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Hackney Council are consulting on plans to improve New North Road. You can see and respond to the consultation here.
We are very happy to see the Council starting to address the danger of motor-traffic dominated main roads in Hackney. This is something we have been campaigning hard for.
Low Traffic Hackney supporters have longstanding concerns about road danger and lack of suitable crossing points on New North Road, and have been lobbying the Council to improve this. The proposal goes some way towards addressing these so we are very supportive in principle of plans for improvements here. However, we have concerns with some of the details.
Specifically we are concerned that the new crossings are poorly located and the plans do very little to improve accessibility for cycling or provide new safe cycle crossings across a busy dangerous road. They also do little for bus users.
New North Road is a major barrier to east/west cycling. The only safe crossings are currently at the junction of Eagle Wharf Road and Poole Street, and then over 500m to the South at the junction with Murray Grove. This does not provide a dense or convenient local cycle network. There are schools relatively nearby on both sides of New North Road, and it runs alongside one of Hackney's main parks so getting this right is important. Both new zebra crossings could and should become cycle gateways.
We would like to see the following improvements to the scheme:
1) The Parr Court Crossing
The new pedestrian Zebra crossing located north of Wimbourne Street by Parr Court is away from the obvious desire line directly from Wimbourne Street into the entrance to Shoreditch Park. This risks reducing usage of the crossing and encouraging continued uncontrolled crossing of children from the park.
Hackney's plans for a new crossing is away from the desire line from Wimbourne Street into Shoreditch Park
The crossing at Parr Court should be immediately north of Wimbourne Street and include a parallel cycle crossing directly into Shoreditch Park. Wimbourne Street should allow contraflow cycling to open up this route in both directions. Alternatively a bus gate could be used and Wimbourne Street made two-way.
An example of a parallel pedestrian and cycle crossing (Southgate Road on the border of Hackney and Islington):
2) Rushton Street / Mintern Street Crossing
The plans propose adding a raised table to the existing toucan crossing between Rushton Street and Mintern Street. With a new crossing to the north at Parr Court, we feel the existing toucan crossing here could be moved approximately 30m to the South, immediately adjacent to Mintern Street. This could then also become a parallel pedestrian/cycle crossing from Mintern Street to Cavendish Street (an existing shared pedestrian/cycleway). We acknowledge moving this crossing may add some additional cost.
This could be particularly beneficial if a future more comprehensive Hoxton East LTN can reduce cut-through traffic using Mintern Street.
3) Removal of Illegal Access Barriers at Cavendish Street
Regardless of what is done here, recently installed discriminatory and illegal access barriers should be removed from Cropley Court entrance at Cavendish Street to open this up as a safe route for users of mobility aids and as a cycle gateway.
See below showing the Google Streetviews from 2025 (the first image) and 2026 (the second image).
In 2026 anti-access barriers have been installed.
These barriers prevent access by carrier-bikes often used to transport children, cargo cycles, adapted cycles used by disabled people and make life difficult or impossible for users of mobility aids like wheelchairs or mobility scooters. We have also had reports they have made life more difficult for a local school 'bike bus'.
There should be no place for such discriminatory barriers and certainly not on a designed shared walking/cycle route.
4) Remove the central island
The central island in the section south of the bus stop by Cavendish Street and north of Cherbury Street creates a needless pinch point whenever a bus stops there. If their vehicle is small enough a driver might still try to squeeze through the gap anyway, but their visibility would be dangerously limited by the bus until they had already committed to the overtake. For people cycling there would also be a temptation to illegally mount the pavement to avoid that.
The limited space available for this scheme should be put to more useful purposes than an island. A bus lane, a cycle track, cycle hangers, or trees and greening to provide shade and insulate the footway from the carriageway would all be more helpful and less dangerous.
Plans showing a central island in the section between Cavendish and Cherbury Streets
5) Contraflow cycling
Contraflow cycling is where cyclists are permitted to cycle against the traffic flow on a one-way road. New North Road is a busy bus route and in places has limited space therefore the Council may consider it impractical to run protected cycle lanes along the full length of the road without an unacceptable impact on buses.
If protected cycling is deemed impossible then the Council should consider opening up surrounding one-way roads for contraflow cycling (subject to safety assessment). For example Provost Street north of Vestry Street is parallel one-way road that could be made accessible for two-directional cycling, potentially with some parking removal to increase space. Wimbourne Street is another candidate as discussed above.
6) Improve Bus Priority
Existing bus lanes on New North Road only operate 7am to 7pm however the buses run far beyond these times and the road is also served by a night bus. It is not unusual to see congested traffic after 7pm which delays buses. Bus lanes should operate 24/7 to protect bus priority. This also provides a benefit for cycling as in the absence of proper protected cycling, a working bus lane is safer for people cycling than nothing at all.
Conclusions
Overall we welcome the Council's plans to improve New North Road, an unsafe, motor-vehicle dominated main road. We welcome new side road zebra crossings, which should help to reinforce pedestrian priority at side roads. New pavement-level speed tables will help to slow traffic and improve safety and accessibility for those crossing. The plans provide a better more accessible pedestrian environment.
However we are concerned that Streetscene are not taking a suitably holistic approach to sustainable travel.
Every opportunity needs to be taken to improve conditions for every sustainable mode. This area is lacking in safe cycle crossings and lacks density of alternative cycle routes. This scheme appears to entirely forget about the role of cycling and does little for bus users.
It is disappointing that the first fully new major scheme published under the new Council administration does not show more consideration of the needs of all road users and take every opportunity to enable real inclusive change.
We are asking the Council to consider our comments above and think carefully about how money can be best spent to benefit all sustainable transport.
To our supporters: Please consider completing the consultation and making these points, or any others you may have. The consultation closes on 6th December.
You can see full details and complete the consultation here.