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Transport chiefs pledge to fix Holborn junction in wake of Alan Neve death

Camden Council: "We have to change the streets. We support the cycling revolution."...

Area transport authorities say they will fix the one-way system where bike rider Alan Neve was killed on Monday morning.

The junction of Kingsway and High Holborn falls under the jurisdiction of Camden Council, which has been receiving warnings from campaigners for years that the one-way system in the area was dangerous for people on bikes.

As Andy Waterman illustrated in our guest blog, the designated route for cyclists through this area involves mixing with four lanes of fast-moving traffic because the contraflow bus lane on Theobalds Road is closed to people on bikes.

Alan Neve is believed to have obeyed the law and turned off Theobalds Road before being hit by a tipper truck near Holborn Tube station.

Camden Council said the banning of cycling in the bus lane was intended to protect cyclists’ safety as a cyclist overtaking a bus or a bus overtaking a cyclist would have to move out into oncoming traffic. However, the council is not taking another look a the traffic flow.

Camden councillor Phil Jones, Labour council cabinet member for sustainability told West End Extra: “We will look at it again. We want more segregated cycle routes because the volumes are going up massively, and we have to change the streets.

“We support the cycling revolution. We have a three-year transport plan and the next major scheme is going to be Holborn. We want to remove the gyratory but that requires a lot of work.”

On Tuesday night, more than 2,000 people took to their bikes to protest the state of the area’s road network and the death of Alan Neve.

Camden Cycling Campaign’s Stefano Casalotti laid a wreath at the spot where Alan Neve was killed and said: “This is an issue we have aired with police and transport for many years – going back to 2005 – and even last month.

“One: the bus lane should be wider.

“Two: it should allow cyclists on them.”

It’s believed that Alan Neve had previously used the bus lane. “But only a few days ago police had been ticketing cyclists who went into the bus lane, and many had been taken down into the gyratory,” said Casalotti.

Alan Neve was the third bike rider to be killed in london in three weeks. 

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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6 comments

Avatar
Mr Will | 11 years ago
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Three year plan? Let bikes in to the bus-lane in mean time. How long does it take to change a couple of signs?

Avatar
northstar replied to Mr Will | 11 years ago
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Mr Will wrote:

Three year plan? Let bikes in to the bus-lane in mean time. How long does it take to change a couple of signs?

Avatar
crazy-legs replied to Mr Will | 11 years ago
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Mr Will wrote:

Three year plan? Let bikes in to the bus-lane in mean time. How long does it take to change a couple of signs?

+1
They managed to put in Olympic Lanes and change the traffic flow in next to no time.

Now it's time to let bikes into all bus lanes, build new cycle lanes to the same design as the Olympic Lanes - the size of a car lane and with total priority at junctions.

It can be done - the delays are just down to political apathy but now there's been a death, suddenly it's being used as political football.  2 Just f***ing do it.

Avatar
gw | 11 years ago
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8 years of reporting it as a dangerous location and the first 'support for the cycling revolution' comes after yet another tragedy.

Listen to what we tell you. Its not just for fun that people complain about these things.

Avatar
kobacom | 11 years ago
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Why does it always seem to take a death before someone takes these issues seriously.

Avatar
northstar replied to kobacom | 11 years ago
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kobacom wrote:

Why does it always seem to take a death before someone takes these issues seriously.

This, they've had years, decades to sort it out but have blood on their hands.

I wonder how long it will take them, even if they do follow through with actions.

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