Dear Mrs Bourke,

Mile End Road junction with Grove Road and Burdett Road – Regulation 28 Prevent Future Death Report

We were sorry to hear of the tragic collision that occurred on 16 August 2018 and wish to pass our sincere condolences to the family of Mr Ozan Allen.

We have reviewed your Regulation 28 report and matters of concern dated 1 April 2019. We note your request to prevent future deaths and this letter outlines actions we intend to take.

TfL seeks to reduce collisions across London with initiatives stated in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (March 2018) and the Vision Zero Action Plan (July
2018). As part of the upgrade of Cycle Superhighway 2 completed in 2016, changes were made at the junction including installing segregated cycle lanes on the Mile End Road approaches, and introducing a right turn ban from Mile End Road (western arm) into Burdett Road (southern arm) and a right turn ban from Burdett Road (southern arm) into Mile End Road (eastern arm). Prior to finalising this design, we considered straight-across crossing design options, but they were not feasible due to adverse impacts which included longer wait times for pedestrians, increased queue lengths for vehicles, and re-routing of traffic on local roads leading to ‘rat-running’. Our implemented design used pedestrian islands to manage a high level of demand by all road users and assist pedestrians crossing due to the junction’s size and complexity. Pedestrian islands minimise clearance times on controlled crossings (the time between one movement losing priority and a conflicting movement gaining priority), allow more time to be allocated to effectively move people and minimise waiting times to cross, provide a protected space for Your ref: Our ref: Sarah Bourke Assistant Coroner

Inner North London Poplar Coroner’s Court 127 Poplar High Street London

cyclists to wait and turn, and provide a suitable location to position signal heads to inform road user decisions. The banned turns have been contentious with some local residents. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets has asked for these to be reviewed. In addition, as per your report, we acknowledge that monitoring of the changes made in 2016 shows that they have reduced the number of collisions affecting cyclists, but the number of collisions involving pedestrians has increased. This impact was not intended as part of that design. We sought to analyse reasons for this and commissioned a collision study that was completed in July 2018, prior to the death of Mr Allen, which involved a review of the recent recorded collision history. This informed a package of further proposals of cycling and walking improvements at this junction. We undertook a public consultation on our proposals which stretched between Hackney and the Isle of Dogs, including this junction, between the 9 May and 21 June 2019 and this can be found on our website at

As outlined in our consultation, we are proposing to re-introduce the right turn from Burdett Road (southern arm) to Mile End Road (eastern arm) but ban the corresponding left turn from Mile End Road (eastern arm) to Burdett Road (southern arm). This will allow us to decrease the overall wait times at the pedestrian crossings on all arms of the junction, as well as the adjacent staggered (two-part) crossing outside Mile End station that is co-ordinated with the operation of the junction. A full sequence of the traffic signals currently takes two minutes (120 seconds) at the busiest times and with the proposed changes it is intended to be reduced to just under a minute and a half (88 seconds). On average at this junction, pedestrians currently wait well over a minute and a half (104 seconds) to cross the road (on a ‘green man’) during the busiest periods, and our proposals would reduce this to under a minute (51 seconds). The reduction in pedestrian wait times will increase the probability of pedestrians arriving to cross on a green through providing more opportunities to cross per hour, and is expected to improve compliance with crossing only during ‘green man’ stages. We are proposing to re-introduce pedestrian guard railing on north-west corner of the junction to direct pedestrians to use the formal crossings provided. We are also investigating signal louvres on green pedestrian signals to reduce the risk of ‘see-through’ problems (where two or more signals are close together and there are risks that road users look at the wrong set of signals), and removal of street furniture such as telephone kiosks to improve pedestrian visibility (subject to discussions with third parties). Our proposals do not remove the use of internal islands, and pedestrians will still be required to cross in two or more movements. A design with no internal islands and straight across and/or diagonal crossings would appear simpler but would reduce overall capacity resulting in greater congestion, as the amount of clearance time would need to be increased. An increase in congestion may result in worse air quality, and increase the risk of some traffic migrating to less

suitable routes to maintain journey times. It would also be a longer distance for people with impaired mobility to cross in a single movement. Our design seeks to limit the occurrence of vehicles being unable to complete a turn due to their exits being blocked though co-ordinated signal control with adjacent junctions, so that visibility will be improved through less stationary or slow moving traffic in the centre of the junction due to exits being blocked. We are currently analysing the consultation feedback for this exercise and we are considering adjustments to the design in light of comments received. We are planning to publish our consultation report by October 2019 which will outline our next steps, and subject to the consultation outcome, funding and other approvals, construction could start in winter 2019/20 and complete by summer 2020. We will then continue to monitor the performance of this junction. We are also proposing to introduce a reduced speed limit of 20mph on the A11 corridor between Bow and Aldgate through the junction, and we are investigating measures on the A11 Mile End Road approaches such as changes to bus stop facilities and relocating the crossing outside Mile End station to reduce the risk of traffic queuing and blocking back into the junction. We have yet to consult on these additional proposals but plan to complete both further projects by 2024 subject to funding, resources, consultation, roadspace co-ordination for build, and due process.