Rye Lane reopening to buses, but permanent closure still looms

[malumbu]

I've not taken a lot of notice recently bur I cycled down Rye Lane today and there were buses on it.

Brief thoughts.

1. I liked the idea of vehicle free but it needed to be made more like a pedestrian precinct, businesses out on the street and the like. There would have needed to be some way of demarcation of a cycle lane, and traffic calming (as much as I hate this for bikes). I think this is a missed opportunity. There could be solutions for getting those most in need from the displaced buses to the station.

2. Funnily enough it felt safer with the buses, as I kept pace with them and pedestrians were no longer walking out in front of me

3. This depends on other vehicle using the Lane. I commuted down in for 20 years and it continually peed me off that there was so much double yellow line parking, and what appeared little parking enforcement. Buses would not be able to pass each other delaying bus times, and making it slower and more hazardous for cyclists. I hope it continues to be largely free of other motorised vehicles.

4. The clever clogs amongst you talk about parallel routes for cyclists. I don't know what these are (back to my 20 years of commuting). I could go via the Rye and Nunhead if heading, say for Queens Road Peckham Station, but don't see any advantages of going via Bellenden. Do educate me

5. In my early years in London I never went to Peckham. I had this real dodgy route via Loughborough Junction and the Brixton Road (far more dangerous than the OKR) which I learned when I first moved here. It was only when one of my colleagues left for work at the same time and beat me in I checked out my current route, and found it was straighter and flatter (hardly surprising as much of it follows an old canal). And I discovered that Peckham was not the dangerous place I was led to believe and have grown to like it since.

[legalalien]

In case it helps, here?s the slide pack from the meeting with the council?s map of the Spine route

https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/b50013666/Supplemental%20Agenda%20No.3%20Wednesday%2013-Oct-2021%2019.00%20Overview%20Scrutiny%20Committee.pdf?T=9

Also has the figures about station usage.

[oimissus]

?4. The clever clogs amongst you talk about parallel routes for cyclists. I don't know what these are (back to my 20 years of commuting). I could go via the Rye and Nunhead if heading, say for Queens Road Peckham Station, but don't see any advantages of going via Bellenden. Do educate me?

Your tone suggests your aren?t interested in being ?educated? but surely using Bellenden depends on where you start and your end destination. If you?re heading west from the top of Rye Lane you go past the top of Bellenden and the top of Lyndhurst, in which case the benefit is obvious.

And for the station to seamlessly link up with the buses, which it should, the other obvious benefit is a route which might take a couple of minutes longer but avoids a road filled with double deckers.

I mean, as you think it?s fine for those getting the bus to Rye Lane, either to link with the train or to shop, to be shunted off elsewhere, I don?t understand why you think it so important for Rye Lane to be a cycle route. Using Bellenden, for example, would add far less time on to your cycle journey than it would to many forced to walk from the displaced bus to the station or shops.

[grajm]

A quick straw poll - has anyone changed their mind on Rye Lane closure / non-closure based on the discussion on these pages?

[Chick]

No closing it to buses is a pile of pooh.

[Lebanums]

Absolutely not, I think it's much more convenient to have the buses.

I found it worse cycling on Rye Lane with the closures in place. Pedestrians walk into the road without looking, and make the commute slower and more stressful.

On the days I need to get the train its so much more convenient to take the bus all the way to the station.

[Lynne]

No-one seems to have considered the increased footfall at DKH station. Anyone who might have alighted at Peckham but was worried about walking to the bus would go on the DkH and that's busy enough as it is.

[malumbu]

Thanks Legal Alien - I was aware of the spine, but never heard it being called that or the 'parallel' route. If you are cycling down to the canal path then straight through Rye Lane remains the best way if you are coming from, say, Forest Hill Road. Not sure what it is like during morning commute with the delivery vehicles. There would often be two trucks parked around Khans narrowing that section to one lane.

Ommissus - you seemed to have had a sense of humour failure - surely use of terms like "smart Alec" or "Clever clogs" can be viewed as a little light banter. I've attached a clip - the sarcastic priest - from Father Ted - for you to enjoy. I certainly do.

[Spartacus]

I for one, am glad buses have returned to Rye Lane

Without them it made it inaccessible to myself and other disabled residents and a huge inconvenience.

If cyclists have to divert a short distance to use a safe route then it's possibly a very small price to pay to make Rye Lane accessible to all again.

[Nigello]

Buses, alas, are the cinderella service of public transport. Councillors and officers prefer nice and fancy continental-style trams of big-hitting commuter rail, as well as young-focused cycling (though I know they try to attract others to cycling, so fair play). They are vital to an integrated system. Sure, their provision needs tweaking - do we need, for example, double-deckers on all routes at all times - but we need them to feed into rail and underground, etc.

[malumbu]

Nigello, perhaps you are thinking about the rest of the country where buses are seen as poor man's transport. When Livingstone took over the running (the deal with government to privatise the tube gave the Mayor greater powers over the franchised bus network), introduced Oyster etc there was a renaissance. Sadly use had started to decline before Covid, but we are still blessed with a pretty good network.

Not sure why you are aiming comments at Councillors, rather than TfL and the Mayor. Perhaps we could all try to think positive thoughts today rather than have more goes at Southwark which is getting tedious!

[Siduhe]

I'm also in the commuting cyclist camp that is happy to see buses back on Rye Lane (both because it's the right thing for everyone else and because it suits me as a cyclist) - it's slowed the traffic down a lot (including other cyclists, shop delivery vans and mopeds that were going at really quite high speeds when the lane was closed to through traffic) and there are less pedestrians stepping out into the road unexpectedly.

Haven't seen any problems with buses getting stuck between parked up delivery vans yet, but it will happen I'm sure.

Out of interest I did try the Bellenden Road alternative that others have mentioned - it's out of the direct route for me (I'm Wood Vale, Forest Hill Road, Peckham Rye, Rye Lane, Surrey Canal Path etc) and I didn't find that route at all quieter for traffic than Rye Lane. I may be doing it wrong, but as a cyclist, the Rye Lane route feels safer to me as it is now (open to buses and deliveries). TBF I'm probably cycling out of peak times - 9am one way and 9/10pm the other way.

[Nigello]

Malumbu - I admire your positivity. Councillors and officers like the idea of shiny, continental-looking trams because it helps them and their locale punch above their weight. Trams are very expensive and yet cities and towns in teh UK continue to want them instead of cheaper and equivalent-in-terms-of-bodies-moved guided buses or trolleybuses. I fear that even with the push for the bus in London other forms of transport - trams, light rail, cycling, e-biking - are much more attractive to politicians. Buses are great - I use them much more than trains and don't have a vehicle of any kind, including cycling, so I walk and bus mostly. They do need a revamp in terms of some routes and the vehicles used - a smaller bus would be able to get up the hill to Honor Oak Park station, but I have resigned myself to thinking it won't happen.