News on Harrow Street Spaces Trials

Have you had your say on the Streetspace cycling and school street schemes yet?

• Feedback open to all Harrow residents and stakeholders

• Harrow Streetspace Commonplace page closes - 31 March

• Feedback to be considered at a Special Traffic and Road Safety Advisory Panel (TARSAP) in April.

Harrow Council seeks to encourage residents to leave their views about its experimental cycle lanes and school streets, as they near the end of their six-month trials. Residents have until the 31 March to take part and leave their feedback via the Harrow Commonplace engagement portal.

The Harrow Streetspace initiative, funded by the Government, includes four school streets and three cycle lanes. These measures were put in place following government guidance to create space for people to socially distance, making streets safer, quieter and less polluted and to encourage walking and cycling, while public transport was at reduced capacity.

School streets were introduced in areas with historically high levels of drop off and pick up by car, in order to keep the environment safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Cycle lanes were created on either dual carriageways or roads that have multiple lanes, reducing some road speeds to 30mph to improve safety for cyclists.

The cycle lane and school street schemes support Harrow’s longer-term climate and health objectives of reducing air pollution, levels of obesity and diabetes, while also tackling congestion, speeding and improving overall road safety.

Introduced using an experimental traffic regulation order (ETRO), the schemes were proposed for a trial period of six months. An ETRO can stay in place for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 18 months, while the schemes are monitored and assessed.

During the trials, engagement with stakeholders including bus operators, community groups and the emergency services has taken place. Online engagement via the Harrow Streetspace page on Commonplace has also received feedback since the start of the schemes.

Residents, businesses, schools and key stakeholders in each scheme area have been written to, encouraging them to share their views on the schemes before the deadline.

Scheme comments can be left at https://harrowstreetspacestrials.commonplace.is/overview .

The Harrow Streetspace engagement page closes for comments on 31 March.

Feedback on the schemes will be considered at a special TARSAP meeting in April 2021.