| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Increased casualties at Chiswick Lane | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 27/11/24 08:26:00 |
| Tom, most data on traffic movements involves a degree of estimate so you can't simply dismiss that which isn't telling the story you want it to. Personally I am more comfortable with the Department for Transport as a source rather than TfL which has a habit of using data for advocacy rather than transparency and has skin in the game on this issue. I will admit that the numbers of cyclists do need to be treated with a degree of caution as my own observation is that the number has increased significantly since C9 opened. On motor vehicles, I was under the impression that you acknowledged that their numbers had fallen since the cycleway opened. If that point is accepted and you also aren't claiming there is no correlation between the number of vehicles on a road and the number of collisions, then any fall in collisions on CHR may be partly due to this factor rather than the cycleway. Unfortunately we can't say the same for the King Street section. While we should all applaud the time and effort that people like Michael put into advising on the designs and he has made it plain he wasn't happy with what was initially implemented, the plain fact is that it was unsafe and lots of people got hurt. Whether this design will deal with the problem remains to be seen but it is being put in place by the same people who got it so wrong last time and now they have a financial interest in keeping it in place. The danger remains complacency and I have to say a statement like "Even if all the traffic using Rivercourt and Weltje Roads was diverted to Chiswick Lane, it would not cause any significant uptick in cyclist injuries on that road" epitomises that. Very few people are injured on Chiswick Lane despite the volume of traffic but by the same token very few are injured on Rivercourt or Weltje Road. Where they are getting hurt is at the junction with King Street. I worry when people like you make confident predictions that no more collisions will occur if all the traffic is transferred to Chiswick Lane and CHR as you made similar statements when people raised concerns about Cycleway 9. Basically you are telling us that there is no risk in the solution to a problem that you told us wasn't going to be a problem. Just to be absolutely clear, if you told me that shifting traffic to the Chiswick junctions might reduce collisions overall, rather than eradicate them altogether, I would agree. I am not arguing that nothing should be done about the dangerous junctions in Hammersmith & Fulham, just that we should be aware it isn't all upside. |