Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kari Koonin on December 2, 2011 at 17:15

The junction with Green Lanes is also no better

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Geoffrey Kemball-Cook on December 2, 2011 at 22:09

Dear Richard

In the same way that several cycles of snagging and polishing are needed for many types of project like a book or a film, a major revamp of road junctions also needs to provide an opportunity to fine-tune the provisions. It is one thing, even for experienced town planners let alone interested residents, to ponder a diagram of a proposed layout of road junctions and entirely another to predict how they will be used in reality, when traffic volumes are high and drivers are pushing the limits of good behaviour during periods of peak congestion.

What therefore should follow fairly promptly once the concrete is all in place, as an integral part of the project, is an assessment of how well it is working, performed by human beings observing the junctions in action. Recommendations for final tweaks can then be made. Personally I would love these assessments to be made in direct consultation, eyeball to eyeball by the roadside, with local residents who can already see every day how these new layouts are working (or are not). My nightmare would be for tens of millions to be spent getting everything about 70% right, when for a few tens of thousands of pounds it could be 99% right. By "right" I mean as good as we are likely to get with this huge artery running through our area.

Good examples of fine tuning would be the placement and timing of traffic lights, and the painting of "yellow box" no-go areas. A "beautiful" example of poor yellow box layout which I suffer every time I walk to the Arnos swimming pool is the new Telford Road-Bowes Road junction opposite Wilmer Way. Here, traffic heading East from Telford Road onto Bowes Road is able to strand itself 5 yards beyond its STOP line before it reaches the yellow box. Container lorry traffic is so dense that, at least one cycle in two, pedestrians are unable to cross the junction because there is a 40-ton truck right across the whole pedestrian crossing. Mad. But incredibly easy to point out to a road engineer were one to appear.

Does anyone else have any "favourite" examples where relatively small-scale intervention is needed, before TfL turn their back on the project and we wait 20 more years for improvements? Also, does anyone have knowledge of how one actually can influence at this stage?

While I'm on the general subject, does anyone know why sometimes traffic calming is done with continuous "sleeping policemen" that run the full width of the road and which WORK, and sometimes by the far less effective "three humps" with gaps between? I am sure everyone will have seen delivery vans and private cars driving at high speed through the latter, almost as if it were a sign of their skill to keep their speed right up, like some kind of rallying exercise. Again, Mad? Or am I missing something?

Geoff

• ▶ Reply