St Helier Avenue
On this page you can read about our proposals for making St Helier Avenue a Safe and Healthy Street. By clicking on each of the buttons below, you can read more about what is proposed and how this may impact you. You can also view maps, ask questions, give feedback, and find out about other ways to get in touch and take part.
We want to hear your views on this project and how it affects you.
You have until 26 June 2024 to give us your feedback.
Proposals
We want to improve bus services on St Helier Avenue and make the area a safer environment for pedestrians. We propose:
- Introducing over 1.5km of new bus lanes operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on a 1.6km stretch of road (both directions accounted for)
- Two new pedestrian crossings at Langdon Walk and Dore Gardens, making St Helier Avenue easier to cross as highlighted by the community
- Widening footways/pavements at side road junctions to increase space for pedestrians
- Increasing parking restrictions by changing single red lines to double red lines, changing parking operating hours and removing some parking bays, making bus journeys quicker
- Retain existing cycle track along western footway of St Helier Avenue
- Support existing speed restrictions (20mph)
Summary of changes
- Parking bay just after Boxley Road to be removed and replaced with double red lines in order to provide better benefits for buses
- Footway buildout at Connaught Gardens provides more space for people walking and makes vehicles travel more slowly reducing risk of accidents occurring
- New bus lane at Connaught Gardens bus stop allows buses to pull in and pull out efficiently
- Footway buildout at Arras Avenue provides more space for pedestrians. Parking bay to be inset into the footway buildout
- New traffic light-signalled crossing at Langdon Walk, providing point for crossing St Helier Avenue safely
- New traffic light-signalled crossing at Netley Gardens, providing point for crossing St Helier Avenue safely
- Cycle track realigned at Langdon Walk to enable creation of new traffic-signalled safe crossing point
- Shared use area created for people walking and cycling at Netley Gardens to enable creation of new traffic-signalled safe crossing point
- More double red lines along St Helier Avenue increase restrictions and make buses run more reliably more frequently
- Buses suffer less delays due to parking restrictions preventing other vehicles blocking their travel on St Helier Avenue
- 1600m of new bus lane with 24/7 operation allows buses to proceed quickly and reliably along St Helier Avenue
- Footway built out at Rose Hill Roundabout bus stop increases waiting space for bus users and prevents situations where buses cannot pull out into traffic to continue journeys
Why?
Supporting large numbers of people reliant on bus travel
A lack of dedicated space on the road for buses hinders their journey times and reliability. This is not right and affects many Londoners who are reliant on bus travel. Buses are London’s most accessible mode of transport, with over 95% of stops being accessible for step-free users. Buses represent around one in five of all journeys made in London, with over 94% of Londoners living within 400 metres of a bus stop. Over 95% of stops are accessible for step-free users. Buses also remain the cheapest form of public transport as cost-of-living increases.
Making the bus service fast and efficient
New dedicated bus lanes with longer operating hours help ensure fast and efficient journeys on public transport. New bus lanes are vital to enhancing the bus network in outer London, as they help to improve the speed and reliability of bus services, making buses a more attractive option for more people. Increasing parking restrictions makes it less likely that other vehicles will delay buses, either through parking in bus lanes or narrowing space for buses to overtake.
Making London transport greener and more sustainable
The Mayor’s Transport Strategy aims for 80% of all trips by 2041 to be through sustainable modes. Buses are a sustainable mode of travel, moving large groups of people in less road space. Changes such as those proposed here are critical for London’s transport network, for creating Healthy Streets and enabling the city to transition to net zero.
Making the bus service fast and efficient
Increasing parking restrictions makes it less likely that other vehicles will delay buses, either through parking in bus lanes or narrowing space for buses to overtake. New dedicated bus lanes with longer operating hours help ensure fast and efficient journeys on public transport.
Protecting pedestrians with new crossings
Pedestrians are vulnerable road users: when accidents happen, they are the group most likely to be severely injured. There have been 11 incidents on St Helier Avenue in the last 36 months. Local stakeholders previously have suggested new crossings to TfL. Two new traffic-signalled crossings on St Helier Avenue provide ways to cross the road safely.
Encouraging lower vehicle speeds with widened footways
Higher than necessary speeds increase the likelihood of serious accidents occurring. Widening footways/pavements reduces the risk of this occurring in two ways. First, narrower traffic lanes encourage vehicles to travel more cautiously. Second, building out footways at corners means vehicles will need to slow down when turning.
How it impacts you
The proposals will make buses run more reliably and effectively
- The inclusion of double red lines reduces the likelihood parked vehicles will disrupt buses
- 1600 metres of new bus lane and 24/7 operational hours provides smooth passage for buses along the road
- The proposals protect bus movements by amending two bus stops, reorganising them to help buses pull in and out of stops without disruption
CGI showing proposed bus lane on St Helier Avenue
The proposals improve the area for pedestrians
- Increased footway space means a more comfortable environment for people walking
- Building out footways at corners and making turning angles more acute ensures vehicles turn at safe speeds
- Two brand new crossings on St Helier Avenue signalised by traffic lights allows people to cross safely
CGI showing proposed pedestrian crossing on St Helier Avenue
To achieve a vision where we improve bus services and make the area safer for pedestrians, we had to amend parking and cycling infrastructure
- To prioritise bus movements, proposals remove some parking bays and reduce others in length. We undertook parking and loading surveys for all affected locations across the scheme to ensure our proposed changes were suitable
- Some bays are made inset or moved on to the footway to prevent them interacting with moving traffic.
- Operating hours of parking and loading bays updated
- Cycling lane modified at locations of two new traffic-signalled crossings, either by creating an intermediary space shared with pedestrians or re-aligning the cycle lane
For full details of proposed changes please view our maps and Frequently Asked Questions.
Equalities Impact Assessment
Our Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) identifies:
- The effects proposals could have on people with protected characteristics
- Our proposals for minimising any negative impacts
After we’ve considered all comments the EqIA will be reviewed. It influences decision-making on whether to proceed with changes following public consultation.
More Information
We have provided more information to help you respond:
We have also provided CGI visualisations showing what the changes would look like and Frequently Asked Questions.
Due to the announcement of the general Election on 4 July, we are now in a pre-election period, and unable to hold our event on 5 June as planned. If you have a question you would like to discuss with us, please:
- Call us on 020 3054 6037 and leave a message on our telephone call back service (please tell us what question you have that you would like to discuss)
- Use the question tool
- Send us an email at haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk
Accessible Information
We want to make sure everyone is able to take part in our consultations. To help make it accessible to everyone we have provided:
You can translate the information on this page into another language by using the ‘Select language’ button at the bottom of the page. There is also an Audio version of the proposals and survey.
Connecting with London's deaf community on our consultations
To further enhance how we consult with London's deaf community we offer:
- A British Sign Language (BSL) video of our proposals and survey
- A BSL conversation service. This allows the TfL consultation lead to have a two-way BSL translated discussion with a BSL user. To request a BSL conversation please contact us at haveyoursay@tfl.gov.uk and we will be in contact to arrange a convenient time
Tell us your views
You can reply by completing our survey, which should take no more than 10 minutes to completeor if you are short on time, you can submit a quick response.
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The closing date for comments is 26 June 2024.
Return to the top of the pageQuestions?
You can use our question tool during the consultation period. We will respond your questions as soon as we can.
You can also phone us on 020 3054 6037 to leave your name and contact number and we will call you back. Please quote 'St Helier Avenue' when leaving your message.
Or you can ask your question in person at our drop-in event:
- Wednesday 5 June (15:00-19:00), Morden Underground Station, London Road, Morden, SM4 5AZ
This will give you an opportunity to get further information about the proposals and provide your thoughts and feedback, to allow us to consider your views.
If you are unable to make this date and time and would like to discuss the proposals further with us, please get in touch and we can respond to your queries directly.
Next steps
These proposals are subject to the outcome of our consultation. Once consultation ends on 26 June 2024, we will spend time considering all the responses we receive and will prepare a consultation report.
The report will be available to everyone that takes part in the consultation and a copy will be published on our website.
Why do you need bus lanes at 11:30 in the morning when traffic is usually flowing freely.
What are you going to do to stop pedestrians jay walking across the road. I have seen this happen within 20 meters of an existing crossing. What is going to change by adding two more. How does stopping your bus twice more speed its journey?
How are you going to ensure that cyclist use the cycle lanes provided and not the main carriage way. A cyclist poodling down a bus lane is not going to help bus journey times. How does it make it safer for the rest of the road users when a bus has to move around a cyclist?
Another crack pot scheme. Another waste of money by TFL and Sadiq Khan. Another attack on motorists.
Absolute waste of money and that money could be better spent fixing issues on the roads like potholes or inadequate road markings and signs. Needless to say, the fares for all forms of public transportation and probably taxes will probably increase anyway to pay for this. I object the proposals (needless to say).
I love the proposed idea, I am of the belief that reducing car traffic and boosting alternative means of transportation is wholly positive. I think the introduction of a 24/7 bus lane will help open many people's eyes to alternative to their car.
As boosting walking, cycling and public transport has proven to aid in improving public physical health, local business and public mental health.
I believe moves like this should be made more often as, they also have knock on effects on the areas surrounding them.
I feel that the new proposals will create problems that are not currently present. It is a waste of our taxpayers' money and I object.
As a PS to my main response :
The loss of parking will hurt every area that you propose. I'm especially familiar with the one near to the shops at the Morden Hall Roundabout end. It is used by everything from trucks with issues, road highways and also by many drivers who need to stop briefly. To prevent these, stop will see an extra loss of trade to the stores as nearly everyone who stops has gone to them, especially HGV's! So you'll add to the stress the stores are already under to make a profit, and deliberately cause some of them a deliberate loss in trade.
Since additional double yellow lines the side streets to this main road, are squeezed too, so all loss of parking everywhere is painful and makes people's lives more stressful. With the NHS already under severe strain, this will add to it through consequential damage. Just because you can 'Do Something' doesn't ever mean that one should do it! Often the consequences are not the Desired Behaviour that was hoped for. And to worsen Road Safety by acting is and always will be unforgivable.
rather than all the usual restrictive works proposed, just put a roundabout on Middleton Road which would achieve your stated objectives.
As a cyclist, I don’t think this stretch too bad. Money would be better spent dealing with the damanging pot holes on many other roads and side roads
Absolute joke
There is no issue with traffic flow along St Helier Avenue at the moment but this will definitely cause an issue bring it now to one lane throughout.
There are current 2 bus routes that travel from Middleton Road to Rosehill roundabout and this is total overkill to put in a bus lane 24/7 for the whole stretch
Yes, the pedestrian crossings would help people crossing the road but the reduction in parking spaces would have a big impact on local residents who already have issues in parking anywhere near their property.
We currently have commuters park up on St Helier Ave as it's free parking and take the bus in to Morden
I don't know one person who agrees with the additional bus lanes but TFL will do as they please, as they always do
This proposal will cause more pollution, more traffic jams, cause safety issues due to parking and pedestrians.
The traffic along St Helier Avenue will be at a gridlock if reduced to one lane in each direction for cars - especially those wishing to turn off onto smaller joining roads. This is not good for the environment and for the air quality of those living in the area.
I believe there will be an increase in the number of accidents due to vehicles trying to turn across the bus lane and that the safety of both pedestrians and drivers/passengers of all vehicles (cars and buses) will be at an increased level of risk.
Parking will be compromised for those living on St Helier Avenue - for some of these it will be about social interaction but also about accessing essential services such as doctors and district nurses and them being able to visit and park locally to the individual.
Until such time as bus services are both reliable and affordable this does not seem like a constructive use of money as there will be a bus lane which is hardly used. The movement of traffic along St Helier Avenue for buses is not currently a problem so why invest resources and funds that could be used elsewhere to inprove service reliability and reduce the cost to potential travellers and users .
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Absolutely brilliant scheme, but there needs to be joined up work here and segregated cycling needs to be included in this scheme.
Yet again a sham consultation as even if everyone was against it TFL would do it anyway
Why even bother to ask?
Why are TFL doing their best to screw up London?
The bike lane never gets used so scrap it
All the proposed bus lanes will do is increase congestion and emissions, proving yet again that TFL and the dodgy mayor don’t care about hard working taxpayers
A good idea to create more crossings. But the other plans are not necessary. Causing more pollution due to traffic not able to flow. At the moment it works very well. As for extra pedestrian space. I hardly ever see anyone walking along. The speed has also been reduced for drivers so why implement these changes it will be a nightmare.
There are better ways to spend money.
Have any of the local residents who live on or near this road petitioned for these changes or are these just more of the same policy dictats from TFL/Mayor of London, the one size fits all approach from the City to the suburbs?
I am not sure if these proposals are a solution to an identified, local, problem or not - my suspicion is the latter. I can imagine the local residents may welcome additional pedestrian crossings - and if so, the installation of additional crossings would be reasonable. However, the loss of parking spaces and the increase in bus lanes I suspect are less welcome. As far as I am aware, the flow of traffic, cars and buses, on this stretch of road is reasonable and does not need to be meddled with.
I am inclined to think these changes are more to do with the dictat and 'political policy' of the aforementioned organisation/mayor rather than a locally inspired proposal generated by residents who have identified a local problem for which they would like a local solution. Why can't LBS manage its own roads instead of TFL? Ultimately if nobody from the locality is in favour of these changes why should they go ahead?
Abysmal idea, will cause misery for all. Does not need a dedicated bus lane as hardly ever an issue with the flow of traffic. Will cause major problems at the roundabout at Rosehill which will probably impact the roundabout at Morden Park.
Have seen the other objections but just wondering if they will be taken into account or ignored as the ULEZ expansion feedback was??
If you continue with this proposal there will be major traffic problems at the traffic lights half way along St Helier Avenue we’re traffic turning right will cause congestion both ways. Whilst understanding the benefit of public transport and bus lanes you cannot continue to discriminate against car users who use these roads to complete journeys not compatible with public transport.
I disagree with the whole proposal. It will cause serious traffic jam at St Helier Avenue and further worse the already packed roads in Morden and South Wimbledon. Traffic jam will bring more noises and air pollution, it also affects all road users. There is no urgent needs to make such changes to St Helier Avenue, the whole proposal is unnecessary.
I think all the proposals are a bad idea. I do not agree. For the small benefit they may achieve to the bus service, the cost will be very high and there will be an increase in traffic as there will only be one lane for cars to use. As the road is busy anyway this will be detrimental to local residents as it will mean long queues of traffic which not only is bad for car users but will increase noise and pollution. It may also lead to unsafe driving and increased use of other local roads where people already drive too fast as they use them as cut throughs. A better use of the money would be to improve the tram service locally where there are currently significant issues
Hello,
I trust you are well and thanks for consulting residents, being a resident of St Helier Avenue, I don't think there is any bus lane requirement at this moment of time especially having a 24/7 one is an overkill for sure.
My suggestion is to widen the road in case you are looking for a bus lane to make it a third lane as there are only 2/3 bus routes run across whole stretch and more cars (others)
My other suggestion is to let people have their own driveway where possible as well as parking permits because once you will lay down bus lane plan there would be more difficulties on parking on the pavement as a lot of people dump their cars for months and months.
I love your idea to have a couple of pedestrian crossing across the stretch, it will really aid young families like me to cross the road with children when heavy traffic on the run.
Many thanks,
Syed Ehsan
337 St Helier Ave
SM4 6JR