Forum Topic

Cycle Superhighway in Acton

There has been relatively little press coverage of the ambitious plans for a cycle superhighway along the A40. This would be a major benefit to the transport infrastructure of Acton as it would mean that the centre of London would be an easy and safe cycle ride away. There are outline plans on the following link but it looks like the highway would run from Horn Lane to Westbourne Grove along the south side to White City and then along the north side by the Westway.Unfortunately I just spotted this and the consultation about it has already closed.https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/cycling/f3f3bddb

Mark Evans ● 4326d8 Comments

Ealing won £15 million, of the £30 million they bid for TFL funding, so something will happen.

Pete Grist ● 4326d

Would rather it was along Uxbridge Road and Notting Hill Gate - flatter and nearer where I want to go.

Sara Nathan ● 4326d

My thoughts exactly Sara. As Pete says, we've recevied some 'mini Holland' funding, so it would make sense for the superhighway to join up with that scheme. There will be a further consultation on the Paddington-Acton route next year, where we will be able to make exactly this point.

Josh Blacker ● 4325d

It'll be interesting to see the ultimate usage of the Westway cycle route once Crossrail opens and public transport will more or less duplicate it. If it is popular then the switch from the lane travelling south of the A40 to north at White City could get a bit messy.That said it makes a lot of sense to put cycle lanes on roads on main trunk roads. The Uxbridge Road is too narrow do give cyclists a continuous dedicated lane and they will have to share with buses at some point. London Travel Watch have already pointed out that this is a zero sum game if an improvement in cycle routes is achieved at the cost of an increase in bus journey times.

Andy Jones ● 4325d

There is very little chance of proper cycle routes along Holland Park Avenue / Notting Hill Gate with the current  Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.They are basically blocking superhighways through the borough so the CS9 route will go through Hounslow and Hammersmith, stop at RB K&C, then start again at Hyde Park.London Travel Watch don't get the point that dedicated cycle lanes are needed to preserve bus route times.  With buses and bikes sharing the same lane, both slow each other down and you get a game of leap-frog with bikes overtaking buses at stops and buses overtaking bikes between stops.  Assuming a continuing increase of the number of people on bikes, the buses won't even be able to overtake and the bus network will grind to a halt.  Not to mention the safety aspect of buses and bikes in close proximity.

Michael Robinson ● 4325d

But where on a road like Holland Park Avenue would a dedicated cycle lane go? There is already a cycle lane on part of it but eastbound it often goes down to a single lane due to parking spaces. If you removed these parking spaces, which would be highly controversial and very negative for local businesses, the most obvious thing to do would be to add a bus lane although this would have the huge disadvantage of causing tailbacks in the other lane due to traffic blocking it when attempting to turn right. Due to the mature trees on both sides of the road you can’t really widen it.

Andy Jones ● 4325d

There is a wide hatched area in the middle of much of Holland Park Avenue - essentially, wasted road space. (As it's my route to and from work, I should declare self-interest in making it safer and more pleasant to cycle along!)New York actually found that putting in dedicated bike lanes dramatically increased revenue for local businesses, and reduced congestion. Counter-intuitive, perhaps, but true.Unfortunately Michael is right about opposition from K&C (and Westminster aren't being particularly cooperative, but at least they are engaging). Hopefully the 2015 consultation on the route will give us an opportunity to make our case.

Josh Blacker ● 4325d

There is no chance of dedicated cycle lanes on Holland Park Avenue under the current RB K&C administration as they are ideologically opposed to it.Ultimately reallocating road or parking space is a political decision about priorities and generally speaking, UK politicians have been unwilling to do this.  With car ownership and use in central London steadily declining over the last 10 years, this may not always be the case.The importance of car parking to local businesses in central London is somewhat overstated although removal of car parking spaces would certainly produce lots of objections.  Research done by the GLA in central London found that people not using cars spent more per month than people using cars.  You'd think that shopkeepers would know how their customers came to their shops but in general, they didn't, considerably overestimating the proportion that came by car.Cars and buses are much more efficient use of road space than cars in terms of numbers of people they can transport (you can fit about 10 bikes in the space occupied by 1 parked car) so as Josh says, when other urban places have reprioritised space sway from cars, it has resulted in an overall increase in business for local shops.

Michael Robinson ● 4325d