Brighton council to increase road space for buses and cycles at expense of cars on traffic artery to Lewes Road

Brighton and Hove City council has proposed to reduce the space allocated to cars on the A27 which is the main traffic artery heading inland eastwards out of Brighton toward Lewes. The road is a dual carriageway and one of the two lanes in each direction will be re-designated as a bus and cycle lane.

It is hoped that the measures will improve bus journey times by 30%, increase bus passengers by 25%, reduce the number of car journeys by 10% and get significantly more people cycling.

Improved bus journey times will make buses a more attractive option, and increase the number of people using buses. This should reduce car traffic, and further ease congestion, decreasing the amount of traffic pollution in the area (NO2 pollution exceeds EU limits). See PR issued yesterday (Click for Link)

Details of the council's Second stage consultations are given below, and a link to the council web page is given at the foot of this article. The proposals don't specifically say that cars will be allocated less space, but that is implied by allocating one lane to other (sustainable forms of Transport

Lewes Road Sustainable Transport Scheme: Second Stage Consultation

[The image above is a visual of what the proposed traffic lanes might look like]

The consultation on detailed proposals for Lewes Road transport improvements is now open until 25 May 2012. You can comment on the proposals by completing the consultation questionnaire.
The proposals include changes to one of the city’s most hazardous spots for cyclists – the Vogue Gyratory system near Lewes Road Sainsbury’s. They also include:

• Wide bus and cycle lanes in each direction between the Amex stadium and the Vogue Gyratory.
• A continuous on-road two metre-wide cycle lane both north and south through the Vogue Gyratory system.
• Widening the shared pedestrian and cycle lane for 300 metres north of Coldean Lane.
• An enhanced cycle network to the north giving access to the Amex stadium and both universities.
• Extending the 30mph speed limit northwards to near the Amex.

It is hoped that the measures would:

• improve bus journey times by 30%
• increase bus passengers by 25%
• reduce the number of car journeys by 10%
• get significantly more people cycling   

The video below shows a bird's-eye view of cycling around the Vogue Gyratory on Lewes Road, while Cllr Ian Davey explains Brighton & Hove City Council's proposals to improve transport and safety. These include wide bus and bike lanes and safety measures for the gyratory junction.

Commenting on the proposals
To tell us what you think about the proposed changes to Lewes Road complete the online Lewes Road consultation questionnaire. A printable version of the Lewes Road consultation questionnaire [PDF 286kb] is also available, which can be returned to us in an envelope using the freepost address given on the form (no stamp required).
The closing date for comments is 25 May 2012.

This text was originally posted on Brighton and Hove City Council's website on this link:
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1252674#title2

Convert car lanes to bus-and-cycle lanes, says Jo Walters Masterplan for Brighton's traffic blackspot

Jo Walters Masterplan

1 March 2011. An independent study has called for car lanes to be converted to bus-and-cycle-lanes in Brighton's Lewes Road traffic black spot, and for an immediate end to mixed 2-way cycle-pedestrian traffic along the kerb of the A270/A27 merge slip road where Jo Walters died.

On Friday last week (24 Feb) the Jo Walters Trust released a "Cycling Masterplan" for the A27/A270 Falmer Interchange, where newly qualified school teacher, Jo Walters, lost her life in an accident in 2010.

The Masterplan, authored by traffic planning expert Paul Mynors, recommends "converting the inner (left hand) lane of the A270 in each direction into a wide bus/cycle lane. Within these wide lanes, cycle lanes would be provided where the width is sufficient (4.5m or more). Elsewhere, cyclists would share the inner lane with buses".

This would have the effect of extending on-road cycle lanes coming out of Brighton on the A270 to the east, where at present, cyclists in some places have to share pavements with pedestrians and other cyclists going in the opposite direction.

For those not familiar with the area, the A270, also known as the Lewes Road, is the main link between Brighton and the universities of Brighton and Sussex, the Amex Sports stadium, the city of Lewes and it is a designated Regional cycle route, D90.

The Masterplan says:

"A check on traffic flows showed that in principle this [reduction from 2 lanes of car traffic to one lane] should be possible, now that the A27 Brighton bypass has opened and removed long distance traffic from the area. Between junctions, the flows on the A270 are no longer such as to require two lanes in each direction for general traffic. In 2007 the two-way weekday peak hour flow on the A270 northeast of Coldean Lane was slightly under 1,600."

At the time Paul Mynors started consultations on this project, in May 2011, Brighton and Hove City Council won a £4m grant from the Department of Transport's Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) to make improvements to the Lewes Road, aka A270. The council has been refining these proposals, and invited the public to contribute. One of the new ideas (not included in the original Lewes Road LSTF scheme) was to convert the inner (left hand) lane of the A270 in each direction into a wide bus/cycle lane.  

Plans for Lewes Road will be the subject of detailed public consultation in 2012, following initial consultations undertaken in November / December 2011.

Jo's family started the Jo Walters Trust, which funds diverse community projects, and employed transport consultants to make cycling safer. Transport planner Peter Mynors developed the Masterplan following local consultations that started with a meeting at Brighton and Hove Council offices on 24 May 2011. 

Community cycle groups Bike Train & Lewes Road for Clean Air (LRCA) worked with the Trust and transport planner Peter Mynors in developing this plan.

LRCA spokesperson Duncan Blinkhorn said on Friday 25 February: "Jo was a Brighton University student who was killed in an accident while cycling along the cycle track by the Lewes Road at Falmer in July 2010. A tragic accident due in part to the inadequate width of the shared two-way cycle track at the A270/A27 interchange outside Sussex University."

Mr Blinkhorn added: "The plan has also informed the City Council's developing vision for The Lewes Road which will go out for consultation from 16th April. We look forward to doing more to help turn these ideas into a reality of improved cycling conditions during the coming months and years."

At the spot where Jo Walters was killed the cycle lane runs on the pavement alongside the A270 as it feeds onto the A27. Here, the Masterplan makes a call for immediate action: east and westbound cycle traffic should be separated by signage - east-bound (uphill) cycle traffic only should use the pavement alongside the A270. Westbound, downhill traffic should use the quieter, parallel Stoney Mere Road. If the Masterplan was fully implemented, so far as I can see, the left hand lane of the A270 will be converted to a bus and cycle lane as far as the actual merge with the A27 - and then it will leave the A27 and join Stoney Mere Road.

In addition, the Masterplan details secondary cycle  lanes around the area, and champions a 'nodal' system of cycle lane sign posting, a system which reportedly works well in the Netherlands. In a complex network of cycle routes, cyclists need more than route numbers to guide them.

For a copy of the Masterplan, please visit the Jo Walters Trust http://www.jowalterstrust.org.uk/