Barnet Council introduced temporary bus/bike lanes on the Finchley High Road (A1000) in November 2020. The lanes have led to significant improvements for public transport users and cyclists who use the road regularly.

Bus journey times have been substantially reduced, with journeys along the High Road between the North Circular Road and the A1000/A1 gyratory being up to 2 minutes quicker in peak times than pre-pandemic.

Cyclists are much safer thanks to the increased separation from motor vehicles. This has led to a noticeable increase in the number of people cycling along the High Road, including families with young children and older people who were previously intimidated by the amount of traffic on this busy road. Local businesses have reported more passing trade from cyclists.

Allowing more people to feel confident getting around the borough using active forms of travel, at the same time reducing dependence on private vehicles, will have major health and environmental benefits for all residents.

There are some aspects of the scheme which may need further adjustment to address localised parking issues and safety concerns, and we would like to see a more continuous segregated lane and better separation measures than the current plastic wands in order to provide greater security for cyclists, but the principle of segregated facilities for cyclists has clearly worked. The removal of parking does not seem to have had a noticeable negative impact on adjacent streets, with parking generally being easily accommodated elsewhere. 

We ask the council to retain the scheme, with appropriate design changes to be incorporated into a final permanent scheme which can be used as the starting point for a wider network of cycle lanes within Barnet which connect to facilities outside the borough.