Minutes of meeting September 2007

We met on 10th September at Primrose Hill.

The main item discussed was the east-west cycle link (Kilburn to King's Cross), a report of which has already been posted to this group. Other matters considered: possible demonstration at St Pancras International station; cycle route round Kenwood House; cycling on Regent's Park and various administrative things.

The minute of the meeting is at:

Minutes

Meade wrote in email:

Thanks to Adam, Colin, David and Michael for your very helpful comments on the proposed east-west route. We also discussed this in some detail at the CCC members meeting last week. I have now drawn up a response for the consultants which I hope represents the general CCC position on this (by no means an overall consensus).

Five criteria were generally agreed upon:

1. . as far as possible use the same roads east- and west-bound
2. . provide access to town centres (Swiss Cottage, Camden Town)
3. . enable cyclists to proceed easily through awkward junctions
4. . avoid one-way roads, especially narrow ones
5. . not involve unduly steep gradients

I appreciate that the second of these rather knocks out many of Colin's proposals, as these were more designed for a route which would take you from Kilburn to King's Cross (and back) and not directly through the two town centres in between. Perhaps these could be included in our own maps website (http://maps.camdencyclists.org.uk/)? I believe that the Ampthill Estate link Colin recommends is being considered as part of the LCN+ Link 29 CRISP.

The two facilities we would really like to see implemented are:

1. a cycle route up the top end of Belsize Road past the entrance to Swiss Cottage underground station and over the Finchley Road (by making the existing cycle crossing two-way); this has already been raised by us as part of the LCN+ Link 26 CRISP.
2. a cycle crossing of Camden High Street from Miller Street to Plender Street, via a "toucan" (and ideally enabling cyclists to go in the other direction as well).

Particular junctions which would benefit from engineering include Queen’s Grove/Avenue Road/Elsworthy Road. The Fairhazel Gardens contraflow definitely needs to be made safer, ideally by taking out parking from the east side.

The full details of our response can be seen at:

Response

Matters are now in the hands of the consultants, whom we expect to be arranging a Cycle Route Inspection Meeting sometime in November.