Cycle Hire Parking - BIG CHANGES in Merton

 Merton Council is formalising parking of hire bikes (Lime, Forest, etc.). Soon, users will be forced to park in one of the marked bays around the borough, and cannot simply park the bike in a location convenient to them that is not obstructive to other street users.

We note there's been no consultation on this decision, and we were not asked for our views. There is, however, consultation on the bays (because highway changes require statutory consultation). Materials and email address for comments can be found here:

https://www.merton.gov.uk/streets-parking-transport/cycling/hire/overview 

We tend to think that having formal bays in high-demand locations where there have been problems with bike parking will help ensure a more orderly and less cluttered public realm. But it is important that safety and convenience for hire bike users is not sacrificed unnecessarily. Bays need to cater to demand and be located close to where user journeys end. Bays should be on-carriageway both to avoid additional pavement clutter, and to avoid users having to mount pavements. Restricting users to marked bays in less busy locations seems like an overreach. At this point our recommendation is that, similarly to car parking, parking on the carriageway should generally be permitted in residential areas.

 

Raynes Park centre is a high-demand location with many people using hire bikes to get to the station. Most park in the plaza facing Coombe Lane. Looking at the bays, there are none at all in the plaza. 

 

 

There nearest bays that are planned are: 

1. "Wyke Road" -junction with Pepys Rd - capacity about 8 bikes

2. "Coombe Lane" - by the Skew Arch- capacity about 11 bikes

3. "Grand Drive" - at the Grand Drive/Approach Road junction, opposite the Cattle Arch/station entrance -- capacity about 13 bikes

(We are assuming 600mm of bay width per bike, which assumes bikes are parked quite closely; this may be optomistic).

All these bays are off-carriageway.

The problem with all of these bays is they are in the wrong place for a lot of station users. For #1 and #2, for users coming from the west, they have to cross the very dangerous RP Bridge junction to get to the bays, and then cross again on foot. And they are going a total of 300m out of their way. For a return journey, that's over half a kilometer extra.

#3 is a reasonable location for users coming along Kingston Rd or Grand Dr, but not useful for users approaching on the north side of the station. Cycling isn't permitted through the Cattle Arch, and the alternative - going round via Raynes Park Bridge - is dangerous and involves significant extra time/distance. We note with disappointment that there is still no proposal to fix the road-danger issues with Raynes Park Bridge/Coombe Lane junction (poor sight-lines, no formal crossing, etc.), despite forcing hire-bike users to use this crossing.

 

 

Now let's look at Morden centre:

 

 

There is a SINGLE bay - "London Rd" - which is outside Crown House, requiring users to cross the 3-lane Crown Lane gyratory to access it.

Nothing outside Sainsbury's, or Lidl/Iceland. Nothing on the main part of London Rd where all the shops are, or on Abbotsbury Rd. This really isn't good enough.

Speed Cushions - Dangerous, Costly, Ineffective!

 

"Speed Cushions" are traffic-calming humps that are installed in sets of (usually) two or three across the width of a road.

They have a number of disadvantages compared to full-width road humps:

1. They are ineffective at reducing vehicle speeds.

2. They result in drivers trying to avoid the cushion by positioning their vehicle wheels either side of it. In doing so they often take a road position that endangers oncoming cyclists, pass too close to cyclists and/or swerve dangerously.

3. They tend to break up more frequently, causing road defects that are especially dangerous to cyclists.

In summary, cushions arguably increase road danger rather than reduce it. And they are expensive to install and maintain! Speed cushions are a choice made in willful ignorance of the problems they cause for cyclists.

Looking at speed cushions in Dorset Road SW19, many are in the process of breaking up. In the image below you can see several recent repairs to a cushion (one small patch on the left corner nearest the camera), but these are very temporary and the cushion is already breaking up again.

 

 

An argument often made in favour of speed cushions is that they allow emergency vehicles to travel faster along a traffic-calmed road, compared to other vehicles. However with the increase in delivery van and SUV numbers, and the increase in width of cars in general, they now have little speed-reduction effect on many private vehicles. It should be noted that road traffic collisions make a significant proportion of ambulance service's workload, so compromising safety with ineffective traffic calming is hardly in that service's interest. Furthermore, the concern about emergency response times does not seem to extend to actually doing anything about traffic congestion or obstructive parking on roads like Dorset Road. At Merton Cycling Campaign we are very much in favour of enabling better emergency response times - and that means tackling congestion. Unfortunately, Merton now has the WORST decline in bus speeds of ANY London borough over the last decade - which is a clear indication of how congestion in the borough has been ignored as an issue by both the Council and TfL - to the detriment of both bus and emergency vehicle speeds.

We call on Merton to immediately cease the use of speed cushions, and replace them with standard sinsoidal (cycle-friendly) road humps that are durable and effective at their intended purpose of reducing traffic speeds. This will make the roads safer for all, and will reduce the cost of road maintenance.

Furthermore, the amount of traffic on roads like Dorset Road really needs to be reduced. Rat-running on this type of residential road puts up the cost of road maintenance - and bear in mind the Council is under severe budgetary pressure.

Shrinking Wheels - Experiences with a Brompton

Ever since my move to an upstairs flat with no external storage space
for so much as a dustbin, let alone a bicycle, I had been conscious that
when my twenty-year-old bike finally finished wearing out - a process
accelerated by having to stand outside in all weathers - the replacement
would need to be a folding bicycle. Probably a Brompton, despite the
price tag, because for me cycling is a primary means of transport rather
than a leisure pursuit, and they were the most 'serious' small-wheeled
machines on the market.

I even went to the lengths some years ago of borrowing a Brompton from a
fellow-member of MCC to gain experience of how they handled
(surprisingly well once you overcome the tendency to wobble due to a
long handlebar stem), and practiced carrying it up and down the steps at
South Merton tramstop (very hard work).  The main motivation for
continuing to keep my old bicycle going was the fact that it wouldn't be
possible to transfer the rear-axle trailer hitch for my very expensive
imported Swiss trailer.  However, as I was using the trailer less and
less --not least because keeping it in a small upstairs flat involved
disassembling and reassembling the whole thing every time I wanted to
get it out-- I eventually decided to give up on it when I needed to take
off the rear wheel to fit a new inner tube.

Having duly sold off the trailer for a tenth of its purchase price, I
failed repeatedly to get the bike working again properly despite
expenditure on a series of new parts, and the question of buying a
replacement became urgent.  It was clear that a basic Brompton was going
to be lacking in most of the features that I was used to relying upon,
such as dynamo lighting and cargo carrying capacity; the new models no
longer came with 3-speed gears, which was what I favoured for ease of
use and maintenance, so this meant that I needed to look through the
second-hand machines on offer to try to see what spec I could get within
a reasonable budget.

I spent a week scouring eBay to get an idea of the going rates, and
decided on a private ceiling of £650.  Being located within London was
an advantage, as it meant that there were far more machines available to
collect within an accessible radius. I definitely needed some kind of
carrying capacity large enough to store my leather shoulder bag, and
though I had given up on the idea of getting a dynamo I needed some kind
of lights if at all possible.

That narrowed it down to just three possibilities, of which one was
actually a 5-speed derailleur model.  One of the others sold
unexpectedly overnight before the end of the auction, so I hastily
increased my bid on the final option and was very relieved to secure a
grey 3-speed Brompton from East London for a total sum of £620. This
included a maximum-size front luggage bag -- my trial had taught me
that, unlike most bikes, Bromptons actually ride better with the main
weight over the rather skittish front wheel -- a set of LED lights, and
an extraordinarily heavy D-lock, plus the spare standard-length seatpost
which the previous owner, who was over six feet, had replaced with an
extra-long one.

It took me an hour and a half to get over to Peckham by train.  It took
rather less than that to cycle all the way home again, including a
certain amount of getting lost.  The vendor very kindly swapped out the
seatpost for me on the spot and had the lights charged and ready to use,
which was just as well since by the time we had finished with the
seatpost it was already dark; mercifully the front bag proved to be big
enough to hold my large and heavy leather satchel as I had hoped.

He assured me that I would find the bike very fast off the mark at
traffic lights, but in fact that hasn't been my experience at all --
doubtless because I am far smaller and less muscular than he was!  The
Brompton is definitely not a lightweight machine: 'luggable' rather than
'portable', never mind the considerable weight of the lock and bag.
However, I've always been used to riding a heavy bike, and it's nothing
I can't handle on the road. Lifting it up stairs, on the other hand, is
a definite challenge.

On the other hand, even if it doesn't accelerate notably fast, I get the
general impression that the Brompton is quite a nippy little beast, and
it seems to handle hills perfectly well.  I was assuming I would need to
swap out the unisex saddle, but while the lack of springs is
disconcerting (every bump in the road feels like an incipient puncture),
the narrower seat is actually perfectly comfortable for a female rider.

Having the front bag as the widest part of the bike is an improvement on
panniers, because you can easily see whether you can fit through gaps or
not.  However it does carry quite a bit less than my old bike, and next
to nothing if the bag is being occupied by my satchel.  I invested in a
rear rack as an upgrade (and one of the new roller wheels lost its tyre
within a few weeks of use, but that's another story) simply so that I
could strap the satchel to that and bring home more than a couple of
tins at a time.

My old bike was supremely un-theftworthy, and indeed had been
accidentally left unlocked in public on several occasions. Meanwhile
Brompton lore is that "you never let the bike out of your sight" but
fold it up and trundle it with you everywhere... which is all very well
if 'everywhere' is limited to the supermarket or your office commute,
but rather impractical if your bicycle is your sole means of access to
the cinema, swimming pool or museum.  Hence the need for the massive
lock.

After a month I still struggle with the fold/unfold mechanism, and have
so far discovered multiple ways to get it wrong and mash up the
paintwork or drop the chain in the process.  A '3-speed' Brompton with
its tensioner cog might as well have a derailleur from the point of view
of extra noise, cleaning and friction, and the process of lugging the
bike downstairs, laboriously assembling it, fitting the lights, and
packing the bag adds five minutes or so to every journey -- the main
selling point of a Brompton is the ability to take it on a train and
into the office with you, and I never do either. But of course the other
selling point is the ability to take it indoors up a narrow staircase
and store it in a confined space, and that was the bottom line so far as
I was concerned.

In terms of price I think I got a good bargain, given that lock, lights
and bag probably amounted to around £200 of extras and it was extremely
useful to have them all from the start. I was told that the bike was
five years old when I got it, and expect to be riding it for another
fifteen or so on past precedent; by that point I may no longer be strong
enough to lift it!

 - Harriet Bazley