Category Archives: road safety

Bank Junction next step changes coming soon

01 Sunday Dec 2019

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Following the implementation of the measures to reduce traffic to buses and cycles across Bank Junction between Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm, the City of London Corporation has been looking at ways to further enhance the Bank Area and in particular to improve it for pedestrians.

Image showing proposed widening of footways and crossings at Bank junction

A report was approved at the 22 July 2019 Streets and Walkways Sub-Committee to provide an interim footway widening scheme, including wider pedestrian crossings at the junction and enhanced cycle advanced stop lines.

This work should begin in early 2020 and proposes to increase the areas of pedestrian footways and wider pedestrian crossing areas.

A summary of the work is as follows:

• Work to improve the Bartholomew Lane junction at Threadneedle Street will be completed before Christmas, narrowing the junction to improve the experience for people walking.

• The coloured areas show the proposed increased areas of footway and wider crossing areas. This provides a 52% increase in footway space around the main part of the junction. This work is likely to take approximately 6 months and is expected to be delivered during 2020.

• The work will require some weekend closures of the arms to traffic while work on the traffic signals is undertaken.

For further details of the times and dates of the delivery of this scheme, please see the Bank on Safety web page www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/

Bank Junction Safety Scheme Decisions

15 Thursday Dec 2016

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Many major cities across the world have taken steps to improving safety for all road users, whatever their method of transportation, in areas of high volume traffic.  Consider New York’s Times Square, for example.  Traffic-choked streets were replaced with pedestrian ‘plazas’ starting in 2009, provoking initial discontent with former motor traffic users of the area, but in the long term, it was proved to be a safe solution to an area which attracts high volume footfall, not only from local workers and residents, but travellers and tourists.

If we take a look at London, it’s easy to spot the pinch points for traffic congestion. 6-Way Bank Junction is one of those major pinch points in the City.  It has also been the location of serious road accidents, with cyclists too often being seriously, and sometimes fatally injured.

Back in 2015, consultations and proposals to alleviate the Bank Junction traffic were widely reported, and the City Corporation began promoting a scheme entitled Bank on Safety, detailing measures to improve public road user safety, travel times (it was proposed to undertake Bank Station upgrades concurrently to surface improvements), air quality and motor traffic flow around the proposed exclusion zone.

On Tuesday, the Bank Junction proposal to exclude all motor traffic except buses and bikes during business hours was approved at the City’s Planning & Transportation committee, 14-0 – a unanimous decision.   I sat in the public gallery to watch the debate unfold.  It was over an hour of detailed and thoughtful presentations by officers, 5 outside bodies including the taxi drivers organisation and comments by 9 members. A good airing of views with no-one disagreeing that something had to be done about this pinch point.

Today, the proposals head for Policy and Resources Committee and there will be a temporary trial scheme (12-18 months) likely to start in the Spring of 2017, with close monitoring throughout to ensure that the maximum benefit is gained by all users, before a decision is made on permanent exclusions or usage amendments.

In 2017, through the duration of the trial scheme, we will hopefully be able to see a drastic cut in the number of road traffic accidents; a less polluted area of our historic City during peak hours; and truly be able to develop a pioneering road safety scheme of which the City and all its users can be proud.  The trial will enable all users to offer their opinion and suggestions for any permanent scheme – and it’s important that the City hears feedback on how the trial works to ensure the best route forward for all in 2018 and beyond!