Championing electric vehicles, car clubs and moving to hybrid buses
Electric Vehicles
Negotiations are nearing completion with Siemens for it to deliver the Pan-London Scheme back-office functions in early 2011. Evaluation of bids for the electric vehicle and infrastructure procurements are complete, and now going through the Corporate Assurance process. Both procurements are on track for contract award in January 2011. The Electric Vehicle brand has been secured, allowing for launch of the Electric Vehicle website and brand in November.
Improving the urban realm
Low Emission Zone (LEZ) Phases 3 and 4
The Mayor’s decision to introduce LEZ Phase 3 in January 2012 was confirmed on 20 September. Work with IBM is well underway to amend the LEZ systems and web information to reflect this. The LEZ operator information campaign, which will reference the simultaneous implementation of Phases 3 and 4, and will target the operators of affected vehicles, is on track to be launched in January 2011.
TfL Design Review Panel
The newly established TfL Design Review Panel held its first meeting on the 1st September. The panel has been established in response to the Mayor’s Better Streets manifesto, which requires all schemes over £2 million to be subject to a design review, to ensure they meet the objective of delivering high quality public realm. The panel will review both TLRN and borough schemes, and includes membership drawn from across TfL and Urban Design London.
The first scheme to be looked at by the panel will be Britannia Junction in the London Borough of Camden. The space is adjacent to the Underground station in Camden Town, and will seek to improve the pedestrian experience, while visibly creating a more cohesive streetscape.
Piccadilly Two-Way
The preliminary works on Pall Mall and St James’s Street for the planned re-introduction of two-way traffic are already underway, and the overall scheme is due to be completed by the end of November 2011. When finished, the scheme will deliver a dramatic improvement in the quality of public realm, and facilities for pedestrians, while also improving conditions for buses and other vehicles.
Leicester Square
Preliminary work was started in early September on improvements at Leicester Square, which is one of the Mayor’s Better Streets projects. The scheme, which is partly funded through the Local Implementation Plan Major Schemes programme, will be completed by March 2012, and will transform the quality and accessibility of key streets leading through, and to the Square in advance of the 2012 Games.
Encouraging walking and smarter travel
Walking
TfL has produced a short film to promote TfL’s Key Walking Routes initiative. This will be aired on TfL’s YouTube channel to demonstrate the benefits of walking to stakeholders, and other Londoners.
Barclays Cycle Superhighways
Construction work on Routes 2 (Bow to Aldgate) and 8 (Wandsworth to Westminster) started on 1 October, with preparatory work on Mile End Road (on the Bow to Aldgate route) in advance of resurfacing, to provide a smoother journey for cyclists. Kerb improvements at Armoury Way on the Wandsworth to Westminster route have also been undertaken. As well as installing highly visible blue cycle lanes that are at least 1.5 metres wide, other works scheduled on the two routes include:
Introducing 24 new Advanced Stop Lines (ASLs) at junctions along both routes;
Making modifications to 30 junctions along both routes to make them safer for cyclists (including the installation of ‘Trixi’ cycle safety mirrors, upgrading traffic signal equipment, and assessing the possible removal of existing left-turn slip roads);
Providing a quicker and safer way for cyclists to travel across the Bow Roundabout, on the Bow to Aldgate route;
Introducing a clearly marked diversionary route, so that cyclists can avoid the busy junction of Battersea Park Road and Queenstown Road on the Wandsworth to Westminster route, and Introducing mandatory cycle lanes wherever possible, including along 25 per cent of the Wandsworth to Westminster route.
As of the end of September, 90 businesses had registered with the Cycle Superhighways workplace scheme, and there have been over 600 expressions of interest in the scheme. The Superhighways smarter travel workstream is also funding the new Certificate of Professional Competence accredited driver training on ‘Safer London Driving.’ This training was launched on 15 September, and 17 freight operators located along the Superhighways routes attended.
Barclays Cycle Hire
Research to measure user satisfaction and attitudes towards the scheme, as well as gain a better understanding of who is actually using the scheme began on 20 September. On 8 October, the 1 million journeys mark was reached on the cycle hire scheme. More recently, the number of registered members has also crossed the 100,000 mark. Service levels at the customer service centre have improved significantly, with all KPIs consistently met since 19 September. Backlogs in e-mails, refunds, and call-backs were all cleared over the course of August and September.
Redistribution continues to be the biggest operational issue, particularly during the morning peak at mainline rail stations. Trials are underway at key rail stations, and around Holborn, to use temporary pens to deal with extremely heavy usage in these areas, and a permanent solution will be agreed shortly. Work to deliver and test the ‘casual users’ functionality is on-track, and this phase of the scheme is expected to be delivered before the end of the year.
Approximately 80 additional planning applications will need to be submitted for extensions to existing sites during October, November and December. The scheme launched with 315 docking stations, and the total number is now 340, out of an eventual total of 400, and the current number of cycles in circulation is over 4,500, out of an eventual total of 6,000.
Cycle Films
So far, there have been over 300,000 viewings of TfL’s online ‘Catch up with the Bicycle’ films (which are hosted on YouTube, and also accessible from the TfL website). The films highlight the experiences of cycling in London for both celebrities and regular Londoners.
I suspect this may not be what they’re after.
Cycle Task Force Expansion
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Cycle Task Force, part of the Safer Transport Command, and funded by TfL, added 10 more officers on 29 September to improve cycle safety and crack down those who disobey the rules of the road. Since its launch in June, the team has security marked nearly 5,000 bikes, made nearly 20 arrests for bike theft, and reunited some owners with their stolen bikes.
The unit also ran a six week operation this summer to target road users who disobeyed traffic signals, encroached on ASLs, cycled carelessly or on pavements, or used their mobile phones on the Cycle Superhighways. The operation resulted in:
More than 900 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) of up to £60 issued to drivers and motorcyclists;
More than 400 FPNs of up to £60 issued to cyclists;
Around 300 people attending an Exchanging Places safety education course, and
106 cyclists issued FPNs for lesser offences, who were given the option to have their FPN cancelled if they attended this course, and 50 per cent of them did.
Cycle Hire Thefts
The number of stolen bikes from the Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme continues to be very low. Only five bikes have been reported stolen to the police since the scheme launch. Two of the stolen bikes were ‘undocked’ at the time, as Serco was over-providing at Waterloo. Four bikes have been recovered by the police, and five arrests have been made.
River Piers
A study is being undertaken to examine the feasibility of using the SS Robin (a former freight vessel) and its pontoon as an extension to Tower Pier instead of
building a bespoke pontoon, which, if suitable, would save both time and cost. The results of the study are expected imminently.
Not sure if this is the correct thread, but ….
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/revealed-awardwinning-design-to-transform-disused-tube-tunnels-into-underground-cycle-routes-10026687.html
This article shows an “award-winning” but IMHO utterly impractical, to say the least, cycling scheme.
Do any of these people have any grip at all on engineering & physical linitations, such as the cyclists going up & down the ramps that would have to be built to access these ( very limited) tunnels?
Is this a cyclists version of Mr Withrington’s fantasies?
Looking at the video it seems cyclists are expected to use the lifts. They say a cycle trip using the tunnels would take 7 minutes compared to 24 in a taxi, but don’t say from where to where.
The video shows four tunnels – none could be used without some major civil engineering work.
1. Holborn Aldwych: the easiest, but access for cycles at Holborm would probably require reinstatement of the lifts (and the original lift shafts are now obstructed by the escalator shafts)
2. Aldwych – Charing Cross – Green Park: blind at one end, runs into a live tube line at the other.
3. King William Street to Borough. Probably not intact, runs into a live tube line at one end
4. A mysterious line in the Lewisham- Greenwich area: if this is the LCDR Greenwich Park branch, it was actually in a cutting – which has been filled in, and houses (including my sister’s) built on it.
(The journey seems to be Green Park to Aldwych – 7 minutes cycling would be about 8mph, but that doesn’t allow for any time spent in the lifts going down and up again)
Seems to be pretty pointless with so little actually unused. Both Aldwych and Charing Cross (Jubilee) are also film sets…
I think the original reason this came to prominence was because of the original concept behind it and the presentation.
Why it’s now being reported as an actual plan I don’t know…. As it’s completely obvious that once you scratch below the surface it’s just not going work (and would cost huge amounts, for something that no-one would use. Oh Hello Boris, where did you come from?).
I think the Standard’s b**ls**t meter is broken. What, are you telling me they don’t have one!?
3. King William Street to Borough. Probably not intact, runs into a live tube line at one end
Definitely intact at least as far as London Bridge. Like the other bits, not “disused” at all. It is a vital cable route. Given the tunnels were only about 10ft diameter to start with that doesn’t leave a lot of space for cycling. And one reason it was abandoned was that it was too steep for the trains (it was built for cable haulage) so I can’t see cyclists liking it.
And this is probably the most plausible of the four for reasons given by others!
Even the old entrances are still there. Although the London Bridge one now acts as the ventilation shaft for the Jubilee line (at the bottom of Railway Approach. The horrible black thing).
The other end is also still there, underneath Waitrose on King William Street (plaque on Monument street where the entrance was).
Re Southern Heights,
King William Street:
If you go into the basement of the Watirose aka the “Monument” Pub there are quite a number of structures & features that have a feel of City and South London line to them… (some of the pub is quite a way below any street level)
The station entrance was on the the bit of the building with currently has the grills on them adjacent to the rectangular blue plaque.
Would be quite entertaining to see the cyclists accessing the tunnel via the spiral staircase or negotiating the pub clients on the stairs down to / from the pubs loos which are around platform level.
The tunnel size would also mean no overtaking for cyclists…
“If the scheme were successful it could also make use of empty stretches of tunnel at Stockwell in south London and Goodge Street in central London.”
er … the depth you’d have to travel to to even access these is further than the length of these tunnels! (Plus, you know, *in use*)
As silly taking bicycles underground as it is making an elevated highway for them over Westway.
Last time I checked, bicycles weren’t a major contributor to London’s congestion, so I’m curious as to what, exactly, this project is supposed to be a ‘solution’ to.
That said, I do wonder if there’s something to be said for building something like this.
Anomibus: There I was thinking that PATH was a solution to their harsh winters, with the side benefit of pedestrian segregation.
Toronto’s PATH system is effectively an underground shopping mall that connects office towers downtown with the commuter and intercity railway Union Station, 3+ subway stations, a large mall in its own right (Eaton Centre). It is a refuge from the (not that) cold winters and humid, muggy summers, and takes a lot of pedestrians off the surface sidewalks (what you Brits call pavement it seems. Pavement in North America means the actual roadway, to clarify). Winnipeg and Calgary, far colder Canadian cities, have similar by elevated walkway networks.
Accepting that this is “pushing credibility”/marketing twaddle, perhaps there is something in it.
Piccadilly or Central line passengers would already need to be underground. Converting the tunnels to a cycle paths would presumably cheaper than reinstating the shuttle. Cyclists ought to be able to sue the stairs, so lifts are unnecessary.
To deal with the tidal nature, give some credit/queue jump incentives for clipping a pair of spare bikes on the back against the flow. That or electric “google” bikes. Perhaps even extend an overrun tunnel to a step-free entrance on the south of the embankment.
Taking over the Kingsway tramway subway would probably make more sense. Still the proposed conceptual project makes more sense than the Garden bridge.
What’s with all the negativity?
My understanding isn’t that there would be cycle hire points at each end of the tunnels so people wouldn’t need to bring a bike down but the bikes are there as an alternative to a moving walkway – which I think would be a better option.
If passengers are already underground at Holborn (eg changing off the Central Line) then walking or cycling underground would be the quickest way of reaching Aldwych. The problem with the bike hire is that flow would probably be too tidal for the number of bikes available.
@Theban – you’re not radical enough. The bikes would be moved in both directions by a specially modified 92ts unit. Extra staff would be employed to load the spare bikes for the return run, and of course,ordinary punters could ride in the non-modified cars.
Now, if only such a system could be introduced on the GN&…….
I studied at Imperial College a long time ago. There is a connecting subway from South Ken tube station. I always preferred to walk on the street, as the subway was so boring, and just as crowded with slower pedestrians as the street above.
Subway tunnels have been proved to be very unpopular with pedestrians her – and cyclists (?)- with our 60s legacy – cf Tottn Ct Rd/CentrePoint subways referenced elsewhere.
Tunnels for cyclists seems bonkers to me, but what do I know?
Theban
Very clever – 52 days too early, though.
@Kit Green + LBM:
I appreciate that the PATH system is seen, at least in part, as a way to keep the weather off, but that did strike me as an advantage for London. Granted, it doesn’t tend to get that cold in London (though it can on occasion), but what you do get is a lot of miserable, wet weather. This isn’t ideal for cycling in, let alone shopping.
I could see opening out the basement levels of the department stores along Oxford Street working well as a way to reduce pedestrians on the surface. You’d have ramps / stairs / lifts up to street level to get at the buses, but the main objective is to relocate at least one mode of transport from the road above. If we can’t move the traffic away from the pedestrians, why not move the pedestrians away from the traffic?
“But,” I hear you ask – I really do need to see a psychiatrist about that – “pedestrian tunnels are dark, dingy places! Just look at the one at Centre Point!”
“Ah!” I reply, “that’s why I pointed explicitly at the PATH system!” It’s a world away from the soulless 1960s pedestrian subways of old. Those were simple A-to-B paths. This is a destination, with shops on both sides, plenty of lighting, and plenty of people. And probably the usual brotherhood* of CCTV cameras, but you can’t have everything.
Reducing the pedestrian presence on Oxford Street itself allows that to be optimised for public transport / cycling / etc. Meanwhile, the new pedestrian area below can also be provided with travelators if desired, which would make walking the length of this mile-long shopping mall easier on the mobility impaired.
* (If there wasn’t a collective noun for these before, there is now.)
@Anomnibus = Not so much a brotherhood of CCTV cameras as perhaps a “peerage”? I’ll get my coat.
I’ve been to Calgary in mid-Winter (well, November actually, but the snow was already a few feet deep), and the “Plus 15” system (15 feet above the road) isn’t actually as impressive as it sounds. It is just a load of connecting covered bridges between office blocks, connecting via the office block lobbies. Similarly in Montreal, but at basement level.
Similar networks already exist in the City of London, but they don’t make a big deal about it.
And these networks are not suitable for cyclists – for a start, they feel like ‘inside’, and there are a lot of doors along the corridors/passages.
But overwhelmingly, pedestrians do not like being corralled into tunnels or overhead walkways. We should have learned that much from our town planning mistakes of the past, and it seems like the ‘shared-space’ paradigm is the next idea to be tested and then abandoned in 30 years…
@ChrisMitch:
I’m not aware of anything like the PATH system existing in London. A few dingy old concrete subways, yes, but nothing that’s been designed from the outset to be a destination (or ‘place’ to use the fashionable term) in its own right. Generally, the existing subways exist solely to get people from A to B and have about all the warmth and welcoming character of an old road tunnel, with none of the charm.
My point is that we can’t put the traffic under Oxford Street, but we can move the pedestrians under it instead. It’d be cheaper, it can be paid for (in part, at least) by the businesses along said road, and it would also shelter the shoppers from the worst of London’s weather.
Shopping centres like Bluewater and Westfield are essentially the same thing, but with higher ceilings. Come to think of it, exactly the same sort of thing, albeit on a smaller scale, can be seen at many major railway termini in Germany, and even beneath the concourse at Rome’s Termini station. (And that of St. Pancras, come to think of it.)
My reasoning is as follows:
* We’ve already buried all the rail access we can under Oxford Street and nearby. There’s really not enough room to bury any more.
* Building tunnels that can handle double-decker buses, HGVs, and all the other traffic that wends its way along Oxford Street — which is, after all, a major arterial route — would be prohibitively expensive, not least because of the access ramps needed.
* Oxford Street is not, in itself, of any great architectural merit. Most of the department stores are in tedious 1960s-era blocks, while the other side of the street is mostly old Victorian terraced housing that has long since been gutted to within an inch of its life. In between the two, pedestrians get to see an endless flow of fume-belching traffic.
* That traffic acts as a barrier between the two sides of the road. You can’t cross the street on a whim. Removing that barrier would tie both sides together much more, and potentially encourage (re)development to improve the area.
* Moving the people underground therefore makes rather more sense.
This isn’t a bunch of soulless tunnels. You’d be able to see right into the basement levels of the shops on either side. The ‘tunnel’ would span the entire width of the street above. Future extensions could include Regent Street, Bond Street, and possibly even Tottenham Court Road and beyond.
Yes, I know exactly what you meant Anomnibus, but I still don’t think it would work.
The Trocadero at Piccadilly Circus has had such pedestrian tunnels/walkways for 20 or so years, linking it to the tube station and half way up Shaftsbury Av, and we know how successful the Trocadero has been don’t we…!
@Graham H – 7 February 2015 at 18:20
@Anomnibus = Not so much a brotherhood of CCTV cameras as perhaps a “peerage”? I’ll get my coat.
Bigbrotherhood?? I’ll join you in the Q for coats!
@Anaomnibus,
I’m not aware of anything like the PATH system existing in London. A few dingy old concrete subways, yes, but nothing that’s been designed from the outset to be a destination (or ‘place’ to use the fashionable term) in its own right.
That’s because you have been out of the country for too long. Go to King’s Cross and see the technicolour curved artform that is the latest entrance to the underground. I am not saying I like it but it does fit the criterion you specify.
There are (and have been for years) various places with tiled artwork on subways giving a history of a place. The one under Blackfriars Bridge as part of the Thames Path is particularly informative.
The City has had interconnected walkways and subways between office blocks for years – since the 60s in fact. Some are dingy, some are airy, but they allow office workers to nip out for a coffee without getting wet or cold – the same purpose as the systems in Canadian cities.
In my opinion, you would have to be pretty easily impressed to ‘like’ these things though…! They are mostly fairly utilitarian. But then, I don’t enjoy a trip to Bluewater either.
No mention so far of London’s closest equivalent to the PATH, which is surely the passages and wider mall areas that link the Canary Wharf stations with One Canada Square and the other towers. They seem to be fully accepted by those who strive in that area. Admittedly not suitable for bikes but . . . .
. . . . a little further east is a monstrously underused linear mall that runs the full distance between two railway stations and could easily form part of an east London cycle highway. Yes, the Excel Centre has plenty of room for bikes.
@PoP/ChrisMitch – in fact, the City planned, in the wake of post-war reconstruction to install a whole network of elevated walkways (and dual carriageways- !) of which the miserable Barbican structures and London Wall were the only outcome before they noticed that the Luftwaffe hadn’t been quite as thorough as all that…
@Graham H,
Been there, read the book, seen (some of the) video.
Sadly at the moment the video seems to pause on my machine so might not be playable.
Courtesy Mwmbwls as one of his many insights.
CCTV cameras everywhere …
There is a word to describe this, actually.
It is: “Panopticon”
Originally coined by Jeremy Bentham for an “ideal” house of correction for prisoners.
We are already in a panopticon society, so why not?
Anomnibus
The elevated walkways in the Barbican – that was such a wonderful success, wasn’t it?
OTOH there is a very PATH-like construction under “Canary Wharf” isn’t there?
@PoP – That video is most informative. Suggest allowing 10-20 minutes on ‘pause’ before commencing to view as download speed is slow.
@Greg Tingey (and others):
At no point have I suggested elevated walkways. I don’t know why others here insist on equating something like PATH with such things, they’re not even remotely similar.
My point is that, if we can’t build trams, can’t build road tunnels, and can’t use elevated transport systems, then the only remaining option is to relocate the pedestrians. PATH does precisely that, and it seems to be working so well that they’re still building extensions to it.
From a user experience perspective, it’s a covered, climate-controlled, brightly-lit, shopping / office arcade. It is not, repeat not, a replica of the Barbican, or all those other failed experiments in high-rise housing.
@Anomnibus
“if we can’t build trams, can’t build road tunnels, and can’t use elevated transport systems, then the only remaining option is to relocate the pedestrians.”
Sounds like a sweeping generalisation to me. Cities are organic and traffic of all kinds flows to adapt. There are other options, such as dispersing pedestrians along other (parallel) routes, building in cycle lanes (underway on some streets). Furthermore as has been well pointed out here, underground passageways have a very mixed track record, even if they have shops.
@Anomibus
Covered malls have been tried a number of times in London, and they don’t work.
Whether the pedestrian route is elevated (as at the Barbican/City of London), or underground (eg Trocadero, Charing Cross), it makes no difference – pedestrians prefer the streets – noisy and polluted as they are.
@Pop
That is a great video, and explains a lot of the reasons for why what happened in the City, happened. I think some of the shots of deserted walkways are slightly misleading though, as they seem to have been filmed at the weekend. I have walked these eerily quiet walkways on a Sunday, but I have also seen then a bit busier during weekdays.
@Anomnibus “the Barbican or… failed experiments in high-ride housing”? Err, it’s probably the most successful high-rise housing in the country, of far superior build quality than many other contemporary schemes, and the walkways and gardens are very popular with both the local residents, those of the neighboroughing Golden Lane Estate, and London-wide parkour enthusiaists. The problem, if any, with the walkways is that they don’t extend far enough; they were originally supposed to go to Covent Garden, the north side of London Bridge, and Highbury & Islington.
Chris Mitch
Covered malls have been tried a number of times in London, and they don’t work.
Burlington Arcade? And the others?
Or those in Cardiff or Paris for that matter?
*cough*