Proposals
- protected cycle lanes in both directions on Gray’s Inn Road, from Harrison Street in the north to High Holborn in the south
- improve the junctions of Gray’s Inn Road with (a) Sidmouth Street/Ampton Street and (b) Guilford Street/Calthorpe Street
- ‘continuous’ footways at all side road junctions
Video simulations – AM and PM peaks
The consultation documents include a pair 5-minute videos containing visual simulations of how the proposals will work in AM and PM peaks
Watching these videos is probably the best way to understand what’s being proposed. Both of them start at the Guilford Street/Calthorpe Street junction and then move on to the Sidmouth Street/Ampton Street junction.
The AM video is at:
and the PM video at:
Watching these videos is probably the best way to understand what’s being proposed.
You can observe all the details as to how the junctions work. E.g. here are some things to look out for:
- Both junctions provide an all green stage for pedestrians
- At Guilford Street/Calthorpe Street, on GIR cycles go first in their own separate stage and can turn left, right or go straight ahead, while on Guilford Street/Calthorpe Street cycles have mandatory lead in lanes to ASLs.
- as the view moves north cycles pass the Cycle Hire Station and then bypass the bus stop on the inside. The PM peak video shows the big queue of motors behind the bus and that the bus gets to the next signals first.
- At Sidmouth Street/Ampton Street, east-west cycle have their own separate signal stage and can turn left, right or go straight ahead, whereas on GIR cycles move into ASLs and are provided by two-stage right turns.
Details of the cycle tracks
- For the most part, 2m wide but narrowing to 1.5 m at bus bypasses and opposite them.
- bus stop bypasses: cycle track raised and zebra markings across it
- the narrower cycle track opposite the bus stops are also raised
- light segregation i.e. ‘orcas’, or wands in most locations; looking at the plans there are orcas with wands close to minor road junctions (e.g. Views 1 or 8 )
- kerb-separated cycle track for short stretches elsewhere, including approaches to junctions
Camden says: “Funding constraints prevented the use of fully segregated tracks on the entire corridor”
Junction improvements
Sidmouth Street/Ampton Street/GIR –see View 1 in plans
On Sidmouth Street: a fully separated signal stage for cycles (with a protected lead in lane) running concurrently with the existing stage for cyclists from Ampton Street.
On Gray’s Inn Road, the protected cycle tracks will feed into ASLs
- with early release signals for cyclists
- and two-stage right turns for cyclists will in both directions
- All four pedestrian crossings will be widened.
Guilford Street/ Calthorpe Street/ GIR – see View 4 in plans
On Gray’s Inn Road (both directions) a new, fully separated signal stage for cycles
On Guilford Street/ Calthorpe Street
Mandatory cycle lanes, ASLs and an early release for cyclists
- might we need two-stage rights?
Junctions outside scope of this scheme
- Gray’s Inn Road/High Holborn
- Gray’s Inn Road/Theobald’s Road/ Clerkenwell Road
- Gray’s Inn Road/King’s Cross gyratory area junctions
Other details
- width of general traffic lanes reduced from 5m to 3.2 m
- seek to improve permeability by making one-way side streets e.g. Roger Street two- way for cycling (View 6). Are there others e.g. Northington Street?
- retain Cycle Hire docking station on Gray’s Inn Road, to the north of the junction with Guilford Street/ Calthorpe Street, cycle track runs outside it (View 4)
- all parking and loading move to side streets as well as a proposal for further work with businesses and organisations towards sustainable deliveries, such as freight consolidation, the use of cargo bikes and restricting deliveries to outside of peak travel times
- number of bus stops reduced from 12 to 8
Note the drawings, visualisations
See Camden’s website
CycleScape discussion
https://www.cyclescape.org/threads/4995
CCC’s response
CCC response – Gray’s Inn Road Cycling, Walking & Road Safety Proposals
Decision and Officer’s Report
Development of detailed design and accompanying servicing/ delivery measures
August 2020 Stage 2 Road Safety Audit
September 2020 Experimental Traffic Order Implemented.
It is expected that we will begin to make these changes from the week commencing the 21st of September 2020 and complete the project around April 2021
September 2020 – March 2022 18 Month Trial Period
Making permanent Feb 2022
https://democracy.camden.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=3549
- two-way cycling on Northington Street and Roger Street
- stepped tracks
- Amendment to the existing width restriction on Calthorpe Street, making it a single ‘priority give way’ facility, with cycle bypasses,
- Relocation of the TfL cycle hire bike stand north of Guilford Street, to a floating position
- SUDS round bus stop islands
- installation of raised stepped cycle track, bus stop bypass and zebra crossing outside Eastman Dental building, when development construction is completed
