CS7 Upgrade Phase 5 - Oval to Elephant & Castle

Overview

We are building temporary schemes to help people who can to walk and cycle more, to help maintain space on public transport for those who need it and help people to avoid people using their cars as much as possible. We are introducing these measures on a temporary basis, as part of our response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Cycle Superhighway 7 is one of the most heavily used routes into central London, with over 8,000 people per day cycling on the section between Oval and Elephant & Castle, based on 2019 data. We expect this number to rise as we emerge from lockdown, as people avoid using public transport to maintain social distancing. Unfortunately, there were 79 collisions along the A3 between Oval and Elephant & Castle in the three years up to December 2019, and these led to 94 people being hurt. Of these, 17 people were killed or seriously injured. 

We have already upgraded sections of Cycle Superhighway 7 through Colliers Wood, Tooting, Balham and Clapham to Oval. We are now planning to upgrade the section on the A3 between Oval and Elephant & Castle. The new upgraded route will provide better facilities for people cycling using the route and encourage more people to choose cycling to travel in the area.

This section of the upgraded route will improve the existing connections between the rest of the route, to Clapham, Balham, Tooting and Colliers Wood southbound, as well as Southwark Bridge northbound. It will also connect with the A23 scheme that is due to be delivered shortly and to Cycleway 6 via Elephant & Castle.

The map below gives an overview of the changes we will be making.

CS7 Phase 5 overview map (PDF 307KB)

We are planning to begin construction of these temporary changes in early March 2021. We will write to local people closer to this time to confirm when construction will begin.

Consulting you on the changes  

We are introducing these temporary changes with an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO). Traffic Orders make it legally possible for us to make certain changes to the road network, and ETROs allow us to introduce changes temporarily, and on an experimental basis, so that we can better understand the effects the scheme will have.   

Ordinarily we would consult local people and other stakeholders before commencing work on changes to London’s streets. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic means we need to take emergency action to help London’s communities to cope with the virus, and the measures that are necessary to control it.   

Your views are important however and we will consult you on these changes. Our consultation will begin once we have completed the changes: we will write to you at this point to tell you the consultation has begun and how you can respond to it.   

We will use the consultation to help us decide whether:

• It is necessary to make any changes to the temporary scheme once it is in place, and if so, what these changes might be
• The scheme should remain in place permanently, or if it should be withdrawn at the end of the experimental period  

You do not need to wait until the consultation to share your views. If you have any immediate comments please complete our feedback form. 

Listening to you  

We had originally planned to ban the left turn from the A3 onto Kennington Lane for all traffic except people cycling and the emergency services. We wanted to do so because our analysis shows that a large proportion of the collisions across London in which people cycling are hurt or killed happen when traffic turns right or left at a junction. The number of vehicles turning left at this particular junction is low. This means that a restriction of this kind would reduce risk to cyclists without also significantly disrupting traffic.   

The number of collisions at the Kennington Lane junction is however thankfully low. Having reflected on the initial feedback we have received we have decided not to implement this aspect of our scheme. Instead, we will monitor the junction over the coming months to be sure that allowing traffic to turn left here does not pose any risk to people cycling. If we become concerned that allowing traffic to turn left here is putting people cycling at risk, we will clearly need to revisit our plans and consider introducing the banned turn. 

The changes in detail

We have grouped the temporary changes we plan to make in terms of who would be most affected by them:

Improvements for cyclists

• Introducing 50 metres of new cycle wands on the existing cycle lanes at the Camberwell New Road/ Kennington Park Road junction (on both carriageways), and additionally 20 metres of new cycle wands at the junction of Kennington Park Road/Camberwell New Road southbound carriageway. These will segregate people cycling from traffic, to help people feel safer. The wands will be spaced eight metres apart, to allow vehicles to pull in to make way for the emergency services, if needed
• New two stage turn road markings for cyclists turning right at the Kennington Park Road/Camberwell New Road/Harleyford Street junction to help cyclists feel more assured and confident when making right turn movements, rather than having to manoeuvre across multiple lanes of traffic
• ‘Early release’ signals on Harleyford Street and Camberwell New Road, at the junction with Kennington Park Road, to help people cycling to pull away ahead of traffic, so that they are more visible to traffic
• We will make some sections of bus lane wider and longer, to give additional space for buses and for people cycling in the bus lanes. Any new sections of bus lane will operate 24 hours a day to align with the recent changes to the hours of operation for existing bus lanes on this corridor, and they will be  accessible to cyclists and taxis

Improvements and changes for bus passengers

• We will introduce 60 metres of new northbound bus lane from the junction of the A3 with Churchyard Row, to the junction with Walworth Road. We will also introduce 155 metres of new southbound bus lane from the junction of the A3 with Walworth Road. The new sections of bus lanes will help buses to run more reliably. They will also be accessible to cyclists and taxis

Changes to local access and parking, to support the improvements for cyclists and bus passengers

• We will monitor this junction over the coming months to be sure that allowing traffic to turn left here does not pose any risk to people cycling. If we become concerned that allowing traffic to turn left here is putting people cycling at risk, we will clearly need to revisit our plans and consider introducing the banned turn
• We will remove 14.4 metres of parking space outside 188 Kennington Park Road, 7.7 metres of parking space outside 184 Kennington Park Road, 28.4 metres of parking from 140-148 Kennington Park Road, and 20.9 metres at 116-124 Kennington Park Road. Doing so will create a bus lane with fewer obstacles, ensuring cyclists are provided with a safer environment and also reduce the possibility of collisions caused by parked cars opening doors
• We will retain the 170 metre-long parking bay on the southbound side of Kennington Park Road. The bay runs along the section of Kennington Park Road just opposite the junction with Kenning Way, to just north of the junction with Ravensdon Street
• Loading bays adjacent to the White Bear Pub, Kennington Park Road and The Old Red Lion Pub, Kennington Park Road will be retained with hours of operation changed to 19:00 - 07:00. The hours of operation for two further loading bays, outside 119-125 Newington Butts and outside 48 Kennington Park Road will also have their hours of operation changed to loading only between 19:00 - 07:00. Two small loading bays will be removed; an 8.7 metre bay outside 1-30 Falstaff Court, Kennington Park Road, and an 8 metre bay outside 1-12 Harfleur Court, Kennington Park Road. Doing so will create a bus lane with fewer obstacles, ensuring cyclists are provided with a safer environment

The pack of maps below illustrates all of these changes in more detail.

CS7 Phase 5 maps - sections A to D (PDF 283KB)

CS7 Phase 5 maps - sections E to G (PDF 221KB)