Following the appeal for suggestions for new locations for cycle hire stations I emailed Dawn Rahman, Transport Policy Manager at London Borough of Lambeth proposing two ideas:- On Wilcox Close, by the Tate South Lambeth Library
- The pavement outside Estrela
and received the following response:
Thank you for taking the time to make suggestions for cycle hire stations.At the moment, the locations you have suggested are just outside of the current cycle hire zone. However, I've also received a few other requests for stations in the same area so this is something I've been discussing with Transport for London (TfL) They have said that in order to justify an extension to the zone we would need to find space to accommodate a large docking station (one that has at least 45-50 bikes). The footprint for this is 35.75m by 2m for a single line of bikes or half this for a double banked station. Clearly this is quite large.Nevertheless, if space can be found, I appreciate that there is a real demand for the cycle hire zone to come down to this area. Therefore at the moment I am awaiting a decision from TfL as to whether this is something they will allow us to progress. I will keep you posted as soon as I hear a decision.In the meantime if you have any further suggestions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me
Which is rather ecouraging. If you have any better ideas for a docking station that large, please leave a comment and/or email Dawn at drahman@lambeth.gov.uk.
I've had two responses to this post via email which I think are worth sharing here (I have also forwarded them to Lambeth Council).
ReplyDeleteThis from David Jenkins:
Hello. Thanks for the info here and good work requesting the new bike stations.
Although not on the immediate South Lambeth Road site, perhaps Nine Elms Sainsbury's would be a good location for the bikes. Personally I too would prefer somewhere close to Estrela, but Sainsbury's could probably accommodate the bikes somewhere, and it may well encourage more custom for them.
And this from John Finlay:
Hi there, I would suggest pedestrianising most or all of the stretch of road between Dorset Road and Meadow Place and having the current no-entry junction off South Lambeth road as an "access only" turn into the meadow place cul-de-sac. A small amount of parking would be lost but bikes and a couple of car club spaces in the new pedestrian area could get those cars off the road anyway.
Have just been forwarded this response from TFL:
ReplyDelete"Just to let you know, the site you asked about at Wilcox Road is not feasible at the moment, unfortunately it is too far outside the scheme boundary to operate on its own but it may be a possibility for future phases to incorporate this area, subject to sufficient funding becoming available."
Oh well.
Any progress is appreciated, but it's disturbing and disappointing how passive the Borough of Lambeth is in improving transport options for residents.
ReplyDeleteThe Burough's Transport Policy Manager appears completely out of the loop - three months after the scheme launched in the rest of central London, Dawn Rahman is still unclear about the requirements for new sites and discussing where they could be, then going cap in hand to TfL. Sites in other parts of London must had been approved something like a year ago to start construction.
It seems to me that an active, engaged Council would go to TfL saying "Here are the sites we have chosen, this is why they meet your specifications, here is the planning approval, and here are the funds we've set aside from our transport budget as a contribution to building them."