London Cycling Campaign

Hi Sabine,

Have you tried working with your local borough campaigning group? (I hear camden has an excellent one).  You may find that the roads you are complaining about are not controlled by TFL (hence not controlled by Boris) but are controlled instead by the local council. Your local borough campaigning group may be able to help get your message to the right people.

Hope that helps

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I think TFL is only responsible for about 10 per cent of the roads in London but, still, it is the mayor who committed to supporting safer cycling and I would have hoped to get at least some kind of support from him or his team.

Although I cycle through Camden, I start off in Islington and Islington Council is - I am afraid to say so - not very supportive with regards to road issues. However, I will give it a shot and contact Camden Council to see if they are open to suggestions from people living in other boroughs (but travelling through their borough). I will post an update once I have news.

Thanks

Hi all

Here is an update: I have contacted both Camden and Islington Councils to highlight dangerous roads that I regularly use. This is my first time contacting Islington Council as a cyclist and although Camden was slightly better with their response, Islington has come back to me after all.

One of the streets that I mentioned is Brecknock Road. I found out that one part of it is on the Islington side, the other one on the Camden one. Camden responded that they will get in touch with Islington: so kudos to Camden for being pro-active. This is as far as I have come in my efforts. Now it's wait and see what is going to transpire.

Sabine

Bad news: This is the response below that I have just received from Islington Council. Hope LCC can advise what can be done next or if anything can be done at all!

Dear Sabine

Thank you for your email regarding cycle safety on Brecknock Road.

A safety scheme was carried out in conjunction with Camden in 2009 which included narrowing the carriageway on the approach to Camden Road but no separate cycle facilities were included in this. There is no cycle lane on the approach to Camden Road but there are cycle symbols marked on the carriageway to indicate for drivers to be aware of cyclists.

Islington Council has no plans for any works on Brecknock Road this financial year.

Regards,

Mike Fletcher 

Senior Engineer 

Traffic and Engineering 

Environment and Regeneration

Islington Council

Hi All

It might have taken a long time to post a final update on this but here it is: I have now, finally, managed to draw more attention on Brecknock Road. I met with an engineer and cycling officer from Islington Council last week. We walked up Brecknock Road with our bicycles to discuss the dangerous bits for cyclists. Whilst there are currently no plans to change the layout of parking spaces, Islington Council *might* spray large cycling symbols on the pavement of this road. This should encourage cyclists to cycle in the middle of the lane where there are parking cars to avoid that cyclists get hit by anyone opening the door of a parked car and to avoid that cars overtake dangerously.

I don't feel like this is a major achievment especially since this might not happen in the end. But when I queried if other cyclists have approached them, I was told that there was just one other person.

I am certain that there are a number of cyclists using Brecknock Road on their route and that they don't feel safe but nothing is going to happen until more of them highlight this with their (Islington or Camden) council.

Hopefully some of them will do now!

Thanks

Sabine