DEDICATED CYCLE " HIGHWAY" MEETING 13TH JUNE, TOWN HALL @ 6.30PM

TfL plans to make Holland Park Avenue and Notting Hill Gate into a dedicated cycle “highway”. 
Details of their plans can be found at

HERE 

The Kensington Society is keen that residents should have a chance to put questions direct to TfL at a public meeting. 

The meeting is to take place at the Town Hall at 6.30 p.m. on Thursday 13 June, and for an hour beforehand there will be a display of the TfL plans with TfL personnel on hand. Everybody is welcome.

Please note, incidentally, that the scheme is being promoted by Transport for London, NOT our Council, who have so far not decided their position. So if you want to write to the relevant authority (which we would encourage), please write to TfL, either by completing the survey form on the website above, or by emailing HERE, and not to the Council, who cannot send your emails on to TfL as under data protection rules they need to obtain your specific permission to do so.

CONCERNS ABOUT THE SCHEME

From what we have heard so far from our members, the main concerns are:

·         Increased traffic congestion as motorised traffic will be reduced to one lane each way, with knock on effects (all noted in respect of the existing schemes at Lancaster Gate and on the Embankment) of:

o   traffic diversion to neighbouring streets, both residential and parallel arteries;

o   Increased air pollution from stationary traffic (in a street that is already heavily polluted);

o   A less efficient transport system for users of buses and taxis who will be stuck in traffic;

TfL needs to explain why they think these problems will not arise when they so clearly do on the schemes mentioned above.

·         Increased road safety risks and inconvenience:

o   For pedestrians (especially the elderly, disabled and with children) , who will have to cross a cycle lane as well as traffic lanes and will also suffer by having fewer bus stops (accessible in some cases only by crossing cycle lanes); road junctions with no controlled pedestrian crossings; and increased traffic in residential streets;

o   For cyclists and motorists – the experience of the Embankment scheme seems to show that in rush hours the faster cyclists tend to become impatient being held up by the slower ones and weave in and out of the motorised traffic).

·         Loss of trees, including two mature plane trees which are particularly important as carbon sinks (for the Ladbroke Association this is particularly important as we were founded as a result of a campaign to stop the Council felling mature planes in Ladbroke Grove);

·         Effect on retail outlets along Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill Gate:

o    as customers avoid the increased congestion

o    As shops without back entrances struggle to receive deliveries.

·         Problems for motorists as left turns are restricted and as more streets are made one-way.

·         Other options: many will want to know  whether TfL has considered other options, e.g.

o   A one way cycle lane that would be reversed during rush hours;

o   A cycle path through parallel side streets.