Walking & cycling during Covid-19 - our call to change streets for people.

14 May 2020

Tower Hamlets Wheelers and Better Streets for Tower Hamlets call on the Council and TfL to act in the face of the pandemic, to reshape our streets with a people focussed approach. This will ensure social distancing as well as supporting walking and cycling as the most convenient form of transport for all.

Giving more road space to cycling and walking is no longer a 'nice to have' - it is an instruction from the Department for Transport. The instruction has been sent to all Councils in new statutory guidance: Traffic Management Act 2004: network management in response to COVID-19. The DfT stated that 'Measures should be taken as swiftly as possible, and in any event within weeks, given the urgent need to change travel habits before the restart takes full effect.'

We want to bring our full support to the Mayor and the Council's officers to work towards re-allocating road scape away from motor vehicles to people who walk, wheel or cycle. We applaud what has already been done at Old Ford Road, and wish to soon see more similar measures across the borough.

The lockdown has made the environmental benefits of a cleaner air and reduced noise pollution tangible to many. Recreational walking and cycling for exercise have grown substantially as well, and it is undeniable that more people have been enjoying streets no longer dominated by traffic. Some of that increase in active travel can be locked-in if protected space is maintained - as under 'normal' conditions far too many people feel intimidated by traffic to cycle or walk.

In addition to Covid-19, Tower Hamlets faces a health crisis with high rates of childhood obesity, sedentary and air pollution related illnesses. We know that a majority of car journeys in the borough cover a distance inferior to three miles, a distance that can easily be cycled. Going back to 'normal' should not mean going back to traffic and the hostile environment it creates. It is time for real modal shift.

With public transport trips falling and the gradual ease of lockdown, traffic has already made a comeback in the borough, with its negative impacts on air pollution, physical inactivity and road safety. We urge the Council to do whatever it takes politically and legally to ensure that a post-Covid-19 world does not result in worse traffic problems. This means it is time to seriously re-distribute space for active travel and maintain the current increased opportunities to walk and cycle safely on all roads.

This is not just about making walking and cycling 'more pleasant'. In Tower Hamlets, a majority of household do not own a car. If a safe network for walking and cycling isn't provided soon, Tower Hamlets residents who do not own cars effectively face the option of using public transport (at a time when the Government and TfL advise to avoid it) or stay within a couple of miles of their homes for the foreseeable future, cutting them from job opportunities and social life.

Measures that are urgently needed include:

1. The removal of railings and street clutter to ensure social distancing,
2. Bans on parking and loading to widen pavements around shops and supermarkets,
3. The creation of temporary cycle lanes, the re-timing of pedestrian crossings and traffic intersections,
4. Street closures for high streets (e.g. Broadway Market in Hackney).

In the longer term, the closure of residential streets to through motor traffic and the roll out of an ambitious Liveable Streets programme everywhere in Tower Hamlets will be needed more than ever. If these ambitions are not implemented swiftly, we fear that the future will only bring gridlock, pollution and collisions to Tower Hamlets.

We believe that the following areas should be considered a priority for social distancing:

1. Tesco on Bethnal Green Road - extended pavements, removal of parking.
2. Bethnal Green Road Post Office - extended pavements, removal of parking.
3. Bethnal Green/Cambridge Heath Road junction: remodelling the junction to removal waiting times, crossing distances made shorter.
4. Sainsbury's Whitechapel/Brady Street - extended pavements, removal of parking.
5. Whitechapel Market (CS2): Provide a protected cycle lane.
6. Burdett Road Tesco - extended pavements, removal of parking.
7. Burdett Road segregated cycle lane.
8. Brick Lane (road closure, removal of parking, pavements extended, south-north cycle lane).
9. Redchurch Street (road closure, removal of parking).
10. Columbia Road (road closure, removal of parking).
11. Poplar High Street (road closure, removal of parking).
12. East End of Roman Road (road closure, removal of parking).
13. Temporary cycles lanes on Commercial Street, Commercial Road, the Highway, Roman Road, Westferry Road, Hackney Road.
14. Eastferry Road, Isle of Dogs - extended pavements, removal of pedestrian railings.
15. Cable Street intervention to widen pavements and the cycle way. Potential closure to traffic.
16. Cable Street/Cannon Street Road junction: removal of push and wait button for cyclists and pedestrians.
17. Hackney Road/Ion Square Gardens/Durant Street/Vallance Road/New Road/Cannon Street: fully protected/segregated cycle lanes.
18. Cambridge Heath Road/Sidney Street: fully protected/segregated cycle lanes.
19. Campbell Road - Violet Road - Chrisp Street corridor: fully protected/segregated cycle lanes.
20. On private land, the chicanes on Canary riverside must go to enable social distancing.
21. On private land, extend the footbridge over the dock from Marsh Wall potentially by pushing back the scaffolding line.

In addition to these emergency measures, we call for an emergency workstream on cycle parking involving:

1. Installation of additional bike stands
2. Removal of abandoned bikes to make spaces
3. Roll out installation of CycleHoop bike hangers to meet demand and enable people to store a bike securely
4. Enforcement action against blocking of dropped kerbs and access