Look Out! Here Comes the Tram.

In June, Ken Livingstone gave the green light to tram rails along the Uxbridge Road. The West London Tram Scheme will run from Uxbridge to Shepherds Bush via Acton, Ealing, Hanwell and Southall town centres. The route, which is expected to be completed by 2009, will carry 50 million passengers a year and cost approximately £200 million. The proposals mean that several sections of the Uxbridge Road (particularly in town centres) will become one-way streets to private vehicles. What this will mean for cyclists still isn't clear. It is possible that cyclists too will be expected to divert off the road. However, this seems unlikely given that local government planning guidelines put a priority on making more road space available for cyclists. Furthermore, the Uxbridge Road is part of the new, soon to be improved London Cycle Network (LCN+), and any diversion could expect to be met with fierce opposition from the Cycling Centre for Excellence, the LCN planners, and LCC. Indeed, when asked earlier this year, "will the Uxbridge Road remain a through route to cyclists?" Phil Cummings, leading the development for Transport for London said "I would like to think so". Alex Williams, Director of transport at Ealing Council was less positive. "I know that this is an area of concern," he said, "and we will be working with TfL to assess how the needs of the tram and cyclists can be met. However at this stage I could not rule out changes to the alignment of [LCN] Route 39." Because the Uxbridge Road is an important commuter route for cyclists, as well as providing access to the town centres, Ealing Cycling Campaign are campaigning for it to remain a through route, and for cycle facilities to be improved along it. We have joined up with Hammersmith and Fulham Cycling Campaign to lobby together on this issue. Unfortunately, cyclists' interests were ignored in the early planning stages. We must make sure that they are now a priority. With the right plans, the tram could significantly improve cycling in West London. It should reduce dependence on the car, and therefore produce a quieter, environment for cyclists. But don't expect the drop in car use to be dramatic. Only seventeen percent of Croydon tram users are former car drivers. Whether or not cycling along a tram route will be safer than the present road remains to be seen. A survey into cyclists' safety on tram routes is currently underway at Nottingham University. While we wait for that report, Ian Oliver has been looking into statistics from the Netherlands (see Tram Safety, below). They suggest that trams are more dangerous than one would expect. Link to TfL press release: West London Transit

Tram Safety

Ian Oliver has looked into Dutch safety statistics to see what we can learn from the Dutch experience with trams.

• Four Dutch cities have trams: Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rotterdam, Utrecht. The Amsterdam network is significantly bigger than the others.

• Trams have priority over all other vehicles, there are no legal limits on tram speeds.

• The accident rate for pedestrians is 155 fatalities per billion tram kilometers The accident rate for cyclists and moped riders is 112 fatalities per billion tram kilometers. i.e. 267 fatalities to 3rd parties (excluding those in motor vehicles) per bn tram kms.

• The respective rates for accidents with cars are 4.9 and 3.7 per billion vehicle urban kilometers.

• A crude comparison with UK buses and coaches is that here there are 12 pedestrian/cyclist fatalities per billion bus kilometers. This is not a fully fair comparison as trams operate exclusively in high-density urban areas, buses and coaches don't.

• Even with figures based on occupant kilometers trams come out badly: 3.6 cyclist fatalities per billion tram occupant kms, versus 2.7 fatalities per bn car occupant kms.

• Trams are however very safe for their occupants: accident rates per passenger km are at the same level as trains and planes.

• 70% of accidents are for "failing to give trams priority" (sic).

• Most accidents (no figures) are at cross roads and there is a definite pattern of black spots (eg more than two parallel tram tracks is very dangerous).

• There appears to be a wide variation in incidents per tram driver.

• I could find no statistics for bike accidents caused by getting stuck in tram tracks and speaking to a number of people who cycle in Amsterdam on a recent visit there it was not perceived as a problem.

Summing up the summer

Once again it has been an eventful summer for Ealing Cycling Campaign. We held four events during Bike Week, including a Cyclists' Breakfast, and a Dr. Bike, and also ran a stall at the Countryside Weekend. Thanks are due to many people. First and foremost to Helen Mowat for organising the summer events this year. I for one was very grateful for her help, and am sorry to hear she is standing down from ECC. However it is for a good cause as she will now concentrate on fundraising for a local cancer centre. Goodbye too to Tom Williams who has pedalled off to live in France. We will miss his enthusiasm. Thanks also to everyone who manned stalls, fixed bikes, handed out leaflets and led bike rides. Finally thanks to Waitrose in West Ealing who sponsored the Cyclists' Breakfast. Colin McKenzie conducted a survey of cyclists who attended the breakfast. Thirty-four cyclists stopped and could be counted: 23 male, 9 female, 2 not recorded! Most were regular cyclists. Destinations or start points were as far away as Hayes, Northolt, Southfields, Neasden and Westminster. The median journey time was 30 minutes, and the mean, 27 minutes.

Campaign News

This year reports have been coming through the letter-box thick and fast.. The most interesting is Central Ealing Area Transport Strategy 2001-2. It suggests implementing one of our long-standing proposals — a contra-flow cycle lane between the Uxbridge Road and Ealing Station. It's great to see this is still on the cards, but the strategy misses the opportunity of opening up access to North Ealing from the station. Unfortunately the proposed route stops at the station instead of running up to Madeley Road. Elsewhere, the report contains other positive suggestions: an east-west route from Ruislip Road along Scotch Common then Meadvale Road and Brunswick Road, crossing under the A40; improvements to the route along the Avenue to West Ealing Station; and a new route into West Ealing across Jacobs Ladder, joining with a north-south route east of the Greenford rail line linking to Ruislip Road and Gurnell Pool. Although the strategy doesn't state so explicity, this would mean building a new pedestrian / cycle bridge over the railway line in West Ealing (the current bridge has steps).

Events:

All members are welcome at our meetings. The next two are on Wed 7 August, & Wed 4 Septembe at 7.20pm.

If you haven't been before you are very welcome. We meet at the rear entrance of Perceval House (the modern building to the left of Ealing Town Hall on Ealing Broadway, W5) The meeting ends at 8.45 pm at the latest, and if you're lucky adjourns for beer, wine, cheesecake, etc. at "Cafe Grove" on The Grove, W5.

Articles and letters for the newsletter can be e-mailed to me at martin.gorst@ntlworld.com

Car Free Day: Sunday 22 September 2002