If you cycle – or you’d like to but are scared to start – you’re probably looking forward to all the new cycle infrastructure being built around London. I’ve shared pictures of the first stretch of upgraded Cycle Superhighway 2 and now I’m delighted to be able to show what one stretch of Islington’s Quietway 2 will look like when it’s complete.
Margery Street as it will look when the Quietway plans are complete.
Another impression of how the street will look once Islington’s promised improvements are completed.
This picture shows the safe space for cycling which will be available at this junction once the scheme is completed (Islington will be working alongside TfL and Camden to achieve this)
How can you know what the Quietway will look like before it’s finished (or even started)?
By looking at Islington’s plans. Below is the stretch of road shown in the three pictures above. When travelling west, the Quietway proposals for this road are: “New sinusoidal speed hump”
So these pictures are exactly what we will see when the Quietway is complete – because Islington Council (and TfL, and Andrew Gilligan, London’s Cycling Commissioner, and the mayor himself), propose to do absolutely nothing to improve the road beyond that single speed hump.
Although I wrote about the Quietway 2 plans when the consultation was a out, I have had the misfortune to have to cycle this route a number of times since during rush hour. I have been astonished at the amount and weight of drivers using this road as a rat-run – particularly heavy construction vehicles with which no person on a bike should have to share road space. (The road is also heavily used as a rat-run by Royal Mail vehicles). I wanted to share these pictures because they show how this road will continue to look if Islington go ahead with its rubbish plans: no safer, no more inviting, no better for cyclists, current or potential.
Islington have not yet responded to the consultation. I hope that they will take this opportunity to remove this rat-running traffic, which clearly should not be on minor, residential roads like this, and make the area safe for pedestrians and cyclists.
(Islington Council could look a few hundred yards across the borough boundary to Camden: although its approach to Quietway 2 is equally dire, the new scheme in Tavistock Place is truly promising and show a council which appears to understand cycling, care about its residents’ and visitors’ safety and be willing to allow them the choice of cycling safely. I hope Islington councillors are taking note).
Better Cycling London 
Oh ffs how many roads do you want closed off to traffic!!?? All you do is create further congestion on local roads, increasing pollution and frustration for the majority of people who don’t cycle!!!
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It isn’t about closing roads off to traffic – just through traffic which should not be on residential roads anyway. Why do the majority of people not cycle? What would enable them to do so?
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“Oh ffs how many roads do you want closed off to traffic!!??”
I would say the answer is: the number required to make selfish people leave their cars at home and use foot, bike, bus, train, tram instead.
Holland seems to have it right.
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I, as one of the majority of people who don’t cycle, would like less traffic on my local roads, and thereby less pollution.
This could be done by closing said roads to through traffic. These roads would be pleasanter to walk down / cross, and less congested for people who actually need to access the area by car.
… Have I missed something? What’s not to like? Sure, as a side effect it would also be better for people who do cycle, but I don’t mind that.
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Here’s a little thought experiment to help you develop your rant: if all roads were closed off to [motor] traffic; how much more `congestion’, pollution (noise or air) and frustration could there possibly be?
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