A cautious welcome to change at Bow roundabout

Two people were killed in quick succession late last year riding their bikes on the Mayor's Cycle Superhighway (CS2) at Bow roundabout in East London.


There was justifiable anger amongst the cycling community at these deaths, and outrage that their recommendations to make Bow safe for all road users had been systematically ignored by Transport for London, as had the recommendations of their own engineering consultants, Jacobs.

Perhaps this put TfL over a bit of a legal barrel, or perhaps we are really starting to get through to the people in charge of our streets, but true to their word TfL have acted and have promised they will now change the road layout at Bow.


From Transport for London: "Cycling groups and the local authorities are being asked for their views on plans to allow cyclists an ‘early start’ on green lights to get them around the roundabout ahead of other traffic. Another proposal is to reduce the flyover from two traffic lanes to one in both directions to allow the creation of dedicated cycle lanes.

The vigil at Bow roundabout organised by local cycling activists in memory of Brian Dorling and Svetlana Tereschenko.

"Transport for London also proposes to install new dedicated cycle lanes on the east and westbound approaches of the roundabout, allowing cyclists to approach the advance stop lines at the junctions without the need to filter through traffic. Advanced Stop Lines would also be made deeper on both approaches to the roundabout to ensure that cyclists have a clear visible space in front of any traffic."

"Leon Daniels, Managing Director of Surface Transport at TfL, said:

“Our engineers have worked extremely hard over recent weeks to develop proposals designed to improve the safety of what is a key roundabout for cyclists. Many cyclists use the junction and we are committed to ensuring that they can negotiate it as safely as possible. We are now discussing potential improvements with key stakeholders and we remain absolutely focused on delivering improvements at the roundabout before the 2012 Games. We also continue to explore the potential for longer term improvements in the area.”

Bow roundabout from above; this is a place where people live and work, not just a transport corridor. 

I'm especially pleased that Mr Daniels is keeping his eye on the long game with Bow, as despite these welcome changes the area will still be appalling for pedestrians.  TfL state in their press release that they still cannot find a solution to create safe pedestrian crossings without causing traffic delays.  However, I am cautiously optimistic and welcoming of this latest development from the Mayor's transport authority.  12 months ago their standard response would have been that the key to all cyclist's safety is better driver awareness and more cycle and HGV training.  Whilst these two pillars are worthy in themselves, myself and Danny from Cyclists in the City as well as the LCC have been pushing and pushing and pushing - at Blackfriars, at King's Cross, at Bow - to explain that the very layout and design of our roads is a contributory factor to creating both statistical and subjective safety.  In that sense, today's news from TfL feels like a small "win" though of course it's tragic that people had to die here before calls to rectify the layout of this junction were taken seriously.

TfL have also committed to review all 375 junctions on the Cycle Superhighways and over 140 major junctions on the TfL Road Network (TLRN red routes) so I'll be keeping a close eye on developments and hope that this is the start of a real and genuine improvement for people on bikes all across London.

For all those of you who have campaigned for change at Bow, written to the Mayor (and over 2500 of you did!), picketed and attended vigils, well done; you should feel proud for getting involved in how our city is run and for helping to enact positive change.

TfL have moved quickly like this before; after two deaths on Blackfriars Bridge back in 2004 they remodelled the road rapidly to create the cycle lanes that exist there now and promised that cyclist's needs would be incorporated in future designs.  To an extent that all went very quiet and off the radar with time, especially since the arrival of the current Mayor at the helm.  I cautiously and optimistically welcome today's news from TfL, but let us all remain vigilant to ensure this doesn't happen again and that all future cycle facilities and roads where people are to be encouraged to ride are fit for use.

The proposals for Bow aren't perfect but they are a small step in the right direction, and with proper consultation with cycling groups and local stakeholders hopefully a workable, safe and inviting solution can be found.

The full details from TfL can be found here.
The London Cycling Campaign have more details on their website here, with further thoughts from Danny at Cyclists in the City over here.

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