Hi Ian and everyone,

We haven’t seen plans for the northern section at all, but I did NOT support the cycle lanes in the southern section (Castle Square to East Street). I have pasted my response below which is also on Bricycles website at http://bricycles.org/documents/071109OldSteine.pdf

Becky

9 November 2007

Owen McElroy, Project Manager MPR (Road Safety Team)

Brighton and Hove City Council

Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, BN3 3BQ

Dear Owen,

Re: Mixed Priority Route Scheme Stage One - Old Steine / Castle Square

It was good to meet you and your team. We made some comments about the scheme at the exhibition.

There are a number of features in this scheme which improve conditions for pedestrians and we are pleased to see them being put in place following the fatalities due to pedestrian/bus conflict. We would like to make the following comments about the cycling content of the scheme.

We welcome the all red phase of the lights at the Old Steine/ Castle Square junction which will enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross diagonally. We recommend that there is adequate time to allow this to happen. We observe that at other junctions in the city that the time allowed to start crossing is short.

The plans which we saw for new cycle lanes on both sides of Castle Square will not fulfil your stated objective ’to improve facilities for cyclists by increasing their visibility and safety at junctions’. The west bound lane is along a straight piece of road and ends before the junction with East Street. Pavement widening at the junction of Old Steine and East Street would create a pinch point. Cyclists would have to re-establish their place on the road with buses, taxis and other vehicles.  It is unlikely that this lane will fulfil any purpose along the short stretch of road, but the termination of the facility at that point will expose cyclists to more danger than if it wasn’t there at all. For relevant road safety research showing that cycling facilities increase crashes at junctions, please see “Road safety and perceived risk of cycle facilities in Copenhagen“ by Søren Underlien et al. at http://www.ecf.com/2319_1

The value of cycle lanes as a possible means of improving the cyclist’s journey is constantly undermined in Brighton and Hove by motor vehicles parking in them and other obstructions e.g. skips. Cycle lanes need a clear status of ‘no stopping at any time’ (similar to the red zones in London) and enforcement.

Cyclists travelling east to the junction of Castle Square / Old Steine may encounter difficulties moving right to get into the correct lane for straight on travel.

The loading bays to be instated on both sides of Castle Square directly next to cycle lanes expose cyclists to the risk of being hit by an opened car/van door and the crossing of the lane by vehicles and drivers/passengers. A buffer zone should be in place, but the width looks inadequate. Cyclists would be best advised to use the full road space at this point, which is the safer option.

I am curious to know why a loading bay is necessary outside the Royal Bank of Scotland when a vehicle could be parked in Palace Place and the load removed from there instead. We are glad to see an advanced stop line at this junction, but otherwise we do not see these lanes as adding any value to the scheme.

We note that a 20 mph speed limit is being introduced and we strongly support this.

We are glad that cyclists will continue to be able to use the bus lane going south on the west side of the War Memorial. We understand we will also be able to use the bus lane on the east side, and the short east-west section. We would like to see this made clear on the final plans.

We welcome the instatement of more cycle racks and trees. Cycle racks should be near main entrances with adequate width between them and not too close to the road.

We urgently want to see the traffic light phasing at the bottom of St James’ Street made suitable for cyclists. Cyclists who approach from the north and want to turn left up St James’ St are faced with a red light. We raised this with the council several years ago and now request again that action is taken.

In dealing with the problem of pedestrian-bus conflict, we are keen that schemes do not disadvantage cycling. Troels Andersen, Project Manager for ‘the cycle city’ of Odense in Denmark, who spoke at the Urban Realm conference at Hove Town Hall in January 2006 described their policy of having a pedestrian and cycling core to the town, with motor vehicles outside this area. This could be applied to Brighton. There could be smaller buses for central journeys. Buses could have a crumple zone or other safety feature to mitigate impact. The scheme should take account of raised Nitrogen Dioxide levels and likely high particulate levels in the town centre, which require traffic reduction. It would be beneficial to see the plans for the whole North Street area. Cyclists want to see the early reopening of North Street Quadrant for cycling. We remain deeply dissatisfied with its closure, which transfers the crash risk from pedestrians to cyclists.

Regards,

Becky Reynolds,

Bricycles - www.bricycles.org.uk

CTC Local Right to Ride Representatives - www.communigate.co.uk/sussex/ctcbrighton

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