London Cycle Network Plus route consultations February 2004

We have been in discussion with LB Hackney Traffic & Transportation engineers about ways to improve this junction on and off for several months. Currently it works roughly like a roundabout except that northbound traffic on Pitfield Street has precedence. The initial suggestion made by the agency engineer working on LCN+ projects at the time was to put in annular cycle lanes around the outside. We told him that this is a widely discredited idea, since it encourages naive cyclists into thinking that the safest place is to stick to the outside. This would be a particular problem because most motor traffic would be leaving the 'second exit' of the roundabout (see our Pitfield Street rat run page), whereas LCN+ cycle traffic would be taking the 'third exit', ie Pitfield Street north. However we learnt rather late in the day that this was the proposal he submitted to the LCN+ Project Team. We're glad to say that the latter rejected that, so an amended proposal, to regularise the current junction layout as a conventional roundabout, was submitted and approved.

When we learnt of the state of proposals late last year we expressed our concerns, based on the fact that roundabouts have a less favourable crash record for cycle traffic than other types of junction and are perceived as difficult by novice rides. We asked the engineers to consider the feasibility of a more radical approach to the junction, which would make Pitfield Street continuous, showing its importance as the LCN+ route, and making New North Road and Fanshaw Street into side-roads with T-junctions to Pitfield Street. This was considered preferable by all parties, but because it would involve large-scale streetscape remodelling, it would cost a great deal more money than was available (around £300,000 instead of the available £110,000 or so).

In place of a more radical scheme, therefore, an improved version of the roundabout proposal has been drawn up and is being consulted on. Although it retains the principal drawback of still being a roundabout, it does incorporate a number of the measures which we suggested would mitigate some of the problems here, viz:

1. Kerb buildouts and speed tables to reduce the speed of entry of motor vehicles into the junction, giving cycle traffic more negotiating potential
2. Full two-way operation for Fanshaw Street, instead of the narrow contraflow lane in operation since 1997
3. Removal of much of the existing guard railing, which gives the street a canyon feel and encourages faster motor traffic speeds

Since it does unfortunately seem unlikely that a bigger and better scheme can be funded in the forseeable future, we have discussed the improved scheme at meetings, and in the circumstances have reluctantly decided to back it as it does offer some improvements on the current situation.

Consultation documents (click thumbnails for bigger version):

This is a welcome move as part of the process of returning all the streets in the area to two-way operation, at least for cycle traffic. The proposal is to provide a contraflow cycle lane north up the currently one-way southbound section of Paul Street north of Leonard Circus. It is intended that this will be followed in the next year or two by the return of Paul Street south of the circus to full two-way operation, and - glory be - the removal or radical remodelling of the plinth of the Hitchcock's Reel sculpture (known by some as the Bobbin and by others as the UFO) which juts out into Leonard Circus obstructing the return to two-way and causing all sorts of problems for pedestrians.

Speaking of oddities, while designing the new Shoreditch Triangle two-way system TfL Street Management was short-sighted it its design of the modal filter tracks which allow LCN+ Route 9 cycle traffic through Tabernacle Place, which are flared to accommodate the current one-way system of Tabernacle Street and Paul Street, rather than being of a design which could have facilitated the return of these streets to two-way working. In the gloomy but probably realistic assumption that TfL Street Management will find itself unable to adjust these features to fit the proposed new contraflow properly, we have suggested to the engineer responsible that the feature he has designed at the north end intended to align cycle traffic with the funny flare should be, er, cut as generously as possible. If it is too narrow and its angles are too tight, people will not use it.

We have been assured that the contraflow lane will be at least 1.5 metres wide. We will be asking the engineer to mark out the lane to be as wide as is possible, seeing 1.5 metres as an absolute minimum.

Consultation documents (click thumbnails for bigger version):

Read our response the Paul Street contraflow consultation