Brecknock Road / York Way improvement study

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Buchanans are doing a study for Camden and Islington Councils on how to improve what they refer to as the Brecknock Road/York Way Corridor.

This refers to the following sections:

A York Way between Brewery Road and the gyratory

1. Northbound part of gyratory: Camden park Road, Torriano Avenue + the one way bit of Leighton Road
2. Southbound part of gyratory: Brecknock Road and north end of York Way
3. Brecknock road north of Leighton Road
4. Tufnell Park junction.

They want us to tell them how to make it better for all road users, then talk about encouraging walking and cycling. They also mention
bus reliability and parking.

They have a form to fill in, telling them

1. Problem areas
2. Good features to be enhanced
3. Specific improvements (crossings, wider footpaths, better lighting, signage or maintenance, trees, bins, benches, cycle facilities, parking, loading, bus stops etc)
4. Road safety concerns
5. Any other comments.

CCC’s response

Main problems along the route (1)

• excessive motor vehicle speeds in the one-way roads:

  Torriano Avenue and Leighton Road (B)

  Brecknock Road and York Way (C)

  crossing Camden Road from Camden Park Road (B)

• poor driver behaviour at junctions one one-way roads:

  drivers left turn round cyclists at junction of Torriano Avenue/Busby place (B)

  drivers harass cyclists going up Leighton Road towards Brecknock Road (B)

  failure to wait for pedestrians on zebras at junction Torriano Avenue/Leighton Road

• lane changing in one-way roads

  drivers changing lanes pay little attention to cyclists in Torriano Avenue and Leighton Road (B) and also in York Way (C)

• detours due to one way roads
  westbound cyclist on Hungerford Road can’t turn right towards Brecknock Road shops

  cyclist at junction of Brecknock Road/Leighton road can’t turn left and go west

  cyclist on Torriano Avenue can’t go southbound to reach LCN Route 6 in North Road/Cliff Villas.

• 5-way junction at Tufnell Park tube station (E)

  very bad for both pedestrians and cyclists

• Agar Grove junction (A)

  wide, complex junction lacking cycle facilities

• speed cushions in Torriano Avenue cause drivers to swerve – a hazard for cyclists
• crossing Brecknock Road is bad problem for pedestrians; parking makes view poor and long lines of vehicles pass without giving way
• narrow pavement outside the school in Torriano Avenue and railings

Good features to promote and enhance (2)

• excellent shopping centre in Brecknock Road (Bumblebee, Salvino as well as good butcher and greengrocer in York Way).
• bus services
• nearby LCN+ Route 6 for access to Camden Town and Bloomsbury

Specific improvements(3)

• long term: reinstate two-way working all round the gyratory
• introduce 20 mph limit on all the roads
• reduce the volume of through motor traffic
• install ASL boxes with lead in lanes at all major junctions (Agar Grove/York Way (A), Brecknock Road/Camden Road (C), junction (E), and on Camden Road at junction with Camden Park Road
• improve Agar Grove junction:
  1. g. road closure with cycle gap at Brandon Road
     and narrow the junction
• improve junction (E) e.g. road closure with cycle gap at Dartmouth Park Road
• cycle gap for northbound cyclists through island at junction at Torriano Avenue/Leighton Road (B)
• cycle gap through island at junction Leighton Road/Brecknock Road to allow cyclists into Hilldrop Crescent(C)
• if one-way working remains, look at possible contraflows (e.g. North Road – Cliff Road on Brecknock Road (C) and on Torriano Avenue (B) and Camden Park Road as far as Cliff Road/North Villas.
• if roads are made two way, consider the effect on the junctions where LCN Route 6 crosses York Way and Camden Park Road.
• raised zebra crossing on Brecknock Road (C)
• more bike stands in Brecknock Road and north end York Way on east side (C)
• widen pavements in Brecknock Road and outside school in Torriano Avenue
• reinstate raised junction at Torriano Avenue/Leighton Road (B).

Road safety concerns(4)

• excessive speeds on the gyratory, particularly in Torriano Avenue and at its junction with Leighton Road
• drivers changing lanes on one-way roads and ignoring other road users (particularly Torriano Avenue and Leighton Road)
• poor driver behaviour at junctions one one-way roads:

  drivers left turn round cyclists at junction of Torriano Avenue/Busby Place (B)

  drivers harass cyclists going up Leighton Road towards Brecknock Road (B)

  failure to wait for pedestrians on zebras at junction Torriano Avenue/Leighton Road

• very poor visibility for pedestrians trying to cross Brecknock Road

Any other comments (5)

CCC strongly supports any attempt to revert to two-way working, but feels that an attempt to reduce through traffic would be a benefit in either option.

Concerning the two options described to us by Annemarie de Boom.

Option 1 Two-way working introduced on all roads, with the Brecknock Road / York Way carrying the through traffic and Leighton Road, Torriano Avenue and Camden Park Road reverting back to their original status as local, residential streets.

Option 2 Two-way working introduced on all roads with Leighton Road / Torriano Avenue / Camden Park Road carrying the through traffic and Brecknock Road / York Way used by buses, cyclists and access (parking, loading, residents) only.

Option 1 – This option would probably be unacceptable to shopkeepers, due to the likely loss of parking, although parking could probably be relocated. However, the extra volume of traffic would be detrimental to the shopping centre.

Option 2 – This proposal would be a great improvement for the shopping centre in Brecknock Road and the north part of York Way and could promote a village atmosphere. Having buses from both directions stopping at the shops is another advantage. A better shopping environment would be a significant uplift for the area. This option requires that all through traffic other than buses to use Camden Park Road, Torriano Avenue and Leighton Road (B): care should be taken to:

• protect Torriano Avenue north of Leighton Road;
• discourage additional traffic (e.g. from works in Kings X development)
• enforce HGV ban on Leighton Road west of Torriano Avenue
• ensure safe crossing between schools and housing estate on Torriano Avenue (e.g. pelican)
• study the intersection of LCN Route 6 with York Way and Camden Park Road

Result April 2009 (email from John Futcher

Dear Councillor Braithwaite,

Many thanks for your email regarding the gyratory system including Brecknock Road and York Way. This was a joint project with LB Islington, and led by them. Our consultants examined a number of options which looked at improving the streets within the gyratory for all modes including pedestrians, buses and cyclists.

The study looked at various options but after an initial assessment this was reduced to 3 main options:

· Full gyratory removal and introduction of full 2-way system

· Vehicle traffic to remain as gyratory with contra-flow cycle lane on Torriano Av and Camden Park Road

· Gyratory to remain but road layout reconfigured to benefit cyclists and pedestrians including streetscape enhancements

However, before the options were tested the existing situation was assessed in terms of junction capacities. What this showed was that the cycle times were not up to the required TfL standard which means that the overall cycle time would need to increase as well as the length of the pedestrian phase. When the TfL standards were incorporated into the base model this reduced the overall spare capacity in the network considerably.

Our consultants then undertook traffic modelling of the first 2 options to determine the impacts on traffic in the area. For the main option, the modelling showed that the road network would operate within capacity if some additional banned movements were implemented. We then looked at evaluating the traffic and bus impacts of reverting to 2-way traffic in the area. The key issues examined were:

• Impact on Parking – The additional carriageway width would require a substantial loss of parking on all streets e.g. On Brecknock Rd and Camden Park Road the loss would be one-third of all parking bays. This would be a major concern , particularly with the impacts on the retail area.
• Traffic diversions – several of the roads would become considerably busier in the 2-way operation including York Way, Leighton Road and Brecknock Road. E.g. York Way would carry 20% more traffic than present and Brecknock 30% more.
• Delays to traffic – The 2-way operation would also lead to significant additional delays to traffic (this is primarily because certain junctions would be converted from priority junctions to signalised junctions)
• Delays to buses – The 2-way operation would lead to up to 36% increase in delays to buses.

Regarding the contra-flow option, this would require separate signal phases for cyclists at the key junctions when modelled this led to both the Camden Road and Camden Park Road junctions becoming over – capacity , with the consequent delays this would bring to all road users, including cyclists themselves.

The range of impacts highlighted above would mean that the 2-way options (including the contra-flow cycling option) would not have desirable impacts locally, and are unlikely to win the support of TfL , in their role as bus operators, or in management of Camden Rd .

In your email you referred to just making Brecknock Road 2-way, this was something that was discounted quite early in the study. Basically the Brecknock Road/Camden Road junction does not have the capacity on its own to deal with the additional stage that would be required to introduce northbound vehicles into Brecknock Road. We also looked at making the northbound traffic bus only to reduce the impact on capacity but again this can not be accommodated within the junction.

Regarding consultation, to date ourselves and LB Islington has not undertaken public consultation on proposals for the York Way/Brecknock Road corridor. We are currently examining what streetscape improvements could be made to the main retail section within the gyratory on York Way and Brecknock Road. Once these have been developed, we will assess funding options before public consultation is progressed. At this stage if funding is identified we could be in a position to undertake public consultation towards the end of 2009. This is likely to concentrate on improvements to the public realm in the commercial stretch of Brecknock Rd/York Way, improving pedestrian and cycle facilities.

Many thanks,

John

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