Labour has decided to impose new segregated cycles lanes on the Brighton Road, all the way from Whitgift School to the Purley Hospital. Under an Experimental Traffic Order, they can apparently implement the scheme without any consultation, and then once it's installed, see what residents think of it! There's also a plan to make the bus lanes operational 24hrs / day, although they may be having second thoughts about that, in view of the serious inconvenience this would cause to those who regularly park along the bus lane along the Whitgift school boundary.
The detailed map is shown above. The lanes will be segregated by plastic "wands", similar to those outside Croydon University Hospital and those which used to be installed in Foresters Drive (Sutton), before they were removed because they were found not to work!
I have a problem with this scheme: the more space you allocate to one form of transport, the less is available to other forms, which means that cars, for example, can't veer into the cycle lane to avoid a crash, or a pedestrian in the road. I ride a motorbike, and I'm extremely concerned that the scheme takes no account whatever of the increased risks to bikes caused by there being less road surface into which a bike can escape to avoid an imminent accident. The "wands" are secured to the road surface by long lumps of plastic/concrete without fluorescent marking, so they are invisible at night. It's just possible that bicycles will have fewer accidents under the new scheme than the old, but I fear that this will be at the expense of all other road users, including pedestrians, suffering more accidents.
The Brighton Road is much narrower through South Croydon & Purley Oaks than it is through Purley, so there is likely to be more congestion there, particularly at the Riddlesdown Road & Sanderstead Road junctions, and at all the many junctions where vehicles turn right. Of course more congestion leads to more pollution due to vehicle engines idling for longer periods, and increased congestion also means that it will be MUCH more difficult for emergency vehicles to get quickly to their destinations. This is because it will not be possible for other roads users to move to the edges of the road to allow them to pass because the usable road will be much narrower. I wonder how many lives will be lost because ambulances are unable to get the scene of an accident in a hurry? In all, I'm opposed to this scheme, but it's going to be imposed early in 2022, regardless of what I or any other residents think.
As you see from the letter below, you'll have an opportunity to comment on it sometime after the scheme has already been implemented.
