IS THIS AS GOOD AS IT GETS?
FERAA is recording a growing list of personal injury and damage to possessions claims from the ever lengthening Cyle tracks along Enfield’s major roads. The scheme offers no benefits that offset these losses which will only grow with time.
- Businesses along the A105 / Green Lanes are losing custom because of the restrictions on parking and delivery.Â
- Our communities and economic prospects are diminished by a cycle scheme that has no place in Enfield.
- Forcing cycle tracks through shopping centres serves no purpose – there is not enough room for all traffic to move swiftly through congested space.
- Lane markers are tripping up pedestrians
- Bus borders are causing confusion with passengers and cyclists.
- Bus services are suffering.
- Enfeld’s Councillors refuse to listen and consider the evidence – they have no arguments to justify their policies.
- Enfield Council has reduced the whole A105 road to one vehicle width with a cycle track alongside: there is virtually no room for overtaking so private and emergency vehicles will have to fit in between bus services. Everything flows slower, generating more pollution
- All residents along this route and businesses are impacted by the cycle lanes – parking will be much reduced or banned, displacing loading to side roads – if there is room there to park! That includes loading when moving home, deliveries, and taking on passengers – invalided or not.
- Emergency vehicles have no room to speed on their way and all vehicles will have to navigate the road humps being placed all along the A105.
- Bus services are slowed and the ride will be subject to constant bumping over the pointless traffic humps.
- Passengers waiting to board buses compete with cyclists at boarding points, a sure source of danger and conflict at every bus stop, particularly at night and in bad weather.
- This plan has been accepted by Enfield Council to secure funds from the Mayor of London: Enfield roads will be the test bed for the scheme intended for all London’s 33 boroughs. He has not consulted anyone – he won’t conduct London-wide consultations because his plans are so damaging they would be rejected. For certain. And Enfield Council’s local consultations have been notional and largely ignored when the results proved inconveniently negative for the council’s purposes.
- The prospects for raising the level of cycling are similarly poor- commuter cyclists will just roll down the main open road and avoid the cycle lanes because they are obstructed every 400m by bus stops. And what responsible family will puts its kids by way of harm and pollution by taking them down lanes just 1 meter from heavy traffic? If there is little cycle take up the huge cost of this scheme will be for nothing. The bid document, issued 5 years ago, promised a 7 fold increase in journeys taken by cycle, substantial reductions in pollution and even a boost to business; none of this has happened, nor will it under this plan.
- Safe cycling in our view means using quiet roads and tracks, leading directly from homes to schools, stations and shops. How our councillors fail to see this reality is breathtaking.
- FERAA campaigns to introduce councillors and officers to street level reality, and abandon the empty claims of lower pollution and economic benefit – fanciful dressing to defend a mistaken policy.
- On current form, Mini Holland tracks will eventually be removed from shopping centres, and many of the obstacles now inserted along main roads eliminated on safety grounds. Â Bus lanes, the backbone of suburban travel, will be restored. Cycle tracks along quiet ways will form the backbone of a scheme suited to a suburban setting. Cycle Enfield will have proven one of the most singular wastes of public money in living memory.
Cycle Enfield – for the few not the many.
Categorised as: Cycle Enfield