broadway Market through to Pitfield Street (Cycle Superhighway 1) or New North Road and is also the preferred route for sat nav and mobile phone navigation apps for East-West drivers in the area.

These cycling improvements along Whiston Road were fully funded by TFL, at a cost of £640,000, as part of the Mayor of London's vision for cycling in London programme but were designed and implemented by Hackney Council.

The first section of work to be carried out here was in January, when low level traffic lights were installed at the crossroads junction at Queensbridge Road, which included early release lights 'giving cyclists extra time to clear the junction and making it safer for cyclists to cross the junction'. Yet despite a complete replacement of lights on all four arms of the junction, with some very much welcome pedestrian countdown signals also added, no early release lights were installed on Queensbridge Road for cyclists travelling from North to South. In fact the whole junction was resurfaced and repainted without even an ASL installed to assist anyone wanting to get onto the cycle grid by bicycle from Queensbridge Road

The Queensbridge Road / Whiston Road junction, before and after improvements funded by TFLs "vision for cycling" budget

The early release signals also only allow about three seconds head start. A slight improvement but not enough time to 'clear the junction', especially for less physically able cyclists. This is not the case on CS2, which I use daily, where the early release for cyclists is about double the length of time as it is here.

As the pavements along Whiston Road were repaved and pinch points added temporary provision was provided for pedestrians, as it would clearly be unsafe for school children to mix with fast moving motor vehicles on foot but, for some reason, perfectly acceptable to do so whilst on two wheels



For a week at the beginning of March it was very pleasant to cycle along Whiston Road due to the fact that it was closed whilst resurfacing was carried out and kerbs replaced on the repaved pavements; all motor traffic, including buses, were diverted elsewhere



Once the resurfacing was completed and the car parking spaces were repainted it was clear to see just how wide this road is with all the parked cars removed and how there was easily the space available for protected cycle tracks



However Philip Glanville, the Mayor of Hackney, declared that the road "wasn't suitable" for cycle tracks as Hackney has to "balance the needs of all road users"

The improved Central London cycle grid in Hackney, a dedicated quietway targeting less confident cyclists who want to use low-traffic routes, except that we have to balance the needs of all road users and ensure that four lanes remain for the use of motor vehicles, including lorries taking short cuts to avoid main roads

Before and after cycling improvements on the Embankment in Central London, a road that now does genuinely balance the needs of all road users with dedicated space for motor traffic, cycling and walking

Hackney's road user hierarchy puts cyclists second in their list below pedestrians but way above private motor traffic. This hierarchy has not been used in this scheme and to even suggest that the council would place cyclists above buses is nonsense 



Most of the buildings have been completely regenerated along both sides of this road over the past few years but it seems a missed opportunity that a complete redesign of the road layout did not also take place. 

The same spot on Google street view in 2008 and last week. The space either side of the road has been transformed but there are barely any changes to the road itself except for some resurfacing, improved pavements and also that it is no longer a tree-lined street!

New car parking has been created for residents, both under the new apartments and on the three new through roads that were also built off Whiston Road

Moving parking off the street into the newly created side roads and large parking garage should have been an opportunity to free up valuable space on the carriageway for safer cycling on this dedicated cycling route

A quick browse of the Councils website shows the price list for the resident parking space on Whiston Road, and for those vehicles with the largest engines it costs £265 per year or just over £5 per week to store your car here 24/7 all year round. Most cars with "normal size" engines will pay just over £2 per week and the greenest vehicles with no local emissions pay £10 per year or 19p per week, although a £10 discount is applied if you apply online or by post, so I assume it then becomes free to park here. Prices don't really increase at all from September and actually slightly decrease in a few cases

A cycle hanger is available for cyclists just off Whiston Road, one of two hangers along this section of Whiston Road

The installation of cycle hangers in locations across the borough  is something that Hackney Council can be praised for and, as you can see from this map, they are one of only a handful of councils who have been really committed to this scheme. However it costs £30.00 per year to store a bicycle here and whilst that is subsidised by the council it is three times the costs to store an emissions free motor car, despite the fact that a cycle hanger fits six bikes, takes up less than one space of a car and also uses no on carriageway space. 

The CLG will contribute to Hackney's core strategy by improving accessibility and safety for cyclists by improving cycle facilities to encourage cycling in favour of car use thereby decreasing congestion.

The only sections of Whiston Road that weren't resurfaced were the speed cushions at both ends of the road. Below you can see how they remain in place at the Eastern end of the road but due to the car parking cyclists have to travel directly in the middle of the road to avoid both them and the door zone, assuming it is safe to do this if no traffic is coming the other way. Motor vehicles avoiding them will often drive directly on the other side of the road to avoid them too, pretty daunting if you're cycling in the opposite direction.



The crossing area outside the playground was narrowed to 'make it easier for children to cross the road'.



But it unfortunately creates a pinch point for people cycling. There is easily the space here to create a cycle bypass, whilst improving the crossing distance as suggested by myself in this blog in October, and also by the Hackney Cycling Campaign in their consultation response. The response from the Council officer to this was that "Existing parking bays are located on the approach to the proposed build outs, therefore cyclists would be in the primary position when approaching these build outs reducing any risk of conflict with traffic following behind." So any children wanting to cycle to this playground simply need to "man up" and cycle in the primary position in front of lorries. This is something I attempted to do whilst cycling along here to take pictures last week, which the car behind took exception to inflicting a close pass punishment on me in return

I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable expecting my child to cycle in primary position along this "improved quietway"

before and after the cycling improvements on Whiston Road. The Hackney Council officer is wrong; this schoolchild is not in the primary position here as they approach the narrowed crossing but is cycling on the pavement, as almost all children  will continue to as the road just is not safe enough

The crossing is an improvement for pedestrians of course, as is the new build out that finally allows those in a wheelchair or with a pushchair to finally be able to pass the tree, five years after the yard outside the new apartment block was built which caused this blockage

Raised entry treatments have also been installed on all the side roads, another slight improvement, but again I don't understand why the council won't experiment with continuous pavements so it is made clear that pedestrians have clear priority at these sides roads, rather than motorists, as is standard in the Netherlands and being installed in the neighbouring borough of Waltham forest. As with CS1 it seems pedestrians have got more value out of the vision for cycling budget allocated to Hackney than people cycling have.  

Will this child continue to cycle on the pavement or will he now cycle in primary position on the road through this pinch point in front of the council refuse truck? I watched the refuse truck drive directly from one end of Whiston Road to the other, far exceeding 20mph without stopping, using this route as a cut through like most motor traffic here does

A distributor road in Breda, the Netherlands. The distance between the buildings on this street is actually narrower than on Whiston Road above but here they have managed to keep car parking along both sides, along with a bi-directional cycle track to allow safe cycling conditions for parents with their young children. The carriageway for motor traffic  is much narrower than Whiston Road instead, despite this also being a bus route, leading to slower vehicle speeds overall

In their recent cycling plan Hackney council stated that their aim was to have 5% of primary school children and 15% of secondary school children in the borough cycling to school by 2024. I can't see how they expect to achieve that with this scheme unless they expect all of those journeys to be made on the pavement. In the cycling plan the council also stated that they "provide all year 5 and 6 pupils with national standards cycle training delivered by a training provider so that they can develop the skills, knowledge and confidence required to cycle to school safely using the roads. This training is important for pupils cycling anywhere in Hackney, and can go a long way towards changing people's perceptions of the safety of a road, giving them the confidence to cycle safely without needing segregated cycle tracks" Whilst bikeability training can increase confidence there is no evidence to suggest it leads to more children cycling to school. Two million school children have received bikeability training in the last ten years (including every schoolchild in Hackney) with little or no increase in cycling levels to school recorded

Hackney Council on the limitations of the cycle training they provide

A queues of cars along the "improved" Whiston Road towards the junction with the A10, at the spot where Niniam Donald was killed whilst cycling in 2007 by a lorry turning into Whiston Road

This scheme offers only very little improvement for anyone who already cycles here, I've used it several times in recent weeks and it it still unpleasant to use. A much better route exists slightly further north, adjacent to the canal and it is farcical to suggest that 'this route will overcome barriers to cycling, targeting less confident cyclists who want to use low-traffic routes'. 

I like Philip Glanville as he is clearly a nice guy and I hope he'll do a decent job as Mayor of Hackney. However housing is his specialist subject and he doesn't seem to get cycling. He did buy a bike, as that was a mayoral election pledge of his, but doesn't seem to have used it yet. I hope he does use his new bike and tries out some of the boroughs dedicated cycling routes like Whiston Road. I also hopes he looks to other countries to see how we can make Hackney a place where everyone can cycle by improving our roads, making better use of the cycling budget and truly putting people at the top of the hierarchy. 

Whiston Road

Hackney Council are currently consulting on proposals for Whiston Road as part of the Central London cycle grid. This section of road is historically known as LCN+ cycle route 16, running from Goldsmith's Row to the A10, and then beyond towards New North Road by Shoreditch Park to link up with the route into the City of London via Shepherdess Walk. It also crosses Cycle Superhighway 1 at Britannia Junction, the most dangerous junction for cycling in all of Hackney. It's a very unpleasant road to cycle on as there are no restrictions for motor traffic and so drivers can use this route as a shortcut all the way from Bethnal Green to New North Road.

The diagram of the consultation plans starts in the West where Whiston Road meets the A10. No changes are planned at all here; no restrictions to motor traffic, no protected space for cycling and the awful speed cushions remain. Once under the railway bridge this part of Whiston Road has changed dramatically over the past few years. Or at least the buildings either side have but nothing much has changed on the road itself.

Whiston Road as it was four years ago and today, via Google maps streetview

As you can see despite the regeneration of the buildings either side no changes have occurred on the road, apart from those cycle symbols painted onto the carriageway fading slightly. The road is wide here so a real shame the road was not also reconstructed at the same time the estates were and that safe dedicated cycle tracks were not constructed on this 'cycle route'.

If you're travelling along the pavement on Whiston Road in a wheelchair or with a pushchair then you'll have to walk in the road here. Despite the building on the left only being a couple of years old there is no cycle infrastructure or even wider pavements here yet car parking remains on both sides of the carriageway. The car parking isn't even marked out on the consultation map so I assume they have just ignored it, rather than any plans to remove it,

Just next to here the proposal is for a "raised table with uncontrolled pedestrian crossing and build out". They have recently constructed one of these further along on Whiston Road so this gives a clear indication of what to expect

Clearly easier to cross for pedestrians but a nasty pinch point for people cycling.

A road I used in the Dutch village of 's-gravendeel where the pinch point was in place for drivers, not for people cycling. Also note the road surface here which slows traffic down as cyclists share with drivers in this 30kph (18mph) street

Further east by the junction of Bryant Street a zebra crossing is planned, with build outs again. Bryant Street is a new street, constructed as part of the estate regeneration

This road is mainly used as car parking for the replacement flats (and presumably deliveries as well) but it is not filtered and links Whiston Road with How's Street, two streets that it was not possible to directly drive between before the regeneration. What does not exist on the plans in this consultation (or even on open street map) is two more new roads that are also not filtered on the north side of Whiston Road that now make it possible to drive directly between Whiston Road and Laburnum Street north of it, something that again could not happen before the regeneration began

Thanks to the historical feature on Google streetview we can see exactly how peoples homes have been turned into roads for through motor traffic

This is quite a theme for the regeneration here and it continues on the new estate north of the Regents canal, which was also part of this regeneration scheme. Simply move the slider back in time on google streetview here or here to see some examples of more new through routes for motor traffic

An entrance to a large residents car park under the apartments from one of the new roads. Note how awful it is to cross the car park entrance on foot, especially for those in a wheelchair or with a pushchair as there isn't even a dropped kerb in place

These roads may well be needed for people to access parking and any disabled residents who perhaps need dropping off as close to their door as possible but a shame the new roads could not be built as filtered roads so they can only be used as through routes by people walking and cycling

A residential "access only" road that is also a main cycling route and filtered to motor traffic in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

"Swimmers Lane" is another new route directly alongside the long disused Haggerston Baths, and has been created as a cycling and walking route linking Whiston Road and Laburnum Street

It can be a handy cut through if you want to avoid cycling on the A10 or Queensbridge Road, although I'd personally prefer a wider Dutch style red tarmac cycle track with a slight height difference. It is also used heavily as a cut through by local moped delivery drivers so I'm not always keen on letting my daughter walk through there ahead of me. I also wish they'd install motorcycle parking on the carriageway nearby as the cycle stands are currently often used by motorbikes

They'll be a raised table here making it easier to access but I suspect any children using it will continue to use the pavement once they get to Whiston Road, something I see often and don't blame them!

At the Queensbridge Road junction the proposal is for "low level signals with early release for cyclists" assuming you're willing to ignore the Department for Transport's advice and are eager to continue onto the ASL

East of Queensbridge Road and the plan is for another set of early release low level cycle signals for those cycling West along with another raised table by the entrance / exit to Haggerston Park.  Between the Park and the very busy Goldsmith's Row cycle route there are actually some decent proposals; a removal of all on street car parking (a total of 17 spaces, with some moving to minor side streets). Assuming the new double yellow lines are enforced this should be an improvement, it is just a shame that no car parking is planned to be removed from the western section in this consultation. Another improvement is low level early release signals on all arms of the Goldsmith's Row / Pritchard's Row junction, hopefully putting an end to the regular occurrence of drivers turning right into Whiston Road in front of people cycling ahead towards Broadway Market

Why's the van on the wrongside of the rd‽ @Hackneycyclist @hackneycouncil @MPSHackney @VincentStops @StopKillingCycl pic.twitter.com/2VFT5W4NQi

— RossiBike (@RossiTheBossi) August 16, 2016

So, some minor improvements along the eastern section of Whiston Road but virtually nothing for the rest of it and overall a very poor consultation which offers little to people cycling. Compare it to Camden Council's Central London cycle grid, recently consulted on

Actual dedicated safe cycle tracks, so no sharing with the buses or speeding cement mixers planned here 

Whiston Road between the A10 and Queensbridge Road is easily wide enough for dedicated cycle tracks

Car parking along both sides of the carriageway, two wide traffic lanes and a child cycling on a narrow pavement earlier today

Whether this is cycle tracks along both sides of the carriageway as per the Camden consultation or, if car parking was to be retained, a bi-directional cycle track instead

A bi-directional cycle track I used on a residential road in Breda, the Netherlands. The road as nowhere near as busy with traffic as Whiston Road is but it was a distributor road to other residential roads and also had one bus service running along it. 

Closing the two new roads north of Whiston Road to motor traffic so they are only accessible from Laburnum Street would ensure this cycle track was safe with no turning movements across it risking a collision. Between Haggerston Park and Pritchard's Row there would also be the space for this treatment if the proposed removal of on street car parking were to happen. I fear that the short stretch of Whiston Road outside Haggerston Park is probably too narrow for cycle tracks whilst maintaining two way traffic so perhaps a solution could be turning Whiston Road one way for motor traffic along here to accommodate a cycle track?

A one way street in Haarlem with ample space for two way cycling. Could a similar layout work on The Central London Cycle Grid in Hackney?

This would mean a short diversion of the 394 bus route, perhaps a quarter of a mile south of here via Hackney Road instead, but I would support this if this was to achieve safer cycling conditions, and I say that as a regular user of the 394 having used it twice this weekend.

In their 2015-2025 cycling plan Hackney Council state that they want to make Hackney's roads the safest for cycling in the UK and somewhere where it is second nature for everyone, no matter what their age to cycle. Unfortunately these plans will do little to achieve those aims. If Hackney is, as also stated in this plan, still serious about achieving 5% of primary school children and 15% of secondary school children cycling to school within a little over 8 years time then they seriously need to go back to the drawing board. Unless they want scores of children cycling on the pavement every morning then Hackney Council need to realise that riding in primary position outside of the door zone along Whiston Road, with motor traffic behind you will not appeal to most school children, never mind their parents. If this is what Hackney Council truly believes is a cycle grid then those targets will likely never be met. In the Netherlands 49% of primary school children go to school by bike and more than 90% of children aged over 12 do so, it is surely sensible for Hackney Council to look abroad (but beyond Jen Gehl) if their cycling targets are to be met and children in the borough are to remain safe on bikes.

The consultation closes this Friday 21st October, please respond here. 

Hackney Council Cycling Plan 2014-2024

Still up for consultation until Friday is Hackney councils transport strategy for the next ten years. The strategy consists of one core document and six "Daughter documents." One of these daughter documents is the 98-page long cycling plan.

Hackney council declare their goal in the very first paragraph, which is "to make cycling a normal, safe and attractive choice for travel and recreation for our residents and addressing barriers that prevent other residents from taking up cycling."

They make it clear that they want Hackney to be a place where anyone can cycle:

A place where it is second nature for everyone, no matter what their age, background or ethnicity to cycle already exists of course but with cycling still being a very small minority of trips within Hackney it's going to take an awful lot of change to Hackneys roads to enable us to get anywhere even close to the kind of levels of cycling you see in the Netherlands within the next ten years.

The objectives of the cycling plan include that "there will be high levels of cycling amongst residents from all backgrounds and communities in Hackney" and they hope that "the causes of real and perceived road danger for cyclists will have been tackled through improvements to the physical environment"

We'll skip over the introduction along with Policy background and wider influences and onto current cycling trends in Hackney where the council "outlines some of the more successful measures that have worked to increase levels and to identify some of the barriers the prevent others from regular cycling." It also reports that Hackney is "the borough [in London] with the highest cycling mode share for all trips with a figure of approximately 6%"

On existing cycling conditions in Hackney the council state that in recent years they have "taken a slightly different approach to cycling provision than the traditional approach of providing on-road cycle lanes focusing instead on improving the permeability and accessibility of the whole road network for cyclists, encouraging all users to share the road and improving safety by reducing traffic speed" and that "many of the measures previously undertaken in Hackney are now regarded as best practice and promoted elsewhere across London". Which is worrying if other boroughs of London wanting to provide for cyclists are looking to Hackney as best practice, an area which still has a fairly low cycling mode share of just 6%. They should instead be looking at other countries who have achieved much, much higher levels of cycling using the "traditional approach" of providing actual cycling provision that Hackney has avoided in recent years.

One thing the council can be praised for is its cycle permeability where strategic road closures have been placed on some of the more minor and residential streets, which have no doubt helped push the cycling levels up. Many of these, such as in De Beauvoir Town were installed decades ago so today's Labour council can't really take credit for that. The council have created some recently and they point out that they have "done this to good effect in Goldsmiths Row and London Fields, which is one of the key cycling routes in the borough"which is true and Goldsmith's Row is one of the best streets in Hackney to cycle along but this was, and always will be, one of the most popular cycle routes in the borough due to its location.

Here is a map showing the route with motor traffic free routes in green, shared routes in blue and the main bus route in red.

Even without the filtered permeability this would still be the busiest route as it's the shortest and quickest way to get from Hackney Central to Hackney Road. Still, Goldsmiths Row is very pleasant to cycle along and the council should be applauded for their efforts in improving a key cycle route in the borough.

Barriers to cycling in London

The council recognises that despite the "obvious progress made there remains a lot to be done to normalise cycling as a default mode of transport." Indeed, the statistics tell us that getting around by bike is the default option for only a small minority of residents of London with an overall mode share of around 2.4%. Stand on any road in the capital for a short while and you'll see that, on the whole, you do not get people from all backgrounds cycling. Whilst it is not totally exclusive to young, fit men it is still rare to see pensioners or very young children cycling on any of London's, or indeed, Hackney's main roads. Again just spend a short amount of time stood on any main road in Hackney and you can understand why this is, as surely the council can as well.

"Concerns about cyclist safety figure prominently as the primary barrier as to why many people do not cycle. The recently-published Mayor's Vision for Cycling states that the fear of injury is the number one reason why Londoners do not cycle. Similarly, a DfT study of a sample of 3,155 adults living in England found that 63% of potential cyclists surveyed agreed they would find cycling on the roads stressful and that 60% said it was too dangerous to cycle on the roads"

So we've quite clearly established that the number one reason why people do not cycle in London is due to the fear of injury whilst cycling on the roads. This is an entirely rational fear to have and most people share it, thankfully other countries have found a solution to this and that is to ensure people cycling do not have to share the road with heavy and fast moving traffic on main roads.

So how does Hackney intend to deal with this? Immediately after establishing that fear of cycling on London's roads is the main reason why people do not cycle they boast that "Hackney council has implemented free cycle awareness training course for HGV drivers" and work to "improving driver awareness through a series of advertisements on billboards, newspapers and radio" Except of course that does nothing whatsoever to conquer peoples fear of cycling on the roads. Plus all drivers have to take a test, and HGV drivers an extended test but we still have a very large amount of people being killed or seriously injured on the roads each year. People driving lorries sometimes make mistakes so how about taking that money spent on training and adverts and instead spend it on designing the roads so people do not have to share it with buses, lorries and other heavy or fast moving traffic. You know, the one and only way that mass cycling has been achieved since the rise of the motor vehicle. People talking about training and lorry driver awareness in the context of children or old people cycling are frankly not living in reality. Focusing on training and education hasn't led to safe mass cycling anywhere in the world so why persist with it? Why not just copy what does work?

Dangerous junctions is the next item listed as a barrier to cycling in London and they note that TFL is undertaking a junction review where they plan to improve six junctions located within Hackney "using Dutch-style bicycle-friendly traffic engineering technique." Thankfully TFL are finally starting to understand how to accommodate people cycling on their roads. Hackney council vow to "engage with TfL to address cyclist safety concerns at these junctions" so let us all hope this means Hackney councillors supporting the Dutch-style traffic engineering techniques, instead of blocking them for some unsafe "share the road" crossroads nonsense.

"Lack of secure cycle parking" and "incomplete cycle route and gyratories" are the other two barriers to cycling in London listed in this report.

We then move onto barriers to cycling in Hackney where I hope to be able to find out why 94% of trips in Hackney are made by other modes, an awful lot of them people sitting on buses taking over an hour to travel a few miles.

The first barrier to cycling in Hackney is a "need for improved network and junctions." Well, that is true; we need a high quality and joined up network of cycle routes and need these routes to continue to be safe as they pass through junctions "the need to provide safer cycle routes and safer crossings figures prominently in responses to all workplace and school travel surveys undertaken" say the council, followed by "there are a number of one-way streets on Hackney's road network that create obstacles for cyclists, leading to greater journey times and heightened perception of danger due to high vehicle speeds." I'm not sure why one-way streets are being mentioned here. People are scared to cycle amongst  traffic, they are not scared of cycling amongst traffic travelling in one direction only! The only section of that paragraph that is true is that one-way streets "lead to greater journey times". The only positive outcome for cyclists following the conversion of the Shoreditch one way system was to make it quicker to travel from Hackney Road to the Old Street roundabout for people who already cycled from Hackney Road to the Old Street roundabout. It is still a fast, wide multi-lane road which most choose to get the bus through. Removing gyratories and one way systems  offer nothing to people wanting to take up cycling unless you also add cycle provision.

"The council seeks to remove the gyratory on the A10 at Stoke Newington." Assuming the council don't install cycle tracks then it'll just be like Shoreditch is now. Or like Tottenham. Or like Brixton. A road that offers slightly quicker journey times for people already cycling but does nothing for the 94% who will continue to use other methods to travel through.

Old Street, which used to have four lanes of motor traffic going in one direction, now has two lanes of motor traffic in each direction thanks largely  to the Hackney cycling campaign. A truly awful place for people cycling. 

The entire area to the left used to be the road, now an over-sized pavement with no space for people cycling

"Lack of suitable bicycle storage and parking" is listed as another barrier to cycling in Hackney, which is what happens when you provide a tiny fraction of cycle parking spaces on your road as you do car parking spaces. The council have started to address this by installing bike hangers and to be fair to them I could be talking about any area in London, or indeed the rest of the UK.

Brenthouse Road, in Hackney Central. A road I used to live on and chose to illegally cycle the wrong way down each evening to get back to my flat, due to car parking on both sides of the road for the minority of residents who drove.

"In addition to secure cycle parking, the lack of other end-of-trip facilities such as shower and changing facilities has been identified as a significant barrier to workplaces and destinations in Hackney." This is not an issue in the Netherlands where people are not expected to ride fast road bikes at 20mph in the primary position and end up drenched in sweat after a 3 mile bike ride.

"Bike theft" is the next barrier to cycling in Hackney followed by "lack of cycle skills / training"

People should not have to have the necessary "road skills, fitness and confidence" just to get around the borough by bike, especially if you plan to have people cycling "no matter what their age." Cycling simply shouldn't be like that. Also if cycle training is not provided until Year 5 what about people aged under ten, are they excluded from cycling on Hackney's roads?

Picture courtesy of Mark Treasure

A Dutch child that does not have to worry about lacking road skills, fitness or confidence. If he moved to Hackney he "wouldn't need segregated cycle tracks" and could simply "develop the skills, knowledge and confidence required to cycle to school safely using the roads"

Picture courtesy of Ross

Hackney Road, one of the busiest cycle routes in Hackney, do we really expect children to cycle on roads like this in Hackney once they have had the necessary training to develop "road skills"?

"Culture and attitudes to cycling" is the next barrier to cycling in the borough. "Hackney is a place with a renowned cycling culture" apparently. Whilst we do now have a look mum no hands on Mare Street I'm not sure that counts as having a cycling culture! If the only place you see young kids cycling is in parks or along the canal towpath then I really don't think you can claim to have a cycling culture.

"In order to increase the borough's cycling levels the borough will need to target currently non-cycling residents that view cycling to be less appealing than other modes of transport." Of course if you want to increase the cycle share by any significant amount then you'll certainly have to get people cycling who are currently not cycling rather than relying on new people moving into the borough.

Which brings us nicely on to the Cycling targets of this ten-year plan.

Well we've already managed to increase the share from 6% on page 21 to 7% here on page 36 so some positive progress there already. However to more than double the share from 6 or 7% to 15% in ten years then you'll certainly have to get people cycling who are currently choosing a different mode of travel. Also if you want Hackney to be "a place where it is second nature for everyone, no matter what their age, back ground or ethnicity to cycle" then you're going to have to do more than offer training and turn one-way roads back to two-way.

We've already established that if you're aged under ten then cycling on Hackney's roads is not for you, however with pursuing with bikeability the council hope to see a push from the current rate of 2.3% of children in Hackney cycling to school up to a staggering 5% of children in ten years time. Compare this to the Netherlands where 49% of primary school children go to school by bike and more than 90% of children aged over 12 do so all year round. Lets dip out of the cycling plan for a moment and into the walking plan where we can see how children in Hackney currently get to school.

A staggering 65% of children walk to school, presumably because the council provide safe and segregated pavements rather than expecting them to walk directly in front of lorries and buses.

Outside London Fields Primary School two lollipop ladies assist children crossing the road

The road leading to London Fields Primary school 

How many of these 65% would cycle to school if the conditions were right for them to do so?

The school run in the Netherlands, courtesy of Mark Treasure, where children are given a choice of safe walking or cycling

Childhood obesity is a major problem in Hackney with rates significantly higher than national levels. In recent 2012/13 surveys carried out in the borough 13.1% of children aged 4-5 years were found to be overweight while another 13.2% were classed as obese. Among children aged 10-11 years old 16% were overweight and 25.2% classed as obese.

Back to the cycling plan and the council then compare their target of 15% to other cities:

with no comment as to why we are already so far behind Amsterdam's share (from six years ago) or how to get closer to it.

Picture by Amsterdamize

We then move onto cycling plan principles and design principles for cycling infrastructure where the council admit that "Creating a quality environment for cycling is generally recognised as being concerned with providing accessible, direct and convenient, attractive, safe and comfortable routes for experienced and less experienced cyclists alike to provide access to key destinations such as the borough’s town centres and other key destinations for employment, education and leisure.  Cycling routes need to legible and intuitive, continuous and uninterrupted by barriers or loss of priority." Key destinations being mainly located on main roads of course.

They then state that "selection of appropriate infrastructure provision for cycle users should follow the hierarchy of provision"

They plan to "reduce the impact of motor traffic" before redesigning junctions, reallocating space or building cycle tracks as that means "it is often possible to meet cyclists’ needs without the need for cycle‐specific infrastructure, potentially freeing up cycling budgets for other smarter choices measures." Whilst this is sometimes the best way to tackle the quieter, residential streets in Hackney and is something Hackney has done to good effect in some areas this approach simply will not work on the main roads that carry buses, lorries and large amounts of motor traffic. Joe Dunckley has written at length about the hierarchy of provision here so little point in me repeating what he says, however it is disappointing to see that the council "will introduce infrastructure provision for cycle users in accordance with the hierarchy of provision set out in LTN 2/08, considering traffic volumes and speed reduction first, followed by junction treatments and reallocation of carriageway spaces, with shared used or on‐footway provision introduced only when all other options have been exhausted."

One area the council do not have control of is Route Provision on the TLRN where they note that "The Mayor of London has recently indicated that he will seek to introduce segregated or semi‐segregated cycle lanes on some of London’s busiest roads over the next ten years as a key cornerstone of his Cycling Vision for London" and that "full details of how this will impact on cycle route provision in Hackney is unclear. The document does state however that cyclists will not be restricted from using any other part of the road network. The Council intend to work with TfL as more details emerge about these proposals and will use the opportunity to advance long‐standing aspirations relating to the removal of gyratory systems at Stoke Newington and providing better cycling conditions in the general Shoreditch area." Pointing out that "cyclists will not be restricted from using any other part of the road network" in the context of building segregated cycle lanes is the kind of language a committed vehicular cyclist would use and this kind of thinking should have no place in designing cycle routes that can be used by everyone.

The report then briefly touches on Reallocation of Road Space and "where provided and developed, bus lanes should always be available to cyclists and wide enough for cyclists to overtake buses safely (around 4.5m wide)." Bikes and buses should never mix and the council need to stop thinking that bus lanes counts as adequate cycling infrastructure. Buses in London are now more dangerous to cyclists than lorries and we need to look at separating the two modes, not integrating them. "Narrower lanes that are appropriate in particularly in built up areas of the borough such as Dalston and Hackney Central, will result in carriageways that are easier for pedestrians to cross and encouraging lower traffic speeds without causing a significant loss of traffic capacity. However this should not result in a loss of clear space for cyclists." Clear space for cyclists presumably means 4.5m wide traffic lanes, such as those seen on the A10 at Dalston, described as ideal by Hackney cycling campaign?

The A10 in Dalston

Smarter Travel and Cycling Promotion is the next section where "the Council will pursue a consistent range of cycling promotion to encourage people who do not presently cycle regularly to undertake more cycling journeys." They plan "to target two socio‐economic groups in particular: Hard Presses Families (who make up 46% of Hackneys residents) and Young Couples and Families" (making up 13% of the boroughs population). Presumably the main reason that the majority of people from these groups do not cycle is the same reason for all other groups of people; the fear of injury whilst cycling on the roads? The council doesn't agree, in the case of Hard pressed families "in many cases, a lack of suitable storage space for bicycles and lower levels of cycle training have been identified as a barrier to cycling lack of storage and lower levels of cycle training." Of course the flats and houses of Hackney are not lucky enough to have enough storage space for a bicycle, unlike the mansions of Central Amsterdam. Meanwhile young couples and families "have low levels of car ownership and are considered to be of prime age for cycling." In the Netherlands there is no "prime age for cycling" as they have engineered solutions that make cycling safe and inviting for people of all ages.

Picture courtesy of Mark Treasure

We then move onto the most interesting section of the whole plan, Safer Cycling in Hackney. "Chapter 5 established that fear of injury and the perception of cycling as dangerous activity is a primary reason why many residents do not currently cycle" and "this section will set out some of the over‐arching engineering principles, approaches and cyclist safety measures and initiatives that the Council intends to take to promote a higher level of cyclist safety in our borough." These measures include Reducing speeds, Bikeability where they hope all children will have completed level 2 by the time they are 10-11 years old, with "the ultimate aim of level 2 training is that on completion a cyclist could safely make the journey from home to school." Again Hackney's cycling vision is that no primary school children should cycle to school, unlike the 49% of Dutch primary school children. The council will "aim to make every residential road safe enough to be assessed as being appropriate for children trained up to Bikeability Standard Level 2 to ride on." Note they only pledge to do this for residential roads, meaning that the vast majority of routes for children will not be up to the expected standard for bikeability level 2 from their home all the way to their school gates.

Other safer cycling in Hackney measures include Filtered Permeability, Sinusoidal speed humps, Parking restrictions near junctions, Guardrail removal, Advanced Stop Lanes, and then, on page 56...

"Clear space for cyclists"

"The Council has been highly successful at implementing schemes on quieter roads however there have been limited improvements for cyclists on our busiest roads. It is inevitable that cyclists will continue to use our busy high streets and strategic roads that carry high volumes of vehicular traffic because often they are the most direct and quickest routes."

Bingo! For the vast majority of cycling trips within the borough we undoubtedly have to use the main routes at some point. Also, as is the case on my trip to work, I have to cycle down a very hostile main road, any alternative route through quieter residential streets would take me twice as long to get to work. This is why Hackney council are wrong to block the superhighway down the A10; people WANT to travel from Stoke Newington to Dalston and onto Shoreditch but the quicker and more direct route is reserved for buses and private motor vehicles. People cycling this route are either expected to either "man up" or use an indirect back route.

"Mapping of cyclist accidents reveals that the majority of serious accidents occur on our busier roads with high traffic flows and often multiple bus routes, and as such these routes need to be specifically considered."

The majority of serious accidents involving people cycling in Hackney happen on the main roads with bus routes, so why block cycling infrastructure on these very roads and push for people to use quieter roads instead?

Absolutely spot on. This shows the limitations of cycle training and reinforces what we were told way back in chapter four. Most people simply will not cycle on the main roads where they have to share with buses and lorries, and those that do try it are likely to give it up when they get to a certain age, or after a certain number of close passes. It is ridiculous to produce a "plan for cycling " if you do not address this very clear number one obstacle to cycling in Hackney.

They continue on that they will "investigate the most suitable options for ensuring cyclist safety whilst not negatively impacting on the safety of pedestrians and bus users." Hackney Council have a road user hierarchy where they place people cycling above that of people using the buses.

Therefore the council must consider the safety of people cycling above delays to buses. Building segregated cycle lanes and reducing the amount of people being killed or seriously injured on the roads is far more important than delays of just a couple of minutes on a five mile bus journey that takes over an hour no matter what certain bus obsessed local councillors think. When the council talk about the safety of bus users I assume they are talking about bus stop bypasses and the safety of people making the transition from the pavement to the bus stop and having to walk over the cycle track. I really do not see this as an issue myself. I've never actually cycled on the segregated section of the cycle superhighway that runs from Stratford Town Centre to the Bow roundabout which has several bus stops bypasses that lie on the route of London's busiest bus route by far. I have however used one of the bus stops as a bus passenger after taking my daughter to the Discover children's story centre and it was absolutely fine for me to use with the pushchair, as it was for the several pensioners I saw using them then as well. Bus stop bypasses are not an issue for pedestrians in London despite what Hackney's MP says with seemingly no evidence whatsoever to back up her claim. Indeed as Mark Treasure points out Hackney has had a bus stop bypass for many years, as have other areas of London. So time to stop this pointless debate about bus stop bypasses, if pedestrians were being injured whilst using them in Stratford or elsewhere we would know about it by now. They work on London's roads and thankfully we'll see many more of them appear over the next few years. So let's stop the silly scaremongering about these bus stop bypasses and focus instead of the real danger and that is the continued slaughter of people cycling in London. On busy road with buses there is nothing else you can do except segregation. Do Hackney Council agree?

So there it is, right at the bottom of page 57; a very luke warm promise that the council are "open and willing to examine" segregation but only after visual landscape, interaction with bus users and competing demands for road space are taken into account.

The plan then moves on to Reducing Cycling Accident rates where they admit they have "been significantly less successful in achieving reductions in numbers of numbers of cyclists killed or seriously injured with an increase of 23% in 2009 from the 1994‐98 average baseline figures" and that "the plan recognises that much more needs to be done to tackle this unacceptably high figure." A map then illustrates the broad locations of Cyclist accidents in Hackney from 2009‐2012 with "729 casualties over this 36 month period of which 616 were slight, 110 resulted in serious injury and 3 were fatal"

The A10

The A102, outside The City Academy school

The A5201

The A1202 

The A107 

We've established that people mainly cycle on the main roads, the majority of accidents happen on the main roads, so Hackney Council need to make the main roads safe for cycling. This does not mean "being open and willing to examine segregation" but should be absolutely the number one priority of this whole plan; the separation of people cycling from buses and lorries on Hackney's main roads. It increases safety and increases the mode share as well.

The plan highlights the A10 as a particularly dangerous roads with a high number of accidents involving people cycling (there were five cycle fatalities along this road in Hackney between 2006-2010), and says that they "will continue to lobby TfL and work with them to resolve the cyclist accident problems along the A10 corridor in Hackney". Except of course TFL wanted to build a cycle superhighway down the A10 but Hackney council blocked it.

Moving on to the delivery strategy where the council talks about principal routes

then on the very next page is a map of the "Hackney cycling programme" where virtually all of the cycle routes drawn on it are on minor roads. Absolutely nothing planned for all of the main roads listed as the most dangerous routes in the previous chapter. We can even see the indirect back route that "Cycle Superhighway 1" is due to take (in light blue) and the large, wide, direct A10 next to it; the road with the highest number of cycling accidents in Hackney which the council blocked the superhighway from going down.

However there is a clear line that runs along Clerkenwell Road, along Old Street and then along Hackney Road to Victoria Park and onto the Olympic Park. This is the proposed West End – Old Street – iCity/Olympic Park Cycle Corridor; at last a proposal to build a cycle route along one of the busiest main roads in the borough. It is a long term project and involves roads that fall under the responsibility of Camden, Islington, TFL, Hackney and Tower Hamlets so will need a lot of co-operation but one to keep a close eye on.

The plan then continues to discuss cycle parking, filtered permeability, cycle hire extension, cycle to school program, cycle training, targeting potential cyclists and cycle promotion, none of which I think I need to elaborate on as I'm sure I've covered all this already and I've taken up more than enough of your time.

Hackney Council can be applauded for some of the measures they have taken to improve cycling in the borough, even if these were generally traffic reduction measures that benefited people cycling. It can be applauded for producing a cycling plan and vowing to include cycling in any future infrastructure projects. However Hackney really needs to sort out the main roads for people cycling. The vast majority of serious accidents and deaths occur on the main roads that carry high volumes of traffic and numerous bus routes. They need to stop being vague and promising "clear space for cyclists" and make it clear what that clear space is. It cannot be 4.5m wide roads, or shared bus lanes, or traffic speed reduction. They need to stop listening to the selfish views of members of the local cycling campaign who declare segregation as "poor quality cycle specific provison" and arrogantly claim it has "no place in Hackney" even though it seems to have royal approval. If you want people from all ages and backgrounds cycling safely then you simply have to separate them from buses and lorries and give people in Hackney a choice. Until the council do this the slaughter of cyclists on the main roads of Hackney will continue.

You can reply to the consultation until 5pm on Friday 24th October.