Camden Square Area Safe and Healthy Streets and "C50" cycle route consultation

Overview

Proposals to make the trial Safe & Healthy Street and 'C50' cycleway changes in the Camden Square area permanent, alongside new road safety and public realm improvements.

We made a mistake on one of the maps on our online consultation, we have now fixed that but to be clear and fair we are giving everyone extra time to share their views on the plans.

Our proposals include keeping the U-Turn restriction for motor vehicles on North Villas.

If you have already filled in our survey and want to change your comments please do get in touch with us atsafetravel@camden.gov.uk

We apologise for any confusion this error might have caused.

We want our streets to have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely and healthily, for businesses to be able to flourish, to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles and for you to be breathing cleaner air. Further, we want to ensure that our streets support a strong recovery from the pandemic and provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel.

To help, we have been trialling changes across Camden in our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme. The trial changes introduced in the Camden Square area via an Experimental Traffic Order on 16^th December 2021 included new through-traffic restrictions, new cycle connections between Royal College Street and York Way (cycleway “C50” route), pedestrian improvements, and upgrades to green spaces and the public realm.

These changes helped support walking and cycling trips and prevented motor vehicles from using local streets, such as Murray Street, as a shortcut between Camden Road and York Way.

It is also important for us to support the 17 recommendations from Camden’s Citizens Assembly on the climate crisis, and help to deliver our Transport Strategy priorities, which were strongly supported when we consulted on them. This includes, improving walking and cycling, improving existing green spaces, creating new spaces, improving air quality and making our streets and transport networks safe, accessible and inclusive for all. The proposals in this consultation would help to support these strategies.

Why your views matter

What are we now consulting on

This consultation now seeks your views on a number of proposals which seek to continue to reduce motor vehicle volumes in the area, to improve the public realm at various locations, to improve road safety and prioritise walking and cycling journeys, and to further improve air quality in the local area. For full details and how to respond to the consultation see the sections and supporting information below.

Information on the trial changes and background to the scheme can be found further down this page.

This consultation now asks local residents and stakeholders to give their views on the following proposals:

1. Making the trial scheme permanent
2. Improvements to the trial changes
3. New Safe and Healthy streets proposals in the area

The enhanced permanent proposals for the Camden Square area have some key differences to the trial scheme. These changes seek to retain benefits of the trial scheme (such as improved air quality, less motor vehicle traffic and increased levels of cycling) while making amendments and improvements based on feedback from the community.

Changes to the trial scheme we are proposing:

• A new simpler layout of the motor vehicle restriction on Murray Street and Camden Square
• New trees and shorter crossing distances for those on foot at Cantelowes Road, Camden Terrace and North Villas
• Improving the C50 by replacing the temporary wands with a ‘stepped’ cycle track, continuous pedestrian crossings at junctions and upgraded road markings (see the photo guide for an example of a continuous footway/pedestrian crossing)

In the related documents section at the bottom of this page you will find a map of the how the proposed simpler layout of the Murray Street/Camden Square junction scheme compares to the trial layout.

New changes we are proposing based on your feedback:

• Replacing the width restriction bollards at the junction of Agar Grove and Murray Street with a signage only 7.5T weight restriction.
• Upgrade the existing zebra crossing to a parallel zebra crossing and move to a location at the entrance to Camley Street walking and cycling link. This would improve the connection between the Camden Square area and the Kings Cross area (via the Camley Street link)
• Making improvements to Agar Grove including a new zebra crossing, widening the pavement plus new greenery and measures to calm the traffic
• Widening pavements to shortern crossing distances for those on foot at various locations. 
• Adding new trees to improve biodiversity and reconfiguring parking bays to improve the look of Rousden Street

We are also proposing:

• Adding six new cycle hangers across the area
• Public realm improvements at green spaces and other locations in the area
• Planting new trees at a number of locations
• Adding a new Santander bike hire docking station on Agar Grove

In the related documents section at the bottom of this page you will find a list of all the parking changes.

History of the Camden Square area Safe and Healthy Streets Scheme

In 2021 a Safe and Healthy Streets scheme was introduced as a trial using an Experimental Traffic Order (ETO). The scheme built upon the existing motor vehicle restrictions in the Camden Square area and provided new safe cycling facilities from Royal College Street to York Way.

In the related documents section at the bottom of this page you will find  information on the historic motor vehicle restrictions that have been in place in the Camden Square Area since the early 1970s.

The trial launched in December 2021 with the aim of reducing traffic volumes, improving air quality, and prioritising walking and cycling journeys across the area.The ETO changes are outlined as follows:

Image shows diagonal motor vehicle restriction at junction of Camden Square, Murray Street and Stratford Villas with a taxi approaching along Stratford Villas

In addition to the above trial measures, changes were also made to several streets to provide a safer cycling connection between Royal College Street and York Way. These included:

• Upgrading the existing green space on Agar Grove (connecting into Rochester Square/Stratford Villas).
• Upgrading the existing signalised junction of St Pancras Way, Randolph Street, Agar Grove improving safety and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists.
• Adding a new “parallel zebra” crossing on Agar Grove improving safety and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists immediately east of Agar Place.
• Relocating the existing bus stop on Royal College Street and widening pavements to facilitate a northbound cycle crossing into Randolph Street.
• Extending the existing cycle lane on Agar Grove leading up to the junction with St Pancras Way to the new parallel zebra crossing, protecting it with wands.
• Adding new blue resin surfacing in the southbound cycle lane direction across junction of Royal College Street and Randolph Street enhancing cycle safety.
• Adding new segregated cycle lanes on Randolph Street (in both directions) using wands improving connectivity between Royal College Street, St Pancras Way and Agar Grove.
• Changes on Cliff Road to improve safety and visibility for cyclists.
• Refreshing the existing road markings at the junction of York Way with Cliff Road and Hungerford Road, including a new “Advanced Stop Line” on York Way and Hungerford Road.

In addition we introduced cycling and walking changes to Rochester Square and Cantelowes Road at the junction with Camden Road, improving connection to Transport for London’s pedestrian crossing improvements on Camden Road.

You can view the decision report relating to this trial.

Following feedback received from local businesses and residents during the first weeks of the trial we made changes to signage to make it clear that access to businesses and properties on Camden Mews was retained.

After 6-months of the Camden Square Area Safe and Healthy Streets trial scheme, we consulted on making minor amendments in the area to respond to comments raised by local people and businesses.

These amendments were implemented under an Experimental Traffic Order in July 2022 and included:

• Replacing 6.2 meters of double yellow line outside No.7 Murray Street, to provide a safe space, protected by barriers, for tables and chairs for use by Temptation Coffee Bar.

Monitoring information collected before and during the trial

We have been monitoring motor traffic volumes, cycle volumes and air quality and our factsheet on this data is available in the Relevant Information section below.

Some of the key findings in the data include:

• Motor vehicle levels have reduced across ‘local streets’ and ‘main roads’ in the scheme area (54% and 17% respectively) when comparing ‘Before-scheme’ and ‘After-scheme’ data.
• Air quality has improved. Harmful NO2 levels have decreased at all 7 monitoring sites in the Camden Square scheme boundary when comparing February – July 2021 (‘Before-scheme’) with February – July 2022 (‘After-scheme’).
• Motor traffic volumes have fallen on both Murray Street and an Agar Grove (between Murray Street and York Way)
• Cycle levels have increased by 11% on ‘local streets’ in the Camden Square area comparing ‘Before-scheme’ and ‘After-scheme’ data.
• A 13% increase in Lime dockless bike hire usage was observed when comparing the number of trips within the Camden Square Scheme area between January - June 2021 (‘Before-scheme’) and January - June 2022 (‘After-scheme’).

Accessibility Audit

During the trial, Camden Disability Action supported by the charity Sustrans undertook an on-site accessibility audit of the scheme and provided a report containing their feedback. Issues that were reported included the potential in some locations for collisions between cyclists and pedestrians, the width of crossing areas in parts of the scheme area, narrow footway widths, and the lack of dropped kerbs and seating. We considered their recommendations and the issues that members of the group encountered during the site visits, and have made proposals for changes based on  a number of those recommendations, and which are incorporated in the proposals we are consulting on.

Feedback during the trial

Over the course of the trial members of the public have been able to provide feedback on the schemes dedicated engagement pages. You can access these engagement pages at the below links:

• Camden Square area Safe and Healthy Streets
• C50 cycleway

We have analysed the feedback received during the trial. Several of the proposed amendments to the trial scheme are based on ideas provided through that feedback. 

The final decision on whether to go ahead with the proposals contained in this consultation will be made based on evidence including engagement and consultation responses, relevant policies, officer observations, and other data/information including monitoring information collected over the course of the trial.

Online meeting

A facilitated session with members of the community and the Council will be held on Tuesday 21st March 2023 from 5pm-6:30pm. 

If you wish to register your attendance at this event please register your interest.

What happens next

The final decision on whether to go ahead with the proposals contained in this consultation will be made based on evidence including engagement and consultation responses, relevant policies, officer observations, and other data/information including monitoring information collected over the course of the trial.

After the consultation, a decision report will be produced and published online via our website. Local residents and stakeholders will be notified of the outcome. The report will consider a broad range of information including officer observations, consultation responses, feedback received during the trial period, relevant policies, and other data/information.

Subject to the decision to make the scheme permanent, officers will continue to monitor the scheme and will consider additional measures if necessary. These will be progressed and publicly consulted on as part of a separate scheme.