Since first being developed by TfGM, the ‘CYCLOPS’ junction is now starting to be adopted by other authorities and evolved to meet the specific needs of new locations. Lancashire County Council, supported by Atkins, implemented their first CYCLOPS Junction in 2023 as part of the Preston Cycle Superhighway scheme. The scheme aims to improve cycling and walking facilities to Preston Railway Station, encouraging safe and sustainable multi-modal travel as well as improving active travel around Preston. The CYCLOPS Junction provided an innovative way of achieving these, but posed some considerations and challenges that the design team had to overcome to successfully deliver an efficient and inclusive junction. This presentation explores these challenges and the lessons learnt during the design process.
This paper was presented at the JCT traffic signals Symposium 2023 in Nottingham thanks to the support of AGD systems inrix messag maker displays PTV group simplify systems smart micro UK and TRL software so in early 2022 um we started this project with Lanier County Council um I think lanare County Council
Probably start of this before then but that was the start of our involvement um and essentially we were tasked with delivering the detailed design um of a cyclops Junction um in Preston the project was a really exciting opportunity um to work on something new and different and really
Try and make a difference to the uh local area um so this presentation really is just to share our experience designing uh something like this um and I know there there’s probably lots of designers out there that have probably faced some of the same challenges so I thought it’
Just be interesting to see how we dealt with them so what I’ll do I’ll do a quick fly through of active travel sure most of you know about that already um then I’ll do brief uh intro to a cyclops Junction um I’ll then introduce the junction
Itself in Preston and I’ll hand over to amep we’ll talk a little bit about some of the design decisions and what we learned um and then it’ll come back to me and I’ll just do a little bit about what’s next for this site so um active travel England um is a
Government agency uh created to make non-motorized travel preferred the preferred mode of Transport by providing quality infrastructure for non-motorized users and as you can see their objective is to try and Achieve 50% of trips in England’s towns and cities to be walked willed or cycled um so the initiative has lots of
Benefits um so you’ve got individual’s health benefits to communities and the environment and these benefits can be realized through reduced carbon emissions improved physical and mental health and as a result of these benefits there is actually a lot of funding at the moment as I’m sure again you’re
Aware uh for more schemes like this and and as much as I do really like this initiative it does present a lot of challenges as you’ve probably just seen in this presentation before it makes our job as designers quite difficult um but one of the um developments actually produced the
Tfgm is the cyclop junction so as you can see on the right hand side here is actually a snit bit from 2019 JCT paper I think um of the Prototype Junction and this align this uh this layout um obviously meets LTM 120 by separating pedestrian cyclists and vehicles and the most distinctive thing
About it is the orbital cycle track that runs around the edge um and typically it involves a um a cycle stage cycle pedestrian stage where all traffic has stopped um so with that in mind um I’ll go on and talk about the site itself so um it’s
Located in Preston um to the Southwest it’s about 700 Metter from the city center and the train station and it’s on a junction with bradgate and fishergate Hill um The Junction was chosen um because it’s on two very popular cycl cycle routes um we’ve got the Preston to
Penworth and Cycle Way which which uh links residence into the center of Preston um and we’ve also got the guild wheel which is ncn Route 622 which is a 21 Mile um almost traffic free Walkin a cycle rout um as shown in the image there so the previous layout here did
Not cater well for high volumes of pedestrians or cyclist um which is why it was identified as uh Prime candidate to be upgraded I’ll now hand over to amep who will talk through some of the designs thanks Michael um yes so as Michael mentioned the previous layout of the junction
Wasn’t um suited to cater for high volumes of NMU what I’m showing you here um is an illustration of the previous layout of the junction which you can immediately tell was um catered heavily towards motorized traffic with things like triangle islands and separately signaled movements um for motorized
Traffic um the lines that have been drawn on here indicate um roots to and from the guild wheel the green one indicating the direct route um and we’ve also got an orange one indicating the roote from the northern arm or Strand Road and the magenta line indicating the
Route from the Eastern arm or fishergate Hill so there were a number of issues um identified here that made things difficult for NMU um so one thing the prestent penam cycle way um it’s a segregated cycle track um to the west of the junction um and before um the scheme
Went in place it terminated abruptly forcing cyclists onto a mandatory cyc Lane on the carriageway and before they could continue their route perhaps onto the guild wheel um so yeah the green wheel uh The Guild wheel indicated by the green line there so um for Cy that’s getting to and
From that route they would have to um Traverse um any arm they traversed would require them to do so in multiple stages and when they did so they had to wait on Refuge Islands not suitably sized to C for both um pedestrians um and cyclists so with those issues in mind a design
Was to develop to improve things um for nmes so this here is an illustration of the design at the junction um and as you can see it’s got some um resemblance to the Prototype that Michael was showing you earlier with some key differences um some of those differences
Being um the use of a two-way cycle Crossing across the northern arm and on the western arm and that’s to facilitate movements to and from the guild wheel um we’ve now got a seamless transition between the press and depend withm cycle track and the guild wheel and which has
Access via the new orbital cycle track and regardless of which arm the en use a Crossing they only need to do so in a single stage now and um The Crossings themselves are physically separated which um makes it more safer for pedestrians and cyclists so um in this next bit I’m just
Going to discuss um one of the um interesting challenges we faced when designing and developing a layout for the cycle signals um at the cycle Crossing so this um image on the left here illustrates um the equipment layout for the cycle Crossing across the northern arm or Strand Road for
Eastbound cyclists um and I’m just going to show you a video now um of a cyclist approaching this Crossing from the Preston to penam cycle way so n give way to the cyclist goes straight through and then stops at a red signal so the position of the equipment
As in most situation was dictated by the position of the stopline which we required to be a minimum of 1 meter from the edge of the carriageway and this was just to provide a safe distance between the edge of the front wheel of the waiting cyclist and moving traffic on the
Carriageway um from here the cycle signaled the cycle signals were positioned half a meter in front of the Cycle Stop line and that was just to maximize visibility um from The Waiting position we’ve also chosen to provide a cycle signal on both sides again to maximize visibility from multiple
Approaches to The Crossing in this um particular example you can approach from both the guild wheel and the Preston dep penwortham cycle track um a push button demand unit was included in od sign and the position was determined using the typical dimensions of a cargo bike as Illustrated in ltn
1220 so using these Dimensions it was expected there to be a distance of approximately 1.5 m to the front of the wheel to the position of the bicycle seat um and as well as a push button um an above ground detector was used as a means of inserting um a demand for um
The cycle Crossing so when the detector register the presence of a cyclist it would insert a demand for the crossing and illuminate the weight lamp I’m just going to show you a video of that um uh where a cyclist is approaching the cycle Crossing um on Broad
So the detector picks them up they don’t push the button demand’s inserted and the lamp illuminates automatically um so following completion of the design and testing the operation on site we made a note of the lessons we learned um a fixed integreen period was used um for the cyc um for the cycle
Crossings um so when that was measured we um estimated to be about 5 Seconds and which is the minimum as required by ltn 120 um so we opted not to use um an extendable intergreen um but wouldn’t um totally exclude it if we felt um it was warranted on on other schemes
Um and within OD sign we included conditioning to um extend the green period um which was going to be extended by above ground detection um the works during fat testing and um during Force conditions on site but failed to work in practice due to the suitability of the above
Ground detector to um detect moving objects such as an approach approaching cyclist uh we want to treat cyclists more like cars rather than pedestrians but it relies on having the right signals equipment so providing a push button treats the cyclist more like pedestrians but with reliable detection the need for push
Buttons um for cyclists can be removed so long as there is a means of providing a visual indication to cyclist that the crossing has been demanded and this would in turn reduce um equipment quantities for items such as poles push buttons and Associated underground equipment um I’m just going to hand over
Back to Michael now who will run through our next steps thank you um so following the commissioning um of the earlier on this summer um um further discussions have taken place with lire um signals team and the active travel team and they wanted to discuss options for actually really driving the
Priority for uh non-motorized users cyclists and pedestrians so we revised we’ve come up with a revised stage in order uh which you can see on the screen which we work we’re working on the moment um we it’s not this is a sort of work in progress at the moment but the idea is
Is that cyclists or possessions will always get the next stage so rather than having to wait half the cycle uh or possibly traversing The Junction During the integre period we give them that priority and say you can go next we’ve built in some conditioning so
We can manage that on site and we plan to fully validate that um we’ll use some U we’ve got mover as well so we could look at things like saturation to manage when those come in um so again to be tested and maybe this is a presentation for next year who
Knows um possibly one for the movie user group so just to summarize then um I think this scheme has been successful so far it’s delivered improved facilities for non-motorized users and cyclists it’s vastly simplified their route across the junction um and it’s providing SE segregated facilities for
Them I think the scheme has obviously highlighted improvements um that could be made and I think this Junction would really benefit from some slightly smarter detection uh much like some of the stuff we’ve seen here over the last two days um and finally I think something we that was mentioned
Yesterday about modeling um and actually on a active travel scheme we really need to be thinking about modeling the benefits for cyclists and pedestrians and maybe move the importance of optimization for traffic uh down the list a little bit um and yes that’s it that’s that’s
Okay well thanks very much indeed um to [Applause] M do we have any questions there one Ashley un from wsp me again um on your layout for The Pedestrian Crossings over the circulating cycle track so you had zebra Crossings there um I presume that’s to meet the dmrb requirement of all Crossings through a junction have to be mustn’t be
A mixture of controlled and uncontrolled but LTM 120 say say you shouldn’t use zebra Crossings at a junction with signalized Crossings so what made what was the key factor in choosing to follow dmrb and not follow LTM 1220 um so um we developed the design sort of together with um lanen and we
Did ask that particular question um because there are cyclops Junctions out there at the moment which use sort of uncontrolled Crossings so buff tack up having that the zebra markings um and when we first looked at the scheme it was our first Cyclops and we thought that’s probably the way it should be
Um but um with um engagement with tfgm they felt that a zebra an informal zebra style Crossing was a bit better um just so that um cyclists would still give way to pedestrians um but the interactions between them are a bit more intuitive so whilst it doesn’t quite follow ltn 120’s
Guidance um it’s probably a more intuitive design for those enemies um so but it’s it’s still very much Up For Debate and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are future cycle OB Junctions which use the uncontrolled um option instead okay thank you was there one at the Top Line
Uh thanks Pete Dyson from yesterday’s transport for human talk um one two questions actually one what what’s your view of the cycling uh Cyclops roundabouts uh one was Cambridge and has had some feedback this year and then second um how might you evaluate this uh this new cyclop Junction to to see
People’s responses from motorists and from other other users um I can answer the second one I’m not that familiar with the Cyclops roundabout um but then a few you’ve seen that one um no so is that an uncontrolled round about uh yeah there aren’t signals on it I don’t think that
So is your question like how do they compare or yeah I suppose so I thought you might have seen it or type of Junction I’ve not looked at in detail but um it’s it’s interesting actually because there’s another scheme where it’s it’s sort of in its early stages and there assessing whether or
Not to um so they’re looking at NM improvements at this site it’s currently roundabout and they’re deciding whether or not to provide a sort of hold the left turn facility with the roundabout and an orbital cycle track which goes around it or convert it into what would
Be a much more you know heavily involved civils work converting it into an intersection like that so your typical Cyclops um in my opinion um a cyclops is probably better for enemies even though it would require more work um it’s a lot less for them to Traverse The Junction
So personally I prefer the signalized crossroads um for cyclists and rather than the roundabout and I think there was one other thing I think and so they are planning to I think laner are plan to put e City censors up is that right yeah um which will monitor um the usage uh
Ideally obviously we would have had those before and after data but we can uh we can monitor the change over the future hello uh Cambridge Richard link uh just say the Cyclops um you said about in K we call it a Dutch St roundabout so it is a ring the cyclist
Have priority but basically they got priorities over um combined sort of zebra Crossings all the way around and that’s under review at the moment um we have got Cyclops we copied anchester as well and know we got a very successful site um we used zebras um across across
The um walkways as well um I also know you’ve used um blue ahead only aspects um I used no right turn aspects on mine cuz I didn’t want cyclist to be able to turn through the pedestrial crossings um one um you sort of discuss why you went for the blue and
Because some people don’t um and also does it have a traffic regulation order as well for that there was quite a lot of discussion actually about the lowlevel cycle um uh box signs essentially um and I can’t actually I think we went with a head
Only all all round um but we did yeah but we did look at actually for certain movements Banning um so sort of saying there no left turn or no sorry no right turn obviously for the conflict but allowing the left turn um but for Simplicity and to avoid confusion for
Cyclists um we went with the ahead uh all around yeah because um um whilst you know you want to ban a particular movement to avoid that conflict with the adjacent pedestrians the um um cycle facilities the tracks leading off the junction were a lot better and whilst um
It would be okay for at some points um cyclist just to sort of get to the carage Midway through the crossing it would be better for them to use the formalized track which gets them onto the carriageway instead so that’s why we just wanted them to stick to those routes
Instead thank you okay I think well thank you very much indeed it was a very interesting presentation and we’ll move on to the next presentation