Safety improvements in Archway Road

The A1 Archway Road has more serious collisions that any other road in the Highgate area and the volume of traffic is also high with over 20,000 vehicle movements a day. It has more HGVs than any other local road and the traffic continues through the night. Together with the recently introduced 20 mph speed limit, the TfL proposals are mostly helpful, but we have concerns about some omissions and make suggestions for improvements to the scope of work. The proposals do not mention enforcement of the 20 mph speed limit.

Working from north to south in Archway Road:

1. The proposed changes to the crossing at Church Road are welcome, but we think that the new shorter crossing distance should leave sufficient width for two HGVs to pass while each is also potentially overtaking a cyclist.

2. At the junction with Bishops Road a “raised table” is proposed. We are concerned about noise as HGVs pass over the table, especially at night, and vibration to nearby buildings. With the new lower speed limit of 20mph, we do not think the table will serve a useful purpose. An additional speed camera for northbound traffic might be an alternative ensuring a quiet and smooth passage of vehicles at a suitable speed. We are not aware of any other raised tables on similar TfL trunk roads where HGVs including articulated vehicles are so frequent.

3. Near the junctions with Church Road and Bishops Road cycle logo markings are proposed. These can be confusing for drivers as this type of logo can be mis-construed as indicating a cycle lane. They also increase road clutter.

4. Pavements can impact on pedestrian safety, and the pavement between Jacksons Lane and Southwood Lane is in an extremely poor condition. It is uneven and steeply sloping towards the road making it difficult to walk on for pedestrians, let alone wheelchairs or pushchairs users. An unattended pushchair could roll into the road. This is also a pavement that is used a lot due to the numerous shops on this stretch of the road. 

5. Most importantly, the proposals do not address the safety issues at the junction with Shepherds Hill. Here, after the junction, for southbound traffic the road goes unexpectedly into one lane without any signage. A priority should be to warn drivers that the road is merging into one lane, and a low cost measure could be to mark the road showing two lanes going into one lane. Potentially a roadside sign saying “Merge into one lane” could be considered. You may have other proposals but we consider it essential that this dangerous location be addressed.

6. We welcome a new crossing outside Sainsburys, though a shorter crossing needs to allow enough space for 2 HGVs to pass each other while passing a cyclist. On the northbound side there is a bus lane so here the crossing should allow a bus to freely pass an HGV that may be stationary and queued during peak hours.

7. Unfortunately the proposals do not address the high volume of collisions at the junction of Causton Road/Northwood Road with traffic crossing Archway Road from Causton Road into Northwood Road and vice versa. To make it safer for vehicles and pedestrians to cross Archway Road, the pedestrian controlled crossing outside the Coop could be moved further south to between the junctions with Causton Road and Cromwell Avenue. This has several advantages: it would space out the pedestrian crossings more evenly; it would encourage pedestrians who currently cross Archway Road at that junction (dodging the traffic) and do not currently divert to use the crossing to use the re-sited crossing which would be on or closer to their ‘desire line’; it would make it easier and safer for traffic crossing from and to Causton Road and Northwood Road. This would reduce accidents at this junction and we invite you to give this proposal serious consideration.

Enforcement.  An essential element in road safety is enforcement of speed limits and we would welcome TfL’s proposals. 

We have two Telraam traffic measurement devices located on Archway Road between the junction with Holmesdale Road and Northwood Road. These show that during daylight hours and before the reduction in the speed limit from 30mph to 20 mph took effect, about 30% of vehicles travelled at speeds in a range of 20 to 30mph and 20% of vehicles at speeds between 30 to 43mph. This understates the speeding issues because we believe most of the high speeds are likely to occur at night, which is not measured by our devices. We believe that to enforce a 20mph limit some additional measures are needed. We mentioned a potential camera near the Church Road junction, but a further camera covering southbound traffic possibly near the junction with Holmesdale Road could be considered.