Highgate Road Bus Lane Time Extension

Thank you to all those who took part in the consultation. We have now decided to make the Safe and Healthy Street changes here permanent along with a series of additional improvements.

You can read the decision report:   Decision - Highgate Road Safe and Healthy Streets scheme - Camden Council

About the Highgate Road Safe & Healthy Streets Scheme

Bus lanes operate in sections of Highgate Road, north and southbound, to both provide bus journey time reliability and create safer conditions for cyclists. The bus lanes also permit taxis and motorcycles. Prior to September 2020, these bus lanes had only operated at limited times, around the am/pm peak times, with the following hours of operation 

• Bus lane CMO15: Monday – Friday 7am -10am

• Bus lane CMO16: Monday – Friday 7am -7pm

• Bus lane CMO17: Monday – Friday 7am -10am, 4pm -7pm and Saturday 10am-7pm

Outside of those hours of operation, the bus lanes were occupied either by parked cars and/or moving general traffic, which disrupted bus journey time reliability and created less safe conditions for cycling.

The permanent changes:

Following a trial and consultation the permanent changes includes retaining all the elements of the existing trial scheme, such as the ‘at any time’ waiting and loading restrictions within the bus lanes, the loading bays and 24/7 hours of operation of the bus lanes, as well new improvements

• Extension of hours of operation of bus lanes CMO15, CMO16 and CMO17 on Highgate Road to 24/7 – “at all times”.
• Waiting and loading restrictions to be extended to ‘at any time’ in all bus lanes.
• Addition of two loading bays outside 109-111 Highgate Road and outside 12 Highgate Road with hours of operation of 7pm-7am for loading for commercial properties.
• The extension of bus lane “CMO15” that runs southbound on Highgate Road as far as the zebra crossing at the roundabout with Swains Lane, with 24/7 operation.
• The removal of 10 permit/paid for parking bays on Highgate Road, opposite Parliament Hill Fields bus stop (Stop GL) to be replaced with 'at any time' waiting and loading restrictions. This will provide space for safer road widths, as well as space for the southbound bus lane extension.
• Widening the pavement on the southbound kerbline at Parliament Hill Fields bus stop (Stop GL), to improve bus stop accessibility and increase pavement space.
• Removing 18 permit/paid for parking bays on Highgate Road, opposite Grove Terrace. Replaced with single yellow lines and single blips with hours of operation of 7am-7pm to remove a pinch point caused by the existing parking bays, which has been raised as an issue through feedback on Commonplace and by stakeholders during the trial scheme.
• New ‘at any time’ waiting and loading restrictions at the junction of Highgate Road and Carrol Close, to improve road user and pedestrian safety, in alignment with the “Safer Junctions” programme outlined in the Camden Transport Strategy (CTS).