Cycle contra flows
August 26th, 2010 by James BarberAt last.
The formal advert for cycle contra flows has been placed for this financial years planned work. This was agreed with Cllr Paul Kyriacou when he was the exec cllr in charge before the local elections – not long until they’re installed either parts or all of:
Balfour Street
Munton Road
Bermondsey Street
Chapter Road
Druid Street
Guy Street
Highshore Road
Kipling Street
Melford Road
Silvester Street
Stoney Street
Swan Street
Winchester Walk These contra flows will really help make Southwark easier for cyclists to get around. It also gives no excuse at these locations to cycle on the pavements.
What other streets do you think should have cycle contra flows against the flow of current one way streets?
I can’t speak for the others, but Melford & Highshore Road already have cycle contraflows in place at the sites mentioned (if the Southwark News ad of August 26 is the notice in question). In the case of Melford, the contraflow was consulted on (after a fashion) and built to the specifications of Mouchel months, if not years, ago. And Highshore was trumpeted as an example of best practice in Southwark’s Cycle Plan in 2006. I’m sure Mouchel are the best people to manage the building of things that already exist, but I’m not sure this is the best stage of the process to be soliciting objections.
Having used both of these for their presumably-intended purposes over the last months and years, I’d also like to know the legal implications of using cycle facilities that don’t officially exist.
Incidentally, if people do cycle on the pavement at Melford, I’m not sure it’s on account of the notional non-existence of an apparent contraflow. A more likely motive is the parking of SUVs on a blind corner on a road that motorists treat as one-way. Although it’s now in a conscientiously self-policing 20mph zone, traffic doesn’t noticeably belt round the corner any slower than when it was two-way.