Safe and Healthy Streets Consultation - Enabling Two-way Cycling on Falkland Road

Overview

Safe and Healthy Streets Consultation – Enabling Two-way Cycling on Falkland Road – Cycle Permeability Scheme Proposals

We are seeking your views on proposals to introduce measures on Falkland Road to enable two-way cycling between Fortess Road and Lady Margaret Road.

Photo of Falkland Road looking east from Fortess Road

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how communities in Camden live, travel and work. We want to transform our streets, so they have more safe space for everyone to walk and cycle, for children to get to and from school safely, for you to be breathing cleaner air, to reduce carbon emissions from road transport and for businesses to flourish. We want to ensure that our streets support recovery from the pandemic and provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel helping us to deliver our wide Transport Strategy objectives.

64% of households in Camden do not own a car, and around 85% of all trips by Camden residents are made on foot, by bike or on public transport. Supporting and encouraging those who can walk and cycle, by creating safer, healthier streets, would also help ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

To help respond to the transport challenges on our streets caused by the pandemic, and in line with our Camden Transport Strategy and Climate Action Plan, we have been making changes across Camden as part of our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme. This included making changes to one-way streets as part of our Cycle Permeability programme, where we introduced measures to help cyclists travel more easily and safely in both directions on sections of street which are one-way for motor vehicles, helping make the streets safer and healthier.

About the Falkland Road Cycle Permeability Scheme

Falkland Road is a one-way road between Fortess Road and Lady Margaret Road, running east from Fortess Road to Leverton Street and running west from Lady Margaret Road to Leverton Street. These restrictions apply to all vehicular traffic including cycles. Falkland Road is a two-way road to the east of Lady Margaret Road. The proposals relate to the section of Falkland Road between Fortess Road and Lady Margaret Road.

The overarching aim of the Cycle Permeability programme is to help overcome barriers to cycling. Many streets in the borough are one-way and links between streets on desired routes and Camden’s cycle network are often severed by infrastructure, traffic restrictions or highly trafficked major roads. The Cycle Permeability programme aims to make more Camden streets more accessible to cyclists and provide better connections and links through measures such as adding two-way cycling on one-way streets and cut-throughs at physical road closures. A number of such permeability improvements for cyclists have been made in recent years at various locations across the borough.

We previously consulted on a proposal to enable two-way cycling on Falkland Road between the junction with Fortess Road and Leverton Street in May 2018. However, that proposal was not taken forward due to road safety concerns raised during the consultation period.

The latest proposals are different from the original proposals in that they also include the section of Falkland Road between Lady Margaret Road and Leverton Street. In addition, the proposals include measures to protect cyclists at the junctions with Fortess Road, Leverton Street, and Lady Margaret Road.

An independent road safety audit has been undertaken on the revised proposals. The report did not highlight any significant road safety concerns relating to the proposed design of the two-way cycling measures. However, if approved, the completed scheme once constructed would be subject to a further road safety audit which would again consider any road safety concerns.

A traffic survey undertaken in September 2022 indicates that traffic speeds and volumes are low with 7-day average figures of 11.3mph and 246 vehicles per day, 1.7% of which were recorded as medium or heavy goods vehicles. Cycles account for 10% of traffic on the section of Falkland Road between Fortess Road and Leverton Street and 21% of traffic on the section of Falkland Road between Lady Margaret Road and Leverton Street. These figures demonstrate that the sections of Falkland Road under consideration are low traffic speed and volume environments. Officers therefore feel that the likelihood of conflicts between motor vehicles and cycles would be low.

In addition, since we last consulted on cycle permeability proposals for Falkland Road, we have introduced around 25 similar schemes in the borough, including nearby at Caversham Road, Gaisford Street, Inkerman Road, and Patshull Road in Kentish Town. Officers are not aware of any serious collisions involving cyclists and other road users on streets where cycle permeability measures have been introduced.

Therefore, we are proposing to construct a package of measures which would provide a continuous and safe two-way cycle link on Falkland Road, enabling cyclists to access the wider cycle network.

We propose to construct the measures using a permanent Traffic Management Order. If the proposals are approved, we would carefully monitor the impacts of the scheme on Falkland Road.

A scheme drawing for the proposed measures can be found in the Related section at the bottom of this page. We are proposing the following changes:

• Introduce two-way cycling (cycling where traffic only flows one-way) on Falkland Road between Fortess Road and Lady Margaret Road.
• Construct small traffic islands with cycle gaps at the junctions with Fortess Road, Leverton Street, and Lady Margaret Road to protect cyclists travelling in the opposite direction to motor vehicles.
• Introduce new signage, on street cycle symbols, and other road markings to show permitted cycle route in each direction.
• Introduce new waiting and loading restrictions (double yellow lines with double kerb blips) at the junctions with Fortess Road, Leverton Street, and Lady Margaret Road to improve road safety for all road users. This would include changes to parking, including the removal of 6 resident ‘permit holders only’ parking spaces and 1 ‘paid-for’ parking space.
• Relocate the car club parking bay near the junction with Fortess Road east by 6.6 metres.

Why your views matter

As 47% of households in the scheme area do not have access to a car and public transport usage remain lower than before the pandemic, we know that safe and easy walking, cycling, and scooting routes are more important than ever. Supporting and encouraging those who are able to walk and cycle, by creating safer streets would ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

Your views are important in providing feedback both on the proposed scheme as a whole and elements of it, and we would therefore welcome your responses on the pages that follow. To view the plans and find out more about the proposals, click on the links in the Related section at the bottom of this page.

We will be pleased to hear your views on the proposals as well as any alternative suggestions or objections you may have to any aspect of what we are proposing.

What happens next

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 consultation responses, relevant policies, officer observations, and other data/information including monitoring information collected to date.

All of this information will be considered in making recommendations in the report about whether the proposed changes should be constructed under a permanent Traffic Management Order.

If approved, we would also collect a range of pre and post scheme monitoring data to ascertain the impact of the scheme, including traffic counts on Falkland Road, monitoring of traffic speeds, and levels of cycling.