Cycleway 4 FINALLY opens between Greenwich and Deptford
A stretch of cycleway between Greenwich and Deptford which has been all but complete – yet fenced off to cyclists – for a year has finally officially “opened” according to Transport for London.
The stretch of Cycleway 4 between Creek Road and Deptford has been long been finished yet unavailable for use while TfL paid money to continually put barriers across the route.
That was for safety, apparently, as cyclist were pushed into general traffic lanes.
The reason for such a long delay in opening after construction finished was work needing to be conducted on Creek Road bridge.
That work is still not finished and is now scheduled for autumn 2022. Somehow, the lane can now be opened.
Whilst the cycle lane was closed and cyclists forced into sharing road space with buses and cars, those same cars and buses were somehow able to cross Creek Road bridge with no problems while cyclist couldn’t.
Just this week I saw an exchange on Twitter with one local who moved in two years ago eagerly hoping to use the lane, never could and is now moving away. It’s been a shambles all round.
Greenwich and TfL were blaming each other while little happened.
There’s been little fanfare about the opening given the troubled history, with a press release from TfL containing a brief mention within the news that work at the Hammersmith gyratory had been finished.
But at least now locals and many newcomers moving into new housing in the area have a healthy and safer way to reach central London.
Cycleway 4 will eventually head from Creek Road in Greenwich to central London via Deptford and Bermondsey.
Some stretches have been open for some years, some still under construction while others such as the one-way system at Rotherhithe have no fixed plans as of today.
Which needs rectifying, as thousands of homes are now under construction in that area and it’ll be of great benefit to residents.
Other beneficiaries will be residents moving into the 3,500-home Convoys Wharf development in Deptford, with the first plots now underway.
Another major development is Timberyard aka Deptford Landing or whatever the flavour of the month is this time.
More than one thousand homes will eventually be constructed on site.
Woolwich
The route was originally supposed to head to Woolwich now ends as soon as it reaches Greenwich.
A junction has been reworked near New Capital Quay in Greenwich over the past few years after Greenwich Highways shortly after spent millions installing a design straight out of the 1980s.
Decades out of date upon installation, and thus sure enough it was ripped out. I mean, why spend money elsewhere in a time of cuts?
Plans to route cyclists through Greenwich town centre and reworking the gyratory look to be going nowhere. TfL are of course skint and having to seek money from central government every other month – who appear to have little interest in long term funding – and Greenwich state all projects need funding from TfL.
Most London councils have realised that’s not happening and so are looking for internal funding streams such as income from new developments, but Greenwich sit bottom in London for that due to years of mistakes. Alas, it all means any extension looks a long way off.
For now there’s the temporary route in east Greenwich then sharing a bus lane to Woolwich. It’s a long way from what was proposed in the 2010s.
Article calls it out, Greenwich transport team are incompetent and the director sadly can’t get a job elsewhere because his track record is so diabolical so greenwich is stuck with him. That said it’s the ceo and leader that have the job of rooting out badly performing departments and putting in place leaders that can do a good job so it’s ultimately their fault greenwich is such a dive with long standing issues never addressed for any sort of journey, whether car, bike or walking.