What if Kingston had gone real Dutch?

 

Engineers and planners who concocted the potentially lethal "bus stop cycle lanes" in Kingston upon Thames' £multi-million cycling scheme shambles have appealed for help to make them safe. 

Only joking. 

But they only have to ask.

John Meudell, an experienced engineer and long time resident in the Netherlands, critically examined this scheme in previous instalments. 

Now he presents the case for Kingston to adopt the Dutch approach to cycle planning.

 

Had Kingston not adopted its current approach, writes Meudell, there are a range of Dutch solutions that would have prevented creation of the bus stop problem.  Here’s a couple.

 

 

Nieboerweg is in the western outskirts of The Hague.  It’s mostly residential but can be quite busy with cars, buses and cyclists going to the beaches between The Hague and Hoek van Holland. 

 

In this instance we’re looking at a bus route on the fringes of the city, with similar traffic patterns to Portsmouth Road.  Traffic densities at the Dutch location (pictured below) permit on-carriageway cycle lanes, about 1.5m wide, on both sides with running lanes around 3.5m.  Footpaths are at least 1.5m wide.  Overall, there is a similar spatial availability to Portsmouth Road. 

 

 

Note the treatment of the bus stop which has its own passenger island with the cycle lane taken around the back of the island.  Note also the position of the bus shelter, down flow of the island; bus passengers walking towards the bus island facing oncoming cyclists and traffic….so no line of sight issues. 

 

So let’s consider a Nieboerweg solution, particularly the impact at the Portsmouth Road bus stop (below).

 

 

The Dutch solution would have provided at-grade with-flow cycle lanes on both sides of the road using the original kerb line. 

 

At the bus stop kerbs would be extended into the cycle lane with cyclists exiting the carriageway at normal speed to continue around the rear of the bus stop.  The loop can be either partially or fully raised to footpath level or remain at grade (as per the Netherlands).

 

If more space is required at the above location in Portsmouth Road there is also the possibility of moving the wall behind the bus stop towards the river to accommodate the cycle path.

 

So, rather than moving kerbs and re-aligning and raising the surfaces along the entire stretch of road, in this example that would only need to be done at bus stops, reducing costs whilst still improving safety for cyclists, pedestrians and bus passengers.

 

Space availability is such that the same approach could have been applied at other bus stops on this stretch of road.

 

 

 

In the case of Penrhyn Road traffic patterns are much different from Portsmouth Road, with higher traffic densities and a mix of traffic which includes more commercial and public transport vehicles.

 

 

Wandelweg, in Wormerveer, is a similar situation and might have provided valid options for Penrhyn Road (above).

Wandelweg is a provincial highway, the Dutch equivalent of our “A” road, and runs through the centre of the small town of Wormerveer (below) towards nearby Amsterdam.  Space availability is similar to Portsmouth Road and Penrhyn Road and also Nieboerweg, but traffic mix and volume required a grade separated solution.

 

Here, carriageway running lanes have been narrowed (see above photo), to about 2.5-3.0m, consistent with research which suggests that narrowing running lanes encourages reduced traffic speeds. 

 

Cycle and footpaths are grade separated from the main carriageway.  The with-flow cycle paths are 1.5m and colour differentiated, with the rest of the space availability given over to pedestrians.  Bus stop configurations are split between well marked bays on carriageway and bays cut into the foot/cycle paths.

 

Where bus passengers have to cross cycle paths to board buses the shelters are positioned downstream of the corresponding bay, otherwise they are immediately adjacent (RH side).  Where pedestrians would be waiting to cross the carriageway, at lights-controlled crossings, clear space is maintained between carriageway and cycle path.

 

Whilst there seems to be no statutory requirement to actually cycle with-flow, most cyclists follow that norm in those sections.

 

Throughout the length of the road through Wormerveer there are sections where some cycle paths are bi-directional.  These tend to be adjacent to major junctions/destinations (e.g. the local station, retail developments, etc.) or at the edge-of-town transition.

Also highly relevant are the speed limits.  

It should be noted that speed limits in both Dutch cases are similar to those on Portsmouth Road and Penrhyn Road, that is 50kph, or 30mph.

 The above are just a couple from a range of solutions that might have been deployed successfully in Kingston, with less disruption and cost.  But engineers, designers and decision makers didn’t seem aware of them and, if they did, they weren’t going to choose them (even if they knew how to build them).

 

 The point is that Kingston, in adopting a two-way grade-separated solution, created problems that could and should have been anticipated by the designers and engineers, but weren’t. 

 

Coupled with a culture that, even if it does anticipate these problems, seems to take a denial/fatalistic approach…."we can’t or don’t know what to do about it so we’ll just do it anyway".  The net result is creation of the problems you see in Kingston.

 

 

 

 

In the Next Episode

 

The Phone Box - How the Fuck did That get There?!