Cycleway 9
A number of questions were received about Cycleway 9. This is a TfL led project and they have provided the following Statement.
I am writing because you have contacted us about the temporary changes we have introduced to help people walk and cycle on the section of Chiswick High Road between Wellesley Road and Goldhawk Road. Information about the temporary changes is available on our website.
I want to say firstly that we acknowledge the temporary changes we have introduced to Chiswick High Road have caused some problems initially. The disruption to traffic flow in the local area has been caused by a combination of the construction of the temporary improvements, and some additional works being undertaken by Thames Water in the area. Work to build the temporary changes will be complete by 18 December. We expect that when both our own works and the Thames Water works have completed, traffic flow will settle and improve.
We will be monitoring the effects that the temporary changes have and we also want to continue to hear your feedback, good and bad, about the changes.
Listening to your concerns
Even though construction of the changes is still ongoing, we have already made some changes to the scheme in direct response to the issues you and other people have raised.
These are:
- Following local complaints, we acted quickly to remove some incorrectly installed signage at Dukes Avenue. We wanted to take this opportunity to apologise again to anyone who was inconvenienced and to thank those who brought this to our attention
- We introduced a new loading bay in the market place section of Chiswick High Road, to give local businesses an additional loading and unloading facility
- We plan to introduce a new loading bay between Mayfield Avenue and Cranbrook Road, again to give local businesses an additional facility
- For a short period of time the right turn from Chiswick High Road into Chiswick Lane was temporarily banned. The turn will be reinstated as soon as the traffic signals have been upgraded.
We will continue to listen to all the feedback we receive. We explain below how we’ve made it easier for people to give us their comments. Where we believe that a alteration to the temporary changes would help to resolve an issue raised by local, we will act accordingly.
New bus stop ‘bypasses’
We know some people are concerned about the changes we have made to bus stops on Chiswick High Road. Specifically, we have introduced bus stop ‘bypasses’; these make it possible for us to provide a safe and continuous protected cycle track for people cycling. There’s more information about them on our website. Some people have told us they are concerned about the safety of people using the new stops. Others have made clear they are disappointed that in some cases the bus shelter is some distance from the stop.
Bus stop ‘bypasses’ are in place in several locations across London, including Blackfriars Road, Stratford, Oval and Whitechapel, and were first introduced in 2014. Following their introduction we worked closely with organisations such as the Royal National Institute of Blind People, Guide Dogs, Transport for All, Age UK London, and the London Cycling Campaign to commission independent research to understand how people walking and cycling would interact with each other at these stops, and how disabled people would feel using them. This research helped us to refine and improve the design, for example by including mini-zebra crossings to make clear to people using the cycle lane that pedestrians have priority.
We provide shelters at bus stops wherever and whenever possible, including at bus stop ‘bypasses’. We are exploring as quickly as we can whether it might be possible to provide some form of shelter at the new bus stops temporarily. We will write to you again as soon as we have further information about that.
Engaging with stakeholders
We have already discussed the temporary changes we are making to Chiswick High Road with the emergency services, local councillors and at the Chiswick Area Forum.
We know local people and other stakeholders want to speak to us directly about the temporary changes and we want to make that possible. We will write again shortly with further information about what steps we will take to enable local people to speak to us.
Continuing to listen to you
Your feedback is enormously important. Together with our monitoring, your comments help us to identify any issues that the temporary changes might be contributing to, which we can address. We will also use your feedback, together with our monitoring data, to help us decide which temporary schemes should become permanent additions to London’s walking and cycling networks.
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to tell us your views and so we have set up an online feedback form, through which you can record your comments.
Our email address streetspacelondon@tfl.gov.uk will remain open, however we will not be able to respond to individual emails.
If you have a question about the changes we are introducing, you may find our online Frequently Asked Questions useful.
If you have a question that isn’t included, please contact our Customer Services department.
