Words into Action: Brighton and Hove budgets for sustainable transport, but is it enough to change people's transport habits?

Looking east along Old Shoreham Road: new cycle lane with raised kerb 20 Mar 2012

Brighton and Hove City Council released its 2012-13 Local Transport Plan capital budget on 15 March 2012 (link to download below). The budget lays out how £6.46m of capital will be spent over the next year with allocations for the following two years. This compares with £3.34m in 2011/12, £3.02m in 2010/11 and £5.79m in 2009/10. It is good to see progress - at a time when not much tangible seems to be happening - but I fear it won't be enough to show the benefits of sustainable transport. So the goal of a significant shift to sustainable transport won't happen. Yet.

Real priorities are funded in the Plan, including Lewes Road and Dyke Road cycle lanes, and expansion of area-wide 20 mph limits. The Plan contains real progress, but it doesn't promise a sustainable transport network throughout the city so I'm not convinced that it will improve public transport and cycling links enough to achieve a substantial 'modal shift' in the way people travel around the city.

Cycle lane - mixed use at bridge pinch point

I know it is a case of limited funds and limited political power. But we should remind ourselves of the objectives, and real possibilities that have worked in other cities. So I re-state the case for a East-West Sustainable Transport Corridor in Brighton and Hove (already outlined in the year 2000 Local Transport Plan 2).

Here is a (maybe radical) idea for testing the idea of a Sustainable Transport Corridor. We have already temporarily closed the Old Shoreham Road to construct a cycle lane. Can we extend the experiment by keeping the bridge over the railway (by Silverdale Road) closed to private cars? Only open to buses, cycles, walkers, taxis, local trades, emergency traffic etc. Introduce rapid (limited stop) buses along the route and make rapid public transport from Mile Oak to Brighton Central a realistic alternative to cars? We could show the public that sustainable transport is about more than just cycling.

There is already sustainable transport action in the city - I live near the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane construction scheme, and I (among others) have cycled along the new cycle lanes though they're not yet officially open. The widened cycle lanes give cyclists like me a much better feeling not just of safety but of room to "be" - a sort of confidence in being a cyclist, rather than a marginalised eccentric in a torrent of dangerous traffic. The space for car traffic is reduced. There may be complaints that this reduced space slows traffic. But right now it's closed and there is no traffic. The city survives. Boys play football on the Old Shoreham Road and it feels great to be car-free.

So this might be a good time to argue that the Old Shoreham Road should not be seen as an 'artery' for private motor traffic in greater Brighton-Hove-Portslade. We have the A27 bypass for people who want to drive between the suburbs. We want to reduce rat-run commuter traffic traffic in our residential areas because it is dangerous for children and cyclists. But it seems cars are the only fast way to get about town. We need a Rapid Bus Transport route. Could we re-propose the Old Shoreham Road become a Sustainable Transport corridor, where it's fast, safe and pleasant to cycle, walk and use buses? I guess these preliminary moves on Old Shoreham Road might turn out to be a first step in this direction. We don't need to jump at an untried 'Sustainable Transport Corridor' if we can implement and test it step by step.

We might make the transition easier if we engage motorists with planning alternative routes. I spoke to a lady who said it took an hour for her to drive from her home in Portslade to her job in Central Brighton the other day - including parking (in free-parking QP/Hanover). She says she lives too far from Portslade station to use the train. Can we show we do respect car drivers by talking to her of the alternatives: use the A27 and park for free. Or catch a bus and train... already we know that bus-train will involve long waits and slow buses... we're back to the need for a rapid bus. Likewise it can take an hour by bus from central Hove to Woodingdean or Moulescomb depending on your luck with traffic and connections.

So we need an east-west sustainable transport corridor, with feeds from the suburbs such as Mile Oak - maybe with with a fork running up the Lewes Road and to the Deans. It's not enough to say, as Mary Mears did, that there's a perfectly good cycle route along the coast. Most people don't live or work close to that route. It needs to be a transport backbone rather than on the edges of the city. There's stuff to work out. Lots of people don't like cycling. Try cycling to Woodingdean from central Brighton - the hills! Could we provide buses with cycle space? Many people don't cycle so rapid public transport is key to a sustainable transport corridor.

If handled right a Sustainable Transport Corridor might be acceptable to motorists and cyclists as an experiment, especially considering the road is already closed. Rapid buses would need to be provided. It would be good to show that the vision behind sustainable transport is more than a cycle lane in congested traffic.

Link to Brighton and Hove City Council Local Transport Plan Capital Programme 2012/13

If we kept the Old Shoreham Road closed to cars? Unexpected side effect of cycle lane construction - quiet residential streets

There has been some complaining in the letters page of the Argus: the closure of the Old Shoreham Road to build cycle lanes has apparently increased journey times for some of those who like to commute the mile or two from Hove to Brighton by car. But it hasnt brought the city to a halt, and I think it shows us we don't really need these "arteries" for cars as much as we think we do.

I happen to live in the area affected near the railway bridge. Normally our street is a hectic 'rat run' for cars associated with the Old Shoreham Road traffic. Now, it's blissfully quiet.

My friends who drive cars tell me its a pain having to use alternative routes, such as the A27 bypass, to get from Hove to Brighton. But it's not really that much of a pain, a few minutes extra.

If we closed the Old Shoreham Road to car traffic, then the buses would run superfast into Brighton. And my friends might think of taking a bus to get to the other side of town. Or even, heaven forbid, a bike.

This is the kind of city planning used by the Dutch. Design the residential areas in 'cells' using one way systems to control traffic. To get between 'cells' by walking or cycling or bus, use the most direct route. But if you want to go by car, you have to use a longer, fast flowing bypass: you can't "rat run" through the residential streets (injuring people along the way). 37% of journeys in Holland are by cycle, only 2% in the UK. We need to change the way we design our cities.

I thought it needed an integrated city plan to work properly. We need the rapid buses AND we need to rearrange traffic priorities AND we cycling and walking routes... or maybe the way is to do it quietly, one street at a time...

Barriers needed to separate cyclists and pedestrians from motorised traffic - updated opinion on Old Shoreham Road Cycle Lane Consultation

Aerial view of the OSR bridge pinchpoint - Google

I already signalled my support for this cycle route along the Old Shoreham Road (OSR) - it was intended to be the backbone of the city's cycle network and we need safer cycling along this road.

However, I'm concerned by the 'pinch point' of the railway bridge between Wilbury Crescent and Silverdale Road, where road width is narrows and the cycle lane will become a mixed cycle and pedestrian lane. In the original vision for the OSR cycle route it would carry up to 7,000 school children.

View while traveling on the bridge - Google

In my opinion the council should consider a barrier (or other safety measure) on the railway bridge to separate the mixed cycle-pedestrian lane from motorised traffic.  The planners might get expert advice on this. If they have considered the detail of this it should be discussed/shown on the proposal.

Another solution is to make the pinch point a single lane for motorised traffic, with traffic lights to control who goes first. Then we could have lanes for cyclists cars and pedestrians. Would this slow traffic? I don't think so - this is not the limiting point of the OSR.

In any event, if we look at the big picture, don't we want to discourage short hop commutes along this road - preferring commuters to use the bus, train or if they must travel 2 miles by car to use the A27 bypass. Of course, we have not yet made public transport the 'option of choice' - but if we introduced priority for Rapid Bus Transport links along Old Shoreham Road, and into the suburbs maybe people would decide to leave their cars at home.

If we can't reduce car traffic, one solution would be to construct a separate bridge for cyclists and pedestrians. This might cost money but would be a high profile icon of this city's commitment to sustainable transport, since this route was intended to be the backbone of the cycle network and this pinch point always was its weakest link. Central Government has a program for capital spending on sustainable transport (LSTF) - application deadline has passed for now, but maybe we can apply for this in future.

As shown the proposal lacks detail. What will the junctions look like? The lack of these details in previous proposals has caused concern. Also I would like to to see the cycle route rationale - ie, is it still intended to carry a certain number of cyclists?

So I think we could ask for more from the proposal. But even as it stands, it will be an improvement over the existing situation where school children are resorting to cycling along the pavement at various points along this road during during rush hour. Once we implement this proposal, they need only do this along the pinch point, and maybe in the future we can apply for funding for a foot and cycle traffic bridge.

To see full story and for link to B&H Council consultation portal

Consultation on proposed new cycle lane in Brighton underway: OPINION - an important step toward providing safe cycling facilities which should be supported.

 

4 September2011. A public consultation about the proposed Old Shoreham Road Cycle Lane linking Brighton and Hove has been launched. Details and plans are available on the Council's website, where you can also register your opinion and support for the proposals. Click here.

In my opinion this scheme, though limited, is an important step toward providing the safe cycling facilities that are needed to get people cycling to school and work, and should be supported.

Vulnerable cyclists will be protected from vehicular traffic by a kerb (and also prevented from straying into traffic by this kerb). At the pinch point of the railway bridge between Wilbury Crescent and Silverdale Road, where road width is restricted, the cycle lane will become a mixed cycle and pedestrian lane. In fact, at present, along stretches of this road in the morning, you can see school kids cycling along the pavement because it is too dangerous to cycle along the road. So this scheme will be a big step in the right direction and hopefully will be extended in future.

(Amendment - earlier today I posted my opinion that this proposal needed more detail to explain how mixed pedestrian and cycle traffic would use the railway underpass at the end of the Old Shoreham Road. However, I had confused the railway underpass with the less threatening railway bridge that will be included in this scheme (between Wilbury Crescent and Silverdale Road.).

Update 15 September. Today I visited the council website again. Having thought more on this, I made this suggestion: I think the planners should get expert advice on the railway bridge pinch point. In my view they should consider a barrier on the railway bridge to separate mixed cycle-pedestrian traffic from motorised traffic. The best solution of course, is to construct a separate bridge for cyclists and pedestrians.

Revival for 'crucial cycle lane' as Old Shoreham Road Cycle Lane Scheme receives £330k funding from Sustrans

OSR planning story starts Nov 2009

3 August 2011. Brighton and Hove City Council announced today that it will revive the "crucial cycle lane" once planned for the Old Shoreham Road (OSR) - and scrapped by the previous Conservative council administration.

This is a special moment for cycle campaigners, and for the author of this blog, since the changes in spec, safety worries, and eventual scrapping of the 'OSR' scheme sparked interest in the campaign for sustainable transport in Brighton and Hove in 2009.

A council spokesperson said today: "A safe cycle route could now be built along part of one of Brighton & Hove's busiest roads. The city council has won £330,000 from the sustainable transport charity Sustrans to help develop a 1.5 km route along the Old Shoreham Road from the BHASVIC junction on Dyke Road to The Drive. Sustrans' 'Links to Schools' cash would be added to £125,000 of council funds to complete most of the work by March 2012.

"Lanes on either side of the road will have low kerbs to physically separate motor vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. No parking spaces will be lost under the plan. Two busy junctions on the route will also get safety improvements for pedestrians and cycles. Councillors believe the new lanes would fill a vital missing link in the local cycle network, particularly from the seafront in Hove to the Seven Dials area.

"Previous surveys of residents along the road, which carries up to 27,000 vehicles a day, have shown 66 per cent favour a dedicated cycle route."

Cabinet councillor for Transport and Public Realm Ian Davey said: "This shows the council meeting manifesto commitments to improve cycling facilities. Where we build cycle lanes we want them to be excellent, user-friendly and safe lanes which link to existing routes and facilities and really improve everyone's experience of moving around the city by bike.

"This is a crucial east-west route across the city but traffic speed and volume can make it an uncomfortable place for cyclists and pedestrians. The proposed scheme will make Old Shoreham Road safer for everyone including young people using the many nearby schools.

"When the Grand Avenue cycle lane was threatened last year there was a huge petition asking for the council to extend, rather than reduce, cycle facilities. This is our positive response."

A new consultation will now be undertaken before any work starts, subject to official cabinet member approval on August 17.

The council spokesperson added: 'The scheme is being reprieved by the new administration after councillors shelved the idea last year."

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with the systematic destruction - by the Conservative administration - of plans to transform Brighton and Hove into a cycling city, or more accurately, into a sustainable transport city. These plans were the basis of the Cycle Town grants made to the city from 2005 by Cycling England. The Old Shoreham Road (OSR) Cycle Lane was the backbone of the scheme, providing a safe cycling link between the town centres of Brighton, Hove and Portslade. In 2009, the city planners under Conservative leadership removed segregated cycle lanes from the OSR plans and then found the scheme to be unsafe - and cancelled it. After that they cancelled the Marine Parade cycle lane scheme, and finally tried to rip up the one part of the scheme already installed - The Drive. Public protests, a big media campaign, and a huge swing at the May local elections saw the Tories lose half their seats, and the Greens gain power in the council.


Stuart Croucher, a member of the team who designed the original scheme, made an impassioned plea for the reinstatement of the scheme, and a powerful argument in favour of a network of segregated cycle lanes for young people and learners, in an interview he gave to this blog last year.

The original plans - and the 'crucial' part played by OSR cycle lane - are all shown in another entry on this blog.

OPINION: Will Brighton & Hove get away with scrapping the cycling dream and keeping the money?

Clock Tower Approaches

Audit and evaluation of The Cycle Demonstration Town by the seaside

Cycling England is set to close on March 31. But there may yet be a few twitches from the corpse of the body that was supposed to promote cycling in England. After it closes, the work of the monitoring and evaluating the work done in Cycle Cities and Towns, funded by Cycling England grants, will continue for some time.

So we’ve yet to hear the reports of what happened to Brighton and Hove’s Cycle Town scheme, where key components were scrapped.

Despite its apparent commitment to being a Cycling Town (link below), Brighton and Hove, where I live, is in the grip of a minority Tory council administration which in January declared its intention to “repeal” the city’s decade long commitment to promoting sustainable transport, and instead to combat “unfair penalisation of car drivers”.

Over the last year or so, the council has cancelled key elements in the plan for a network of protected cycle lanes that lay at the heart of the Cycling Demonstration Town scheme. The scheme was paid for by Cycling England grants and cost around of £4.5 million including partial grant matching from the city.

In February the Conservatives proposed a budget including plans to demolish The Drive Cycle Freeway in February - which cuts across the driveways of Tory heartland in Hove. Council Leader Mary Mears she said there were no fears the council would have to refund the money to Cycling England because “that quango is about to be abolished.”

Of course Mary Mears is mistaken. She will have to account for it because it is public money. But since her council now no longer has to answer to a “Non Departmental Public Body” like Cycling England, but rather to the Department of Transport under the political control of Liberal Democrat MP for the nearby town of Lewes, Secretary of State Norman Baker, one wonders whether the evaluation procedures applied will be as rigorous as they might have been when Cycling England was alive.

Cyclists in Brighton and Hove are incensed by the apparent diversion of resources intended for a cycling infrastructure that was supposed to encourage thousands of school children to cycle to school. Where are the protected cycle lanes planned for Old Shoreham Road and London Road? Where are The Drive’s safe interchanges and connections with the north of the city and the South Down’s National Park?

We draw scant comfort from the fact that the Department will continue to fund Bikeability (cycle training for children) for four years from 2011 – 2015, and to fund safe routes to school and Bike Club in 2011/12. These programmes encourage children to cycle to school, but I know from cycling The Old Shoreham Road myself that this is asking for trouble when there are no safe cycling lanes. Kids are forced to cycle along the pavement because it is too dangerous along the road. And cycle casualties are increasing in the city.

The council has cancelled the important backbone of protected cycle freeways, and instead painted white lines on the road or designated cycle lanes on peripheral routes, such as Madeira Drive, which is actually closed during peak summer periods. (more>>>)