We Made the Lane at Old Street back in 2019 and since then, in spite of promises from Camden and Islington Councils and TfL, there have been no spades in the ground to make this key east/west route safe for cyclists. Three women have lost limbs there. There have been and continue to be incidents where cyclists are injured, the most recent in June 2022. There is no safe cycling infrastructure. A brief history:
- 2014: Initial planning work by Camden Council; Holborn to Roseberry Avenue.
- 2014: Islington council secured £900,000 for design work
- 2018: Camden Liveable Neighbourhood bid. Accepted and funded by TfL in 2019 but then frozen in 2020. This included segregated cycle lanes on Theobalds Road as far as Grays Inn Road.
- March 2019 – Cycle Islington held a “Make the Lane” between Central Street and Bath Street. The evening before this action, LBI’s Cllr Claudia Webbe, the council’s then executive member for transport, now replaced, said that LBI was “developing plans to close Old Street and Clerkenwell Road to through traffic“. No plans forthcoming.
- In 2020 TfL announced that two corridors would be created for walking and cycling – Holborn to Waterloo and Holborn to Old Street.
Apart from the recent junction major works at Southampton Row/Theobald’s Road, a junction designated as one of the top Dangerous Junctions in London by the London Cycling Campaign and the scene of eight cyclist deaths over the past 14 years, there has been no progress in eight years in making this East/West route safe for cycling.
We’ve had enough. We are organising another Make the Lane with our sister group Cycle Isligton Thursday 22 September (car free day). So put this date in your diary as we will be calling on campaigners to help us make A Big Noise to highlight this unacceptable lack of action.
Here is a map of fatal/serious cycling incidents along the East/West route up to 2020 (and so not including 2 cyclist fatalities at Holborn in 2021 and 2022).
With the recent announcement at the end of August of the funding deal reached by the government and TfL (£80m/year for active travel until March 2024) surely some of this can be ringfenced to deliver a safe East/West cycing route ?
(Words from Eilidh Murray)
Date: 22nd Sep 2022
Time: 8:00 am - 9:00 am
Location Make the Lane
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