The council is planning to upgrade the road closures in Hadley St & Hawley St (off Prince of Wales Road) to allow cycle access through the closures.
Hadley St already has a cycle gap, but the 1+ inch lip on the southbound side makes it difficult to use (CCC has been complaining about this for years); in consequence many users cycle along the pavement.
CCC’s response
The Camden Cycling Campaign (CCC) is pleased to be consulted about these proposals.
Hadley Street Cycle Gap
CCC is aware of residents’ concerns that the planned redesign with a single bollard would lead to the bollard frequently being removed (as in Tonbridge St behind the Town Hall) and hence the road closure becoming open to through traffic for much of the time.
We point out that the only changes we have requested to this closure is a reduction in the height of the stone setts, which currently present a 1.5″ edge to cyclists on the southern side of the closure.
We therefore recommend that the existing closure is retained in its current form, with the only change being to relay the stone setts on the southern side to give a maximum 0.25″ lip to approaching cyclists.
Healey Street Cycle Gap
We fully support the principal of creating a cycle gap through the road closure.
But in view of the concerns of residents in Hadley St, we suggest it would be appropriate to review whether this could be done by a simple modification to the existing closure – eg by removing a half section of closure railing and providing a dropped kerb on each side.
Generic scheme design
However if the council decides to proceed with the design for either of these roads along the lines of that shown in the consultation, we have the following recommendations over this generic design.
- In the closure example shown as an illustration (in Malden Place), motor vehicles routinely park for short periods (eg popping to shops, letting out passengers, map reading) on the pavement level section where pedestrians cross; this obstructs pedestrians and sometimes leads to them walking out into Malden Road to get past these parked vehicles.
We therefore recommend that the design be modified to restore pedestrian priority for those walking along the pavement past the closure, by redesigning this part to look more like footway and less like carriageway. Hence we suggest
a proper ramp on both sides of the closure from the road up to pavement level, and
the use of paving slabs instead of tarmac between the Prince of Wales Rd ramp & closure bollards.
- A serious flaw in the Malden Place design is that most motor vehicles can easily fit in between the gap between the bollards which is around 2.3 metres. Hence we strongly recommend that the 2 outside bollards be moved closer together to leave an inter-bollard gap of no more than 1.8m.
- In the Malden Pl. photo the cycle logo is too close to the car parking bay. 10% of cyclist casualties arise from carelessly opened car doors, so we recommend moving the logo so that it is aligned with the left hand cycle gap and at least 0.75m from the outside edge of the parking bay marking.
Postscript: The council decided to abandon the Healey St changes but in July 2003 issued a revised consultation for an improved cycle gaps for Hadley St; we supported these proposals
