A cyclist who was seriously injured when she was hit by a car has warned that £19million plans to redesign a notorious junction will fail to improve safety.
Claudia Schergna, 25, said the proposal from Hackney council to change the layout of Pembury Circus was a “missed opportunity”.
The Labour-run council proposes to ban cars from the eastern section of Amhurst Road between 7am and 7pm.
This would enable it to convert the section between Mare Street and Pembury Circus – adjacent to Hackney Central Overground station - into a “green route” with “pocket parks”, greenery and seating.
Hackney Cycling Campaign has also opposed the plans, which is believed to be funded via Government “levelling up” cash rather than Transport for London.
The key concern is the failure to introduce protected, or segregated, cycle lanes at a heavily trafficked Pembury Circus junction used by many cyclists riding between Hackney Central, Hackney Downs and Dalston Junction.
Ms Schergna, an MA journalism student who was cycling home to Stoke Newington late at night last December after finishing work in a bar, was hit from behind as she rode across the junction.
She bashed her head on the ground and was left lying unconscious in the middle of the junction. The car driver failed to stop.
A fellow cyclist came to her aid and took her to Homerton hospital in an Uber after an ambulance failed to arrive. She was unconscious for five hours and needed five stitches to close a head wound.
Ms Schergna, who has written to Hackney mayor Caroline Woodley to raise concerns, told the Standard: “I completely lost consciousness. I had no memory of what happened – I just woke up in hospital.
“The other cyclist who stopped to help thought I was dead because of the amount of blood on the ground.
“They’re going to close a major junction in Hackney, which thousands of people use on a daily basis, just to paint a cycle lane that is not going to protect cyclists at all. I just think it’s a massive wasted opportunity. It’s a massive waste of money.”
She added: “Once the work is done, they’re not going to change the road layout again for another 40 years. I think they could make much more effort to protect cyclists.”
Police closed the case after being unable to read the car’s numberplate, due to the poor quality of the CCTV images of the collision.
Ms Schergna told the Hackney mayor: “As a result of the accident, I missed several months of my MA degree, had to quit my job, and suffered from constant migraines and severe difficulty concentrating.
“While I’m not an engineer, as someone who uses that junction regularly—although I’m now too afraid to cycle through it—and as someone who was mere inches from losing my life there, I believe the current designs are not good enough.
“They represent a missed opportunity to keep citizens safe and will not allow you to meet your commitment to road safety or Vision Zero.”
The Hackney Cycling Campaign has suggested alternative designs that include protected lanes. But the council says this would leave insufficient space for pedestrians. The council is expected to decide on Friday whether to proceed with the scheme.
If approved, work is expected to start in November, with an expected completion date of March 2026.
Hackney Cycling Campaign says it has “deep concerns” over the “sub par” redesign of Pembury Circus, which it says raises “serious questions about Hackney Council's commitment to safety and the principles of Vision Zero”.
A Hackney Cycling Campaign spokesperson said: "The new design proposed by Hackney council does nothing to protect cyclists making the same movement as [Claudia].
“The council has an alternative design available to them that would ensure cyclist safety on every movement on the junction and guarantee that such an incident could not happen again.
“In light of this shocking incident, we urge Hackney council to rethink their plans for Pembury Circus".
Three people were killed cycling in Hackney last year – Gao Gao, Harry Webb and a male rider whose name has never been made public by the police.
In a statement to the Standard, Ms Woodley said: “I appreciate Claudia getting in touch to describe her horrendous experience, when a driver hit her at the Pembury Circus junction and drove away.
“The safety of everyone who uses Pembury Circus junction is of the utmost importance and our proposals are aimed at making it safer for pedestrians, cyclists and all road users, as part of a wider project in Hackney Central to reduce traffic and create a new linear park along Amhurst Road.
“The plans we are currently developing for the Pembury Circus junction would result in a complete redesign of the junction, with ‘banned turns’ to prevent cyclists and vehicles from clashing, and new crossings installed to also decrease the risk of vehicle collisions with pedestrians.
“We are also proposing advanced stop lines for cyclists to be able to wait ahead of other traffic, as well as an early green light for cyclists on the Dalston Lane (south) and Pembury Road arms of the junction.
“While the proposals put forward by Hackney Cycling Campaign do have benefits for cyclists, they would mean pedestrians would continue to need to use multiple crossings across roads and cycle lanes. In developing our plans, the council has sought to strike a balance, considering the benefits for everyone using the junction.”
The council’s proposals, from the transport design practice Urban Movement, are intended to address traffic congestion and poor air quality at Hackney Central.
Pembury Circus has the highest recorded levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution in Hackney, and Amhurst Road has among the highest levels.
Since 2017 there have been 229 road traffic collisions between Mare Street and Pembury Circus, including 25 serious incidents and two fatalities.
Christopher Martin of Urban Movement, said: "Our priority was a scheme that delivers the most for the most people.
“In terms of cycling, from a network perspective it is the north-south movements through Hackney Central which are key and need upgrading.
“This project will deliver that through a segregated and improved connection between London Fields and Narrow Way as well as safer quiet routes north of London Fields to Amhurst Road and onto Hackney Downs.
“We looked at cycling and providing segregation through the street very hard. The southern end is too narrow for segregation, but through the street, segregation would remove all carriageway green infrastructure, reduce pedestrian priority, and not enable bus facilities to be upgraded for the interchange.
“Along the street, there's a bus gate as part of the scheme though, operational 0700-1900 and this means there’s no through traffic so cycling is improved. Also, both Pembury Circus and the junction at Hackney Central will be improved hugely in terms of cyclist and pedestrian priority and safety.
“All this in balance meant we went with the scheme that delivered the maximum return on investment for Hackney Central, and the people in the area."
* An earlier version of this article wrongly stated that Active Travel England was involved in the oversight and funding of the scheme. Apologies for the error.
