Haydn receives the award from Redbridge Mayor Jyotsna Islam. Picture: Ilford Recorder/Sandra Rowse
Redbridge Cycling Campaign’s rides co-ordinator Haydn Powell accepted the Mayor of Redbridge’s Community Award at this year’s awards ceremony in Ilford Town Hall.
Haydn has worked assiduously to build up a great repertoire of family-friendly cycle rides and an enthusiastic team of ride leaders and marshals.
The award was made to Haydn for the work done by RCC in Redbridge to improve cycle infrastructure and encourage local people to get on their bikes and enjoy the freedom and health benefits of cycling.
Haydn said: Throughout the summer months, RCC lead sociable rides which attract cyclists of all abilities on visits to places of interest in east London, occasionally roaming to other parts of London and Essex . The RCC committee works with Redbridge Council and other cycling groups to improve safety for cyclists. The committee is always looking for new members, so if you have an interest in cycling do try to attend the AGM scheduled for 7.30pm on Tuesday April 16th on Teams.
A few weeks ago, the London Cycling Campaign released a report into women and cycling. You can find it here. It is very readable. Here is one of the report’s key findings:
It is why here in Redbridge we keep pushing the Council to plan for, bid for and build cycle infrastructure in our Borough.
As part of its campaign to improve things, LCC has organised a Women’s Freedom Ride in central London this weekend. RCC is running a feeder ride to the main event. To register for the ride from Redbridge, or just for the main ride in central London if you plan to make your own way there, visit the rides page here.
LCC has also organised a petition calling on Sadiq Khan to make things safer for women who cycle and to create safe local networks for cycling. You can find out more and sign the petition – if you want to – here. LCC is aiming for 10,000 signatures. We are halfway there.
Redbridge Cycling Campaign’s February meeting was held online on 20/2/2024. Because of a technical problem, the link to join the meeting was changed at the last minute, so our sincere apologies to anyone who intended to join the meeting and did not receive the revised link.
Details of all our meetings, and the usual joining link, can be found on our meeting page here.
Make sure to have a look at the high level design. Except for two short stretches of Balfour Road and Coventry Road, which will have mandatory cycles lanes, all the roads along the route will be for mixed traffic – which means there is no ‘protected space for cycling’ in the form of separate tracks or tracks in the road with wands etc.
Local Transport Note 1/20 (LTN1/20), the Department for Transport’s current guidance on cycle infrastructure design states that
7.1.1 Where motor traffic flows are light and speeds are low, cyclists are likely to be able to cycle on-carriageway in mixed traffic.
This does not describe Perth Road, either now or as it will be if this scheme goes ahead as proposed. This is because what the Council is proposing are exclusively speed management measures. Traffic will travel more slowly but there is no reason to think that will reduce.
Traffic flows along Perth Road, which is most of the route – are not light: it is a busy road. The Council has not provided any data on Motor Traffic Flow but Google Maps shows Perth Road as very busy and this is borne out by the experience of RCC members who have cycled along the road several times in the last few weeks: the volume of traffic means it is not a road we would recommend to cyclists.
LTN 1/20 offers guidance on the appropriate level of protection from motor traffic by speed and traffic volume:
Unless the traffic flow along the Perth Road is less than 2000 vehicles per day – and we don’t think it is and don’t think it will be – the Council either needs to:
Build protected space for cycling in one of the forms provided in LTN 1/20
or
Introduce traffic management (as opposed to speed management) measures to reduce traffic flows to the level where mixed traffic is acceptable.
The scheme the Council is proposing does neither of these things.
Reducing traffic flows would mean locating modal filters (planters in the road) and point no entries on Perth Road and any other adjacent roads that may otherwise turn into rat-runs, to push through-traffic onto the A12, Ley Street and Cranbrook Road. This is not rocket science and there are numerous examples of such schemes both in London and elsewhere.
Perth Road is not and, if the Council go ahead with the scheme, will still not be suitable for mixed traffic and so RCC does not support the scheme. We think the Council need to go back to the drawing board. Perth Road could be a useful cycling route but only if one of the options we set out above is taken up.
If the Council can show us data that demonstrates that, if the scheme is implemented, Motor Traffic Flow on Perth Road will be down to 2000 per day – making it suitable for mixed traffic – we will revise our position.
As ever, if you have time please do respond to the consultation. You may not agree with our position and think that, whatever its shortcomings, it deserves support. That’s fine with us. On the other hand if you agree with us feel free borrow or cut and paste some or all of what we have to say. Or you can just say I agree with the comments made by Redbridge Cycling Campaign.
If you do respond to the effect that you do not support the scheme as proposed please make sure that you do ask the Council to take it back to the drawing board because Perth Road could be made into a valuable cycle route.
We’ve heard a lot about this over the last few months with many arguing against the introduction of this speed limit. Against this backdrop Redbridge, we think to its credit, has nonetheless consulted on proposals to introduce a 20mph zone in the Gants Hill area. We hope the scheme goes ahead.
Here’s a link to a good article making the case for 20mph speed limits. Maybe it gets a bit political at the end but there is plenty of good stuff here for interested people and politicians of all stripes.
Redbridge Cycling Campaign 