Highgate Road Safe and Healthy Streets consultation

Overview

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed how people in Camden live, travel and work. 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.

We want to ensure that our streets support a strong recovery from the pandemic and provide a lasting legacy of greener, safer, healthier travel.

As 69% of households in Camden do not own a car and public transport use remains much 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 will ensure that there is more space available on public transport and on our roads for those who need it the most.

To help we have been making changes across Camden in our Safe and Healthy Streets Programme. This included making trial changes on Highgate Road in September 2020. These changes extended the hours of operation of bus lanes along Highgate Road to 24/7, as well as introducing further waiting and loading restrictions.

About the Highgate Road Safe & Healthy Streets Scheme

Bus lanes operate in sections of Highgate Road, north and southbound, to both provide bus journey time reliability and create safer conditions for cyclists. The bus lanes also permit taxis and motorcycles. Prior to September 2020, these bus lanes had only operated at limited times, around the am/pm peak times, with the following hours of operation (bus lane reference numbers can be viewed on the design drawings):

• Bus lane CMO15: Monday – Friday 7am -10am
• Bus lane CMO16: Monday – Friday 7am -7pm
• Bus lane CMO17: Monday – Friday 7am -10am, 4pm -7pm and Saturday 10am-7pm

Outside of those hours of operation, the bus lanes were occupied either by parked cars and/or moving general traffic, which disrupted bus journey time reliability and created less safe conditions for cycling. In order to respond to these issues, as part of our Making Travel Safer in Camden programme in response to the pandemic, and in line with our Camden Transport Strategy, we implemented a scheme as a trial under an Experimental Traffic Order for up to 18 months. The trial scheme consisted of the following:

• Extension of hours of operation of bus lanes CMO15, CMO16 and CMO17 on Highgate Road to 24/7 – “at all times”.
• Waiting and loading restrictions to be extended to ‘at any time’ in all bus lanes.
• Addition of two loading bays outside 109-111 Highgate Road and outside 12 Highgate Road with hours of operation of 7pm-7am for loading for commercial properties.

This decision report noted that a further consultation, after approximately 12 months of the trial scheme, would take place relating to any proposed permanent changes. The trial scheme went live in September 2020 and during this period, the scheme has been monitored and comments from local residents and stakeholders have been received.

This consultation now asks local residents and stakeholders to give their views on whether the scheme should be made permanent after the end of the 18-month trial period. Additional changes are also being consulted on, including the extension of existing bus lane “CMO15” to the north, up to the roundabout with Swains Lane (see Related Information – Scheme Drawings), as well as the removal of paid for/permit parking bays along Highgate Road to remove existing pinch points and facilitate the extension of the bus lane.

The trial scheme on Highgate Road, and the proposed additional changes, are in line with our Camden Transport Strategy (CTS) objectives and policies to promote and support sustainable transport. In particular, the CTS commits to delivering bus priority measures, including extension of bus lane hours of operation and relocation/removal of waiting/loading restrictions, in order to improve bus journey time reliability. The CTS also commits to removing kerbside parking provision, where necessary, to facilitate sustainable transport like cycling or buses.

Why your views matter

Based on the monitoring data and the feedback received from residents and stakeholders during the trial period, and in line with policies and objectives set out in our Camden Transport Strategy and Climate Action Plan, we are now consulting on making the trial changes to Highgate Road permanent.

You can view the drawings of the changes in the “Related Information” section of the online consultation front page.

The proposal for the permanent changes includes retaining all the elements of the existing trial scheme, such as the ‘at any time’ waiting and loading restrictions within the bus lanes, the loading bays and 24/7 hours of operation of the bus lanes, as well as the following additional proposed measures:

• The extension of bus lane “CMO15” that runs southbound on Highgate Road. The lane currently starts to the south of the junction of St. Albans Road. We are proposing to extend the bus lane CMO15 further to the north, as far as the zebra crossing at the roundabout with Swains Lane, with 24/7 operation.
• The removal of 10 permit/paid for parking bays on Highgate Road, opposite Parliament Hill Fields bus stop (Stop GL). These are proposed to be replaced with 'at any time' waiting and loading restrictions. This will provide space for safer road widths, as well as space for the southbound bus lane extension.
• Widening the pavement on the southbound kerbline at Parliament Hill Fields bus stop (Stop GL), to improve bus stop accessibility and increase pavement space.
• Removing 18 permit/paid for parking bays on Highgate Road, opposite Grove Terrace. We are proposing to replace these with single yellow lines and single blips with hours of operation of 7am-7pm. This would remove a pinch point caused by the existing parking bays, which has been raised as an issue through feedback on Commonplace and by stakeholders during the trial scheme.

Introducing ‘at any time’ waiting and loading restrictions at the junction of Highgate Road and Carrol Close, to improve road user and pedestrian safety, in alignment with the “Safer Junctions" programme outlined in the Camden Transport Strategy (CTS).

To view the plans and find out more about what each proposal would achieve, click on the links in the Related Section at the bottom of this page.

In line with new Department for Transport guidance, we are now consulting on all new and amended Safe and Healthy Street schemes so that we can engage our local residents, businesses and stakeholders in changes happening on their streets. We want to know what you think about these additional proposals. 

What happens next

 As the consultation is now closed,your views, and those of everyone who contributes to this consultation, will be analysed and considered, alongside relevant data available on the scheme and in light of how the scheme aligns with our current policy objectives, in order to put forward recommendations on whether to proceed with the proposals. As part of the processing of the data your responses will be confidentially shared with Sustrans who are undertaking data analysis on our behalf. https://www.sustrans.org.uk/legal/privacy  A summary of this analysis will be provided in the decision report, and will be made available on the Camden Council website in due course.

If you have any other ideas for improvements to make travel safer and healthier in this area, please go to Safe Travel Camden Map  to make some suggestions.