Chiswick’s junctions some of safest in London for cyclists and pedestrians, new report shows

Image above: Library image of a green traffic light for cyclists

Chiswick scores well except for one junction 

Chiswick’s junctions are some of the safest in London for cyclists and pedestrians, according to a new report by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC).

The group have released a new interactive map highlighting which of London’s junctions are most dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. LCC’s mapping covers all of London for the first time, and can be filtered to find the most dangerous junctions by borough. The map uses the latest, recently released ‘Stats19’ emergency services response data for 2018-2022.

There is however one junction in Chiswick which makes the top ten list of dangerous junctions in LB Hounslow, and that is where Wellesley Road meets Burlington Road. There have been two people severely injured and three minor incidents involving cyclists there. Since these incidents, changes have been implemented to enhance safety at the junction.

The junction of Duke Road and Chiswick High Road was the junction with the highest number of collisions resulting in injury, but the majority of these incidents—six out of seven—were minor, leading to a relatively lower Danger Metric for this location, as per the report’s methodology.

In nearby Hammersmith & Fulham there are two junctions with a much higher danger ranking for cyclists. The junction where Stamford Brook Road meets Goldhawk Road, by the Duchess pub, has seen two serious cyclist casualties and nine slight casualties. The Weltje Road junction with King Street had three serious and six slight collisions involving cyclists during the period covered by the report.

The most risky spot for cyclists in London is at the junction in Tooting where Cycle ‘Super Highway’ CS7 meets several side roads. Even though CS7 has tracks for cyclists protected by ‘wands’, the LCC says the placement of these wands and the treatment of side roads are dangerous.

They are particularly concerned about the lack of measures to deal with the shortcut roads (‘rat runs’). In the past five years, 29 cyclists were hurt here; 11 of them were seriously injured.

Chiswick also scores well for pedestrian safety. None of the pedestrian junctions in Chiswick feature in the top twenty risky spots in Hounslow. But elsewhere in the borough there are three junctions which rank among the top 50 most dangerous for pedestrians in all of London.

One of the most risky spots is at Syon Lane/Great West Road/Northumberland Avenue Spur Road. Here, there was one pedestrian fatality, one serious injury, and three minor injuries there, making it the 17th most dangerous junction for pedestrians in London. A lot of these risky junctions are clustered around the A4.

Image above: Table showing data presented in London Cycling Campaign’s report on dangerous junctions – Chiswick junctions in bold

More work needs to be done to reduce casualties at Wellesley Rd/ Burlington Lane, says Hounslow Cycling co-ordinator

Michael Robinson, coordinator for Hounslow Cycling, told The Chiswick Calendar:

“The London Cycling Campaign dangerous junctions website is a useful resource for people to see where the most harm is happening to pedestrians and cyclists and ask for action from politicians.

“The analysis weights fatalities over serious and slight casualties.  There is only one junction in Hounslow in the top 50 London list for cyclists, resulting from a fatality near the A4 west of Hounslow town centre in 2019.

“The situation for pedestrians in Hounslow is worse with three junctions in the top 50 London list for pedestrian casualties.  There is a common theme of collisions near the A4, a high speed road that severs local communities, with inadequate crossings at many locations.

“The tool can’t capture locations that are perceived as so risky that not many people walk or cycle there. Local councils need to plan out a network of places connected by cycle and walking routes.

“In outer London boroughs this is likely to be routes connecting town centres rather than long distance commuting routes.  The network can’t give up at places that are seen as too difficult, as this is likely to be where the most casualties occur.

“The 2019 Hounslow Transport did set out a plan for the Hounslow Priority Cycle network across the borough.  Cycleway 9 is the ‘backbone’ route and we hope to see increasing additional routes connecting with this.

“Responsible councils should be looking at collision data to plan improvements to roads. We did see changes to the junction of Burlington Rd and Wellesley Rd in Chiswick to slow traffic at the junction, and this location was one of the top 20 in the borough for cyclists casualties.”