Cycleway 51

Have your say on this consultation

This consultation has closed

Westminster City Council is consulting on a new cycleway between St John’s Wood and Marylebone, Cycleway 51. In conjunction with this, Transport for London is consulting on improvements to two major junctions. 

Please check out the plans, support them and suggest improvements by 15 October.


Headlines

It’s good to see another proposed cycle route that includes protected space for cycling and safer junctions. Overall we support this scheme. 

See below for more details of our thoughts on the scheme.

Our more detailed assessment

Westminster City Council’s proposals for Cycleway 51

The alignment of the route is not great - it's rather circuitous and indirect, with a lot of turns at junctions. We would prefer it to go along Lisson Grove for a direct, easy to follow route. However this route was already approved by the previous administration, and the council decided to go ahead with it rather than delay things by going back to the drawing board. So we have not suggested a change of route in this consultation. 

  • We welcome the protected cycle tracks on Harewood Avenue, but making them two-way for only 200 metres doesn’t make sense, and makes junctions overly complicated. Single tracks on each side of the street for its entire length would be better

  • Allowing two-way cycling on Enford Street and Broadley Street will make the route better and more direct for cycling. But far better to close Enford Street to through traffic 24/7 (not just at school run hours) to make it safe for walking, wheeling and cycling at all times

  • Some of the streets along the route are not low enough in motor traffic to make cycling safe and attractive for all ages - especially Penfold Street and Lyons Place in the Church Street area. We would like to see traffic filters for these streets or across the whole area, not just for safe cycling but for a better environment generally.

  • We would like to see more continuous footways across side streets along the route, rather than just raised tables, to slow drivers turning in and out and show that pedestrians have priority.

TfL’s proposals junction improvements on Marylebone Road and St. John’s Wood Road 

There is a separate survey on Transport for London’s improvements to two junctions along the route. Here is a summary of our response.

Marylebone Road / Harewood Avenue

  • It’s great to see protected cycle lanes proposed on Harewood Avenue

  • Also, banning vehicles from turning left into Harewood Avenue will make walking and cycling safer at this junction

  • People cycling south across Marylebone Road should get a whole separate phase, not just early release, to prevent vehicles turning left across them

  • Marylebone Road has no protected space for cycling - this should be a next step by Transport for London

St John’s Wood Road / Hamilton Terrace

  • The protected two-way cycle track is very welcome here to get across St John’s Wood Road by bike. 

  • However, getting onto the track from the opposite side of the road on both Northwick Terrace and Hamilton Terrace means getting into the middle or far side of the road across traffic, which will not be comfortable for people of all ages and abilities

  • As for St John’s Wood Road, we would like to see Transport for London making the entire length of the road safe for cycling