Kingston Mini-Holland/Go Cycle

The Challenge

In March 2014, the Royal Borough of Kingston was named as one of three London boroughs to be awarded ‘mini-Holland’ programme status by the Mayor of London. This provided the borough with access to more than thirty million pounds of TfL funding to transform local cycling facilities and encourage more people to take up cycling.

SYSTRA’s Role

SYSTRA was commissioned to provide design advice and modelling support to assist in realising the council’s ‘mini-Holland’ cycle scheme, locally termed ‘Go Cycle’. This involved the provision of extensive new cycle lanes on corridors into Kingston and the re-configuration of numerous junctions to provide priority for cyclists.

The potential impact of the proposals on the local highway network was a key challenge, as it was important to ensure that a reduction in road space in favour of pedestrian and cyclist movements did not result in an unacceptably adverse effect on vehicle traffic flow and queuing on the surrounding local highway. For this purpose, extensive VISSIM modelling was undertaken to achieve TfL MAP5 approval.

SYSTRA also attended progress meetings through the life cycle of the scheme to ensure project stakeholders such as the council, TfL and the GLA were able to comment on scheme design developments and approve project milestones.

Construction of the remodelling of various sections of the borough’s highway network, including in the immediate vicinity of Kingston station, was completed in late 2019.