Claremont High School Travel Plan

Consultation documents received November 2009.

Brent Cyclists Response

Your Ref: TP854C-YGS

Dear Mr Gunaseelan,

This is the response from Brent Cyclists to the consultation on the School Travel Plan for Claremont High School. Please tell me if you need it printed or faxed, otherwise I will take the e-mail to be sufficient.

 Brent Cyclists is the local group of the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), the voice of cycling in London, and with over 10,000 members, the largest urban cycling organisation in the world. We have consulted our members on this scheme and drawn on the accumulated expertise of the LCC.

We note that the consultation says in the introduction:

"The scheme proposals aim to improve road safety and sustainable travel options such as walking and cycling for children, parents and the road users in roads around the school."

Being aimed therefore at, amongst other things, improving safety for cyclists and the attractiveness of cycling to the school, we would have hoped for some analysis of what the dangers, problems and barriers are at the moment that prevent pupils and staff from cycling to the school, and the proposal of measures specifically directed at removing those problems and barriers. We don't see this, however. In some respects, rather, this consultation is proposing measures that mitigate against cycling, clearly against its stated objectives.

The creation of a 20mph zone is welcome to us, but we do not understand the reason for the choice of physical measures on the roads - a combination of speed tables and speed cushions. The speed cushions are a particularly cycle-unfriendly device. In combination with the high levels of parking in these roads, they will tend to squeeze cyclists, particularly younger or less-experienced ones, too close to the left, into the path of opening car doors. Speed cushions also have the undesirable effects of causing unpredictable movements of vehicles on the road and conflicts between drivers and cyclists as both compete for flat road space. They also are relatively ineffective in slowing motor vehicles. We would rather advocate sinusoidal, cycle-friendly humps that are continuous across the road (except at the gullies). Brent has installed these in many other locations. They are more comfortable to cycle over than other traffic-calming measures and do not suffer from the problems of speed cushions.

The second proposal in this consultation is for "Making Claremont Avenue one-way between Kenton Road and Oakdale Avenue to ease the congestion outside the school". Again, this proposal is totally at odds with the stated objectives of the scheme. The congestion outside the school is presumably due to parents setting-down and picking-up children by car. Therefore the congestion should be addressed by reducing car-use by parents. Reducing this congestion using a one-way scheme will, if it works, merely encourage car-use by parents. In addition it will make it more difficult to cycle to the school and make other cycle journeys in this area, and may lead to higher speeds, despite the traffic-calming measures, higher traffic volumes, and therefore increased danger for both pedestrians and cyclists.

Cycling is severely discouraged by the creation of one-way streets which force cyclists to either take longer ways round or cycle illegally down one-ways the wrong way or cycle on pavements. We oppose therefore the creation of this one-way section. A better alternative, if there is congestion in this road, would be to close it at the junction with Kenton Road and install a cycle gap there (this would also create improved pedestrian routes), or alternatively, introduce a "No entry" with a cycle exception at the Oakdale Avenue junction, which would have a similar effect to the proposed one-way, but allow two-way cycling. As a third alternative, a cycle exception to the one-way might be considered.

We support the proposed waiting restrictions.

If there is a serious intention to encourage cycling to the school, street improvements should be combined with measures such as quality cycle parking at the school, information given to staff and parents about the Cycle to Work Scheme, a bicycle repair workshop at the school, and, most importantly, cycle training for all pupils and staff.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this scheme.