CS2 At Aldgate East - Just One Junction.....

The death of Philippe De Gerin-Ricard on London's Cycle Superhighway 2, near Aldgate East Station on the A11 Whitechapel Road, has been covered by many others, but what will it take to make the area safe?

As this death is still under investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Road Death Traffic Unit, I am not going to postulate on how it happened - I have my suspicions and I know the police do. But, as I do cycle through this area every so often, I can confirm that it is intimidating, scary and not a place to cycle for the fun of it. I have a few ideas which I think would make things safer, but it will mean a reduction in traffic capacity.

The only three-quarter decent bit of CS2 which is westbound, just
west of the Bow roundabout. You are protected from traffic, but there
needs to be a little more protections for pedestrians and the width of
the cycle track is a little tight when busy.
Image from Google Streetview.

CS2 currently runs from the Bow Roundabout and follows the A11 before fizzling out at the Algate Gyratory. As it happens, my usual journey into The City carries on through the gyratory westbound to Fenchurch Street and then over London Bridge. 

But, my return journey is always via Tower Bridge and so I miss out the eastbound gyratory without having realised it before; coming back via Mansell Street (one-way northbound), although the right turn back onto the A11 means I have to cross 2-lanes of left turning traffic first. In essence, this part of The City is a complicated mess of wide one-way gyratory systems which are geared to moving traffic around quickly - that is another discussion altogether.

CS2 at Bow Road going under the "Ferodo" railway bridge. Not even
cycle lanes here and the blue stripes are squeezed next to the bridge
piers. The central hatch area is to create a right turn pocket into
Addington Road which could be accessed from many other locations
and could be closed off. 
Image from Google Streetview.

CS2 is not fun to use. Apart from a tiny bit of cycle track at the Bow end, the whole route is a mixture of advisory cycle lane, bus lane, blue stripes and the odd cycle logo on a blue background. Wherever there is a narrowing, the cycle lane goes and we are just left with blue paint which has nothing going for it in terms of cyclist protection, although I do concede it stops you getting lost.

So, when one travels along CS2 (apart from the nice first bit) one is constantly bugged/ intimidated by traffic passing closely when you are following the blue stripe; one constantly overtakes and is overtaken by buses; there is the inevitable conflict at junctions when wanting to go straight ahead or right because left turning traffic puts you in conflict when going ahead; and right turns often mean crossing two lanes of traffic (yes, it is pretty much a dual carriageway!). There are advanced stop lines at the signalised junctions, but they are only really of use for those wishing to carry on ahead or turn left and that depends on when you arrive in them.

Mile End Road, westbound approach to Grove Road/ Burdett Road
junction. Do you fancy turning right here on two-wheels?
Image from Google Streetview.

This on-carriageway arrangement carries on along the whole route and in both directions. The route (which opened in 2011) doesn't even follow the massively out of date London Cycle Design Standards which was published in 2005. The scheme was rushed in and it is absolutely clear that the brief was that the scheme should not affect traffic flow at all. Mind you, this kind of approach can be found all over London, not just on CS2.

Of course, those with a memory which can cope with a year's passing will remember the little sports day we had in London last summer. Part of the deal with the Olympic movement was that London would shove in some VIP lanes for the Games people. There was outcry and a massive amount of planning, but in the event, the traffic disappeared and it ran very well. This proves that it is possible to make decisions to remove traffic lanes when it suits.

A11 westbound.
Image from Google Streetview.

So, back to the scene on the death. The junction in question if the A11 Whitechapel Road where it meets the A1202 Commercial Street and Leman Street. The junction is signalised with staggered pedestrian crossings (green men) on all arms, except Leman Street which has a straight across green man.

The two A11 approaches have 3 lanes; left/ahead, ahead and right. There are no cycle lanes, but Advanced Stop Lines (ASLs) are in place on all arms except Leman Street which is a two-lane one way street going away from the junction and for the A11, there are blue stripes running through the junction itself (which are seen all over London). 

In Commercial Street looking over at the two lane Leman Street
which is one way going away from the junction. The City is to the
right and Stratford to the left.
Image from Google Streetview.

Commercial Street has two lanes, left and straight on with the right turn banned, except for buses, taxis and cycles. There are yellow boxes in the junction and so coupled with the one-way Leman Street and Commercial Street's banned right turn, this is a classic attempt to maximise traffic flow. Oh, all the traffic lanes are narrow which is another symptom of capacity problems.

If we go back to the basics of the process used in casualty-reduction schemes, the highway engineer is looking to reduce conflicts in space and time. By this, I mean that different traffic movements are given their own space (lanes) or conflicts are separated by time (green man versus green traffic signal). If we move beyond casualty-reduction to casualty-prevention, we need to be looking at how people need to pass through the junction and separate out the hazards in space and time from the outset.

Leman Street outlined in red with the "yellow" main roads picked out
in green. Leman Street is actually part of a larger network bounded
by really main roads which are very wide and should be taking the
traffic through the area.
Image Google Maps.

The first thing to look at is Leman Street. It forms part of a larger network of one-way and two-way streets which are bounded by the A11 Whitechapel Road, A13 Commercial Road, A1203 The Highway, Butcher Road (Limehouse) and the Mansell Street/ The Minories and Aldgate gyratory complex. In short, a white road in lots of yellow roads on the map. This area has mixed usage such as dense residential, commercial, local shops, schools and indeed part of Cycle Superhighway 3 on Cable Street. The obvious answer is to close Leman Street and make the junction 3-arm which removes several movements and conflicts from the off. There are other crossroads within the larger area and so these need to be made 3-arm, but on the opposite side (if that makes sense) as we still need access into this local area.

Now we have an area without a side road, a protected cycle track can be built which bypasses the traffic signals and provides a link into Leman Street (filtered permeability). The Commercial Street arm is more tricky. We might consider traffic turning left and right again as the ahead movement is gone and other junctions will have a knock on back to this if they are reworked. The cycle track can allow all movements (and a connection to Leman Street), but the issue is dealing with pedestrians. 

We are not allowed to use zebras with traffic signals and besides, a zebra over the cycle track and then a pelican over the road is confusing for pedestrians. We are also not allowed to use any flashing amber signals to allow modes to mix. We could use toucans (with separation) to cross pedestrians and cyclists, but if we give an all round green, there is conflict and do cyclists on a superhighway really want to use a push button? 

This is the bit I struggle with in terms of converting European arrangements to the UK. I am sure another blogger will know how cycles are detected elsewhere, but UK cycle detection is always rubbish, but I think we need some narrow field detection on the cycle track in advance of the junction which may trigger demand or we go for fixed timings which are improved and changed as time goes on and hopefully cyclists make up a greater proportion of movements.

One possible layout, but things are getting complicated!

Anyway, I have had a go at trying to draw up an idea of how the junction could be reworked. It is fairly idealised, but I think it can be squeezed in as the layout does not have the staggered pedestrian refuge areas in the pelican crossings. Blue is CS2 separated from pedestrians by a kerb, with a hard strip between CS2 and the carriageway (somewhere to stick traffic signals?). Green is a "local" cycle track (protected) and buff is footways. The red 'L's are pelican crossing points. I have not shown any cycling road markings.

Leman Street is closed, but allows cycles to turn left in and out, with a speed table to assist pedestrians crossing the cycle track as it is an uncontrolled crossing point. Westbound (towards The City) maintains 2 ahead lanes and has a right turn lane. Eastbound maintains 2 lanes with the left lane being ahead/left. In terms of signal stages for traffic, this would run with 2; the first is the A11 arms running together with eastbound getting a red before westbound so that right turners can clear the junction. Then Commercial Street would run. Right turns by cycles would be two-stage, so for a right turn into Leman Street, one would cross Commercial Road and then the A11.

I have assumed that pedestrians would get a green man as a single stage allowing all 3 arms to cross at the same time. With cycles, it gets trickier and I have not got to grips with the sequence yet, but cycles could all get green at once (using low level signals?) and have to give way to each other through the junction, or there could be pedestrians and cycles running together, but over two stages; first A11 cycles would run when pedestrians cross Commercial Street, but have a cycle red on Commercial Street. Then Commercial Street cycles can exit with pedestrians crossing the A11 on both arms, but cycles are held on the A11. Of course, in the second arrangement, cycles would get a green on cycle routes not crossing a road when traffic runs.

And this is the point of the blog. This is just one junction on one direct route into The City. The A11 has lots of junctions like this to deal with and I am not sure we can maintain the two traffic lanes in each direction and have right turn pockets at each location. If we lose traffic lanes, cyclists and pedestrians might gain, but bus passengers won't. All of this needs to be decided and it starts with a policy; that is, a plan agreed by politicians and not just the Mayor.

We are at the end of the era where paint 'n' signs make a cycling scheme, we need to build stuff with the same vigour as we used to have for catering for private cars (and may do again soon with the current lot running the show). We will have to accept that this work needs the kind of budgets spent on revamping town centres, station forecourts and the like and this is not going to be isolated junctions, this will be entire routes and will need serious investment - think about schemes on a scale like Exhibition Road, but everywhere and for years. In terms of removing traffic capacity - should anyone need to be driving so close to the centre of London other than those moving goods or many people?

There will be more deaths, more protests and more debate before things start to change, but in my view, unless we are radical, we may as well use the paint to squeeze even more car lanes into what space is left. I think the Mayor should spend less time on planning his island or looking to bury roads (Really? Does he know how much tunnels cost these days?) and think strategically on cycling. 

I will leave you with a view of Commercial Street and the question: what will this area look like in another 100 years?

Commercial Street, just a little way back currently and c.1907.
Over 100 years the tram was clearly the transport mode of choice.
Image from Google Streetview and Wiki Casebook.