You may recall that Havering Cyclists had resolved to act upon the two tragic cyclist deaths in Marsh Way back in January 2021. This had followed complaints from workers at CEME of poor cycling access to this large and important industrial area.
We made it a campaigning issue at the 2022 local elections.
Following up on this, we recently paid a visit to Marsh Way and looked for ways that improvements could be made and what we saw confirmed our belief that the dual carriageway bridge connecting with the cycle path on the A1306 has AMPLE traffic capacity to accommodate a segregated cycle lane.
Local press reports of a spate of collisions here also indicate that there are dangers for motor vehicle users on the flyover stretch of the road due to excess speed.
We think that this short section of dual carriageway is unnecessarily wide for the traffic that it carries, is unsafe for vulnerable road users and also encourages vehicle speeding.
We would like to see a set of improvements which would include reducing the southbound carriageway to one lane with the removed lane being converted to a two-way protected cycle lane.
The northbound carriageway could be reduced to one lane with the removed lane being converted to a 24-hour bus lane.
Once over the bridge, there are existing cycle lanes painted onto some pavements but the signage, road crossings and path widths in places need attention.
Currently, there is no cycle route on Marsh Way connecting to the other industrial estates such as Fairview but we think that the existing cycle path to the CEME site could be extended to it’s easternmost exit and combined with some calming measures at the far end of Marsh Way so as to bypass most of the single carriageway section of Marsh Way and provide a safe alternative path.
