Healthy Streets

The more I've looked at the plans for the route through Palmers Green, the more unsatisfactory I find them. I would need a highways engineer to take me along the route plans through Palmers Green and explain in much more detail what is intended to happen on the ground, and how the various elements are supposed to work together. That said, my thoughts are as follows.

The details of the bus stops and cycle by-passes are particularly difficult to understand. Buses seem to have to stop in the roadway (which is in effect narrower) which will cause continuous queueing behind them. I can't see whether bus passengers have a protected space to get on/off or how they cross the cycle lane. Queues are not disciplined and will spill across cycle lanes - think of the crowds at school start/finish times, and parents burdened with shopping, children, and buggies coming and going. All along I have felt that bus passengers have been neglected in these proposals, and nothing here persuades me otherwise. The loss of the stop outside the Fox is particularly annoying.

Unfortunately the plans don't make it clear what some of the lines around cycle lanes mean; exactly where are there hard divisions/armadillos? The "key" on each sheet is perfunctory and they don't help. I think the plans show some car parking between the cycle lane and the main traffic through route. If so, does this mean that passengers opening doors will risk swiping passing cyclists?

I see the Triangle Dutch roundabout alternative as a sop to those of us who wanted shared space in Palmers Green. I certainly never thought of it as an alternative to the Triangle - this merely loses a public space which all previous evidence shows residents want retained and improved. Shared space was suggested for the main shopping area to slow all traffic and allow easier pedestrian cross-road movement. We were assured that the views expressed in last year’s Palmers Green Public Realm consultation (March 2014) would be incorporated in to the cycle enfield plan, but it’s not clear how this has been done.

If the Dutch roundabout idea is acceptable in highway engineering terms for the Triangle, why not use it instead at the Fox junction? This would then signal entry to the main Palmers Green shopping area, with the improved Triangle marking the main southern gateway. It would reduce stop/start events which the newly proposed traffic lights will impose, and should also allow retention of the important Fox bus stop.

There seems to be a regrettable failure to improve the dangerous Bourne Hill/Green Lanes/Hedge Lane cross road. Cars going straight ahead north or south along Green Lanes remain at risk from vehicles turning right in to Bourne Hill or Hedge Lane. Their view of oncoming traffic along Green Lanes is obscured by queueing cars awaiting their turn to cross the main line. I've had several narrow escapes here, and I can't believe that there are no collisions on record. The informal (and risky) pedestrian crossings are retained - why, when so many other crossings are being made safer?

I can't help but think that this is more and more like a cycle superhighway, rather than what I understood was to be a measure to ease movement for cyclists on local journeys. Where is the wider public realm benefit as promised by the Palmers Green Public Realm Consultation? Is it just a hoped for reduction in airborne pollution? Whatever the issues about air pollution, and I speak as one concerned about this problem and about to replace a diesel vehicle with a petrol engined one as a result*, I don't see these plans making a significant, cost effective, impact.
Has anyone done a cost-benefit analysis and compared it with alternatives to achieve a reduction in pollution? Where's the real greening of the Triangle and Green Lanes the public realm consultation requested and earlier cycle enfield proposals promised. I stress that I’m not opposed to the plan in principle, but I would like questions to be answered before we go any further.

* Yes, I know that I could do better, but it's a start!

Despite appearances, this is not what a Dutch roundabout looks like. There are subtle but crucial differences, meaning that any safety benefits of Dutch roundabouts will not apply to this one.

Having been to the latest Cycle Enfield Partnership Board meeting I remain unhappy about the proposals for bus passengers. The maps all show the cycle lane between the pavement and the road and there seems to be no provision at bus stops for the buses to pull in allowing their passengers to step on or off the bus other than into the cycle lane. There appear to be some small 'waiting' strips at major bus stops but the passengers still have to cross the cycle lane. There seems to be provision for ramps in the cycle path before bus stops but with a continuous cycle lane the cyclists might slow down but would be unlikely to stop. Consequently all the passengers (including children, parents with buggies and elderly/disabled etc.) would have to wait until the cycle path was clear or risk walking swiftly across putting themselves at risk. Indeed in places there will be no alternative but to step off the bus into the path of cyclists who will not be visible from the bus.

Meanwhile, the buses will be waiting at bus stops in the roadway for a longer time causing tailbacks behind them as the road space has been reduced (because of the new cycle lanes on both sides) to single lanes in each direction.

In addition it appears that there will no longer be raised kerbs on the pavements, which will make getting on and off more difficult. It's no answer to say that buses have adjustable height steps - they would need to be dropped at every stop, which will simply not happen and, where it does, will delay buses further.

The maps also seem to show the removal of bus lanes at Palmers Green from the Triangle southbound and going into Enfield Town. As a regular bus user I'm concerned that this will delay the buses and create a disincentive to using them - surely not the intention of Cycle Enfield. Also, I am opposed to the loss of the bus stop outside the Fox which serves residents from the feeder area along Fox Lane and to the east of Green Lanes, as well as the older residents living in Skinners Court, who need a bus stop within easy reach.

At the same time there seem to be fewer formal crossings for pedestrians under the shared space proposals in Palmers Green which may suit active residents but may be difficult for the elderly, disabled and parents with buggies and young children.

While I would welcome safer routes for cyclists It should not be at the expense of bus passengers or air quality which may be poorer if there are long queues of vehicles in the road at bus stops.

There is no stakeholder for bus passengers in this process, it's all seen though the lens of improving things for cyclists who, in any outcome, will remain a minority compared with bus passengers.