London’s walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, has named the 73 junctions in the UK capital with the worst safety records between 2012 and 2015, as he unveiled a new approach to delivering improvements for pedestrians and cyclists.
Transport for London’s (TfL) new analysis uses the last three years of casualty figures on the TfL road network to identify the junctions with the poorest safety records, so that they can be targeted for work. This analysis will now continue each year as part of a new approach that will see work continually monitored and the junctions with the most incidents prioritized. Improving the safety of the capital’s junctions is a central part of the Mayor’s £2.1bn (US$2.6bn) Healthy Streets approach. This aims to create more attractive, accessible and people-friendly streets, where everybody can enjoy spending time and being physically active by making walking and cycling easier and safer across London.
The list of 73 junctions is now being considered in detail to assess what can be done to make them safer. The current list includes some that have had work recently completed, some have work planned, and others require new safety studies:
A total of 21 junctions have had improvements made within the last three years. These will now be monitored to ensure that the casualty levels significantly reduce, and that lessons are learnt to improve the future design and construction of projects;
There are 33 junctions that have improvements planned within TfL’s current business plan. This includes Lambeth Bridge North and Waterloo IMAX, which will be consulted on this summer. Design work on other junctions within the list of 73 continues at pace, including Jamaica Road/Lower Road/Rotherhithe Tunnel, which will be part of Cycle Superhighway 4, and Highbury Corner, where construction work is due to start next year;
The other 19 junctions will undergo new safety studies to identify possible solutions and safety improvements. This includes locations such as the intersections of Holloway Road and Parkhurst Road, Clapham Road and Union Road, and Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane.
“It’s vital that we target the most dangerous junctions across London if we are to improve our roads for pedestrians and cyclists,” explained Norman. “That’s why I asked TfL to identify these junctions and why we’re now analyzing them in detail to ensure that we are doing all we can to make them safer. This work will allow us to drive forward improvements and be repeated each year to ensure that our work is making a real difference to the capital’s roads.”
Ben Plowden, TfL’s director of surface strategy and planning, commented, “We’re committed to improving road safety in the capital and we will only achieve this, and encourage more people to walk and cycle, if we address safety at many of our road junctions. This new analysis will allow us to target our efforts where it is most needed, and will allow us to closely monitor the effectiveness of what we deliver to ensure we’re always learning from our projects.”
