Waterloo roundabout

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Added by Simon Munk

We want your views on proposals to help inform our LCC response.

TfL says:

Overview:
We want your views on our proposals to create a better Waterloo. We’ve developed these proposals over the past 10 years by working with local stakeholders and the community. The original vision can be found here. Our proposals aim to create a healthier and safer environment for people to walk and cycle and use public transport as well as support the regeneration and growth of Waterloo. These proposals aim to improve the quality of life in the area by:
Reducing the dominance of traffic, allowing people to better enjoy the area
Creating a healthier and safer environment
Planting more trees to replace the removal of trees which will have the potential to benefit biodiversity, landscaping and wildlife
Creating a sense of place with the proposed new public square
Creating a focal point for Waterloo, helping build on it as a cultural destination and support the regeneration and growth of Waterloo
Keeping buses and traffic moving through the area.
The proposals form part of the Mayor of London’s plan for Healthy Streets - a long-term vision to encourage more Londoners to walk and cycle and use public transport by making London’s streets healthier, safer and more welcoming.

What we are proposing

Our proposals would:
Create a new tree-filled public square supporting civic and cultural life of the area by moving the existing bus stops from Tenison Way to an improved bus station on Waterloo Road, closing the south-west arm of the roundabout and changing the remaining carriageway to two-way traffic
Introduce segregated cycle lanes making cycling around Waterloo roundabout safer
Create new pedestrian routes and permanently remove some subways (but keep others) to help create more direct walking routes towards the river Thames. The subways can be unpleasant and divisive, inaccessible to large sections of the community
Widen the footways on Waterloo Road to give more space to pedestrians and waiting bus passengers by narrowing the carriageway through removing a section of bus lane
Relocate northbound and southbound bus stops to keep traffic moving on Waterloo Road
Ban the right turns from Waterloo Road into Stamford Street and from Concert Hall Approach (except for buses) to keep traffic moving.

Why We Are Consulting

Encourage more walking and cycling and use of buses by
Making it easier, safer and more pleasant
Keeping buses and traffic moving through the area
Provide a sense of place and improve the environment by
Creating a new, high-quality, traffic-free, green public space to become a focal point for Waterloo supporting the civic and cultural life of the area
Support the regeneration and growth of Waterloo
Currently the area is overcrowded and difficult to navigate for pedestrians, bus passengers and cyclists. This is exacerbated by street clutter and level differences that make it confusing and harder for people to get to where they want to go.
It will get even busier because of major planned developments, including increasing capacity at Waterloo station. The roundabout is dominated by motor traffic and can be intimidating and unpleasant to walk and cycle.
By giving cyclists more space and time to pass through the area more easily, and by providing new signalised crossings, a new public space and wider footways for pedestrians and waiting bus passengers, we can encourage more people to use these healthy and sustainable forms of transport, whilst keeping other traffic moving.
Waterloo is a very important transport hub with Europe’s busiest rail station, a strategic bus interchange, and large numbers of cyclists and some key cycle routes passing through it.
It is also home to international visitor and cultural attractions, workplaces, residents and academic institutions.
Our proposals are designed to improve safety for vulnerable road users by introducing dedicated facilities, such as signalised pedestrian crossings, new cycle lanes and separate cycle signals. Waterloo roundabout is one of 33 locations across London we are prioritising as part of our Safer Junctions programme.
Overall, these proposals are designed to make it easier, safer and more attractive to walk, cycle and use public transport in the area, and to prepare for and stimulate further growth and regeneration.

Potential effects of our proposals

Journey times
We expect the proposals would result in changes, both positive and negative, to journey times for motorists, bus passengers and cyclists once complete. Click here for the information (PDF) that explains the impacts we expect our proposals to have on journey times and is accompanied by a more detailed table of data.

Walking
We want to make walking more convenient and attractive. There are a number of places where overcrowding is common such as Tenison Way and Waterloo Road:
The proposed new public space would provide lots more room for pedestrians and create a key focal point in the local area with crossings relocated to where people want to cross
Wider and clearer footways would reduce overcrowding on Waterloo Road
Walking routes would be opened up, improving way finding and permeability.

Cycling
Taken from survey data in 2013 cyclists make-up 40% of traffic around Waterloo roundabout in the AM peak.
We want to make cycling in Waterloo easier, safer and more attractive. Our proposals provide dedicated time and space for cyclists and aim to reduce road casualties by addressing the patterns of past collisions:
Segregated cycle lanes around the new peninsula. The impact of this is balanced with bus and general traffic movements by making some strutural changes to the roundabout
Separate cycle signals on traffic lights would reduce the number of conflicts with general traffic
Existing cycle parking stands would be relocated
The cycle hire docking station outside Kings College would be relocated
We are working with other teams delivering projects that would provide better and safer connections to existing and planned cycle routes.

Bus passengers
Waterloo is a strategic part of the London bus network, with some of its busiest routes serving the area, used by 20,000 passengers a day. Our proposals aim to encourage more people onto buses and keep all traffic moving:
An improved bus station and new public square would provide a much improved interchange and waiting environment for bus passengers
Wider footways on Waterloo Road would provide a larger and safer area for waiting bus passengers and accommodate future growth in numbers
Bus stops would be relocated from Tenison Way to the improved bus station on Waterloo Road and the northbound and southbound bus stops on Waterloo Road would be consolidated.
A short section of bus lane on Waterloo Road would be removed to keep traffic moving.

General traffic
We want to reduce the dominance of traffic around Waterloo by creating an environment which encourages people to walk, cycle or use public transport. As a result:
There would be some changes to general traffic journey times as a result of these proposals. We would remove the south-western side of the roundabout to create the new public space. Traffic would flow two-way around the new peninsula
The section of northbound bus lane on Waterloo Road from the junction with The Cut would be removed to provide more space for pedestrians. Buses would share the general traffic lane and pull-in to the relocated bus stops allowing traffic to pass
The right turn from Waterloo Road into Stamford Street and the right turn from Concert Hall Approach (except for buses) would be banned to keep traffic moving through the area.
We do not develop proposals to introduce traffic restrictions without carefully considering the potential impacts and exploring alternative solutions. The restrictions are proposed to either address a safety issue, or help the signalised junction operate more efficiently and minimise potential journey time delays to road users.

Deliveries and servicing
Some changes to existing servicing arrangements may be required. If your home or workplace is on or near the proposed changes, please let us know if the proposals could affect your deliveries, collections and servicing. We would encourage you to discuss the proposals with companies undertaking these operations.

Taxis
The main taxi rank is on Station Approach and is not affected by these proposals.

Rail and London Underground users
Network Rail has a programme of works to increase capacity at Waterloo Station and London Underground has plans to increase Bakerloo and Northern Line services, increasing the numbers of people using Waterloo to interchange. Our proposals would make it easier and more attractive for passengers to continue their journeys on foot, cycle or bus.

Environment
Air pollution is one of the most significant challenges facing London, affecting the health of all Londoners. As part of the plans for new measures to tackle London’s current poor air quality, we have been consulting on proposals to bring forward the introduction of the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).
A number of other schemes to improve London’s air quality are planned, including taking steps to reduce air pollution from our bus fleet, reducing emissions from taxis and private hire vehicles, setting up five ‘Low Emission Neighbourhoods’ and expanding the electric vehicle charging network, as well as making it simpler to use. We are investing to make London’s streets healthy, safe and attractive places to walk and cycle. Enabling more journeys to be made on foot or by bike can help reduce private vehicle use and associated emissions. Click here for more information on how we are creating Healthy Streets and click here for the draft Mayor's Transport Strategy. Our proposals aim to improve the quality of life in the area by:

Reducing the dominance of traffic, allowing people to better enjoy the area
Exploring opportunities to achieve more greening
Creating a sense of place with the proposed new public square and providing additional seating.
As our proposals for Waterloo would change how traffic moves around the area, we expect there would be some associated and localised changes to air quality and noise levels. We will be carrying-out environmental surveys and environmental modelling to help our design development.

Security barriers on Waterloo Bridge
The Metropolitan Police Service has installed barriers to increase security on London’s busiest bridges. Our proposals will aim to ensure that the security of all road users is maintained in the future.

Working with the local community
TfL has been working with Lambeth Council and engaging with businesses, local stakeholders and the Mayor to develop these proposals over the years. These are the planning documents and guidance consulted on with the local community that have helped us develop these proposals:
A local college, Morley College, has produced a photo record to capture the sense of place and character of the area that these proposals will build on. These photos will be on show at the public events and around Waterloo.
There is a public art poem by the poet Sue Hubbard called “Eurydice” on the wall of one the subways we propose to remove. The poem was written as part of the renovation of the South Bank especially for the underpass that leads from Victory Arch at Waterloo Station to the BFI IMAX cinema. We will work with local stakeholders to investigate how we can include the poem in the new public space.

Next steps
Subject to the outcome of this consultation, should we proceed with these proposals, we would look to start construction in late 2019 for a period of up to 18 months.
We are aware that there is a lot of construction occurring in the Waterloo area and these changes are likely to cause further disruption. We would work with the local community, Lambeth Council, SBEG, WeAreWaterloo and surrounding developers to coordinate works and deliveries to minimise this impact as far as possible.

Previous consultations
As part of the Mayor’s Better Junctions Review we made improvements at the roundabout to reduce accidents by providing more priority and road space for cyclists, particularly at the junctions with Stamford Street and Waterloo Road.
Later the speed limit was reduced to 20mph and will be retained under these proposals.

Deadline

August 20th, 2017 19:00
https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/waterloo-roundabout/

Location

Issues nearby
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