Forum topic: Plan to extend bus lane operating hours south of the A406

[Original article]

The Enfield Dispatch today reports that the planned extension of bus lane operating hours along Green Lanes and Fore Street northbound towards the North Circular is under review following negative feedback from residents and businesses.

If you've ever sat in a northbound bus, queuing for the lights to change while parked cars block the nearside lane, and more join in from the side roads, you will understand why longer bus lanes are needed.

Some extra details to add to the Enfield Dispatch report about the status of the proposed increase in the operating hours of the bus lane on Green Lanes northbound approaching the North Circular.

On 24th December Jonathan Goodson from Enfield Council's traffic team emailed everyone who had responded to the consultation on [the Let's Talk Enfield website . The text of what he wrote is below - first a summary, then information about the responses.

Dear Sir / Madam

Thank you for submitting comments on our proposals to extend the operational hours of the northbound bus lane on Green Lanes, between Lascotts Road and the North Circular Road.

Recap of Proposals

To recap: Currently the controls prohibit use of the bus lane by general traffic only on weekdays, 4pm to 7pm, i.e. for 15 hours each week. Outside of these times, loading and pay and display facilities are available within the bus lane. The core proposal, subject to any localised modifications, would see the operational period extend to 7am to 7pm every day, i.e. for the 84 busiest hours each week. This reflects bus reliability data indicating that delays occur at weekends and in the middle of the day, as well as during the traditional weekday peak periods.

Update in Brief

Further consideration is being given, in particular, to how large vehicle deliveries might be accommodated on the main road and to the impact of any changes on those with mobility limitations, whether they be bus passengers or drivers of domestic vehicles seeking to visit local stores. No changes will come forward in the current 2021 calendar year but the project remains active.


Community Response

Responses were received from 45 individual sources.

11 of the 45 (24%) were in support of the proposals.

Those in favour were typically residents to the nearby area, some identifying as bus users. To summarise comments from this group: they feel the change will help reduce bus delays and represents a long overdue intervention to rebalance priorities on the main road in favour of buses and their numerous passengers over private/stationary vehicles. (A recent email from a resident to the department requesting the very change proposed, seemingly unaware that such proposals had recently been issued, represents a 12th person expressing this point of view.)

34 of the 45 (76%) expressed concerns or were explicitly opposed.

Key interested groups included:

Traders from adjacent stores, some with specific concerns about their future servicing options, or about loss of customer parking space.
Residents of connecting side roads (notably Spencer Avenue), some who share the concerns above and do not wish to see parking or loading activity displaced into the side road.

Residents from the nearby area, who sympathise with the concerns above or who feel trips by private vehicle will be overly curtailed, or who claim that the changes will add to overall congestion on the main road.

Traders, residents or local campaigners from beyond the immediate area, who have concerns and complaints about previous traffic schemes in the wider Palmers Green area and see the bus lane proposals as having similar drawbacks or risking exacerbating those drawbacks or being an attempt to mitigate those drawbacks rather than address them by revisiting the previous scheme work.

Communal Submission 1
One message of objection included a petition bearing signatures from various households on Spencer Avenue. Concerns are that a greater presence of vehicles in the side road seeking parking or loading space will add to congestion or fumes in the side road and unduly hinder access from private driveways.

Communal Submission 2
Another communal submission included a petition against the proposals representing a broader section of the local community and presented details of alternative parking surveys attributed to the Green Lanes Business Association. Concerns, which will be further addressed in due course, included:
• Various queries over the applicability or validity of the project team’s supporting data about bus delays etc
• An assertion that the parking/loading facilities are currently subject to greater use than that indicated by the project team’s surveys provided on our consultation page
• Loss of disabled parking provision
• Loss of, and future over-demand for, loading spaces for businesses, especially involving larger vehicles
• Greater congestion on main road by denying access into bus lane to general traffic
• Congestion on side roads due to displaced movements associated with high street

Occupants of Homes above Premises on Green Lanes
There appears to be no notable response to the proposals from those whose main interest pertains to them living above the stores on Green Lanes, despite letters being delivered to these homes.

Some initial responses to key questions and comments submitted are found below my signature. A further update will follow in the near future.

Jonathan Goodson
Principal Engineer - Traffic Team
Place Department
Enfield Council

Initial Responses to Key Questions or Comments Submitted

How will traders receive deliveries by larger vehicles?
Previous video surveys, along with direct engagement and site meetings with certain traders since issue of the proposals, gives the team a good understanding of the current demand for loading space by larger vehicles. The team is considering how these can be accommodated on the main road without excessively diluting the intended benefits of the scheme and will update interested parties in due course. Providing a suitable resolution to this issue would also mitigate associated concerns about large vehicles using side roads, or the practicality of delivery drivers off-loading large quantities of refrigerated or perishable goods at a distance from the premises.

What about parking provision for blue-badge holders?
Our revised proposals will include explicit parking provision for blue badge holders. The Equality Impact Assessment that is being prepared can consider this alongside the impacts for other less able travellers and protected groups.

Won’t extending the bus lane hours add to congestion on the main road?
Essentially the proposal seeks to keep the bus lane clear for moving traffic (buses only) for an additional 9 hours each weekday, rather than having the space occupied by stationary, private vehicles. Observing that minimal use of the bus lane is currently made by any moving traffic outside the operational period, due to its occupation by dwelling vehicles, it is deemed axiomatic that allocating this space for use by moving traffic can only help northbound traffic flow.
In the short term, buses would be aided by having a clear, uninterrupted lane in the 7am to 7pm period. General traffic would be aided by no longer needing to share a single lane with the 180 daily buses that proceed north between 7am and 4pm. On a congested network, buses are more space efficient than private cars. Thus, in the longer term, schemes that promote more use of buses through better reliability rather than cars would tend to produce a general easing of congestion over time, or at least offer a balancing mechanism against the prevailing congestion levels becoming worse if the local population grows further. This effect would help alike not only bus passengers but those remaining drivers who really needed to travel by car for any particular trip.

Isn’t this proposal linked to the adjacent neighbourhood scheme? Why not remove that instead?
The neighbourhood scheme on the streets west of Green Lanes is currently under review. We can state that the origins of the bus lane proposals are definitively not found in the neighbourhood project because the suggestion of extending the hours of the northbound bus lanes on Fore Street and Green Lanes features in TfL-generated documents shared with the department that date back to 2017. Taking the Green Lanes suggestion forward was deferred while other nearby project work (the Bowes Park CPZ for example) was advanced and while potentially conflicting proposals were investigated, but found non-viable, in the intervening period. The pandemic then interrupted TfL-funded bus priority programmes in 2020. The neighbourhood project arose when the department sought to use the opportunity offered by specific funding released directly by central government in 2020 for sustainable travel projects that were stipulated to be taken forward that year in specific response to the pandemic.

A decision on the bus lanes operating hours extension has been postponed for 3-4 months. People who responded to the consultation were updated this week by email.

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your interest in the Council's proposed extension of the bus lane hours in Fore Street and Green Lanes. You will recall that the idea was to extend the controls to 7am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday to help tackle the delays to northbound buses. A number of issues have been raised in response to our initial engagement and we have decided to pause the scheme whilst the scheme is reviewed. I anticipate that the review will be complete within 3-4 months and I will contact you again in due course with a further update.

Jonathan Goodson
Principal Engineer - Traffic Team
Place Department
Enfield Council