Comment by Matthew Kitching on September 15, 2013 at 9:46

In 2010 Haringey stated a project called ‘DIY Streets’, a two year initiative to deliver an affordable, community-led neighbourhood improvement scheme.  It focused on the area to the southeast of Turnpike Lane underground station, including Langham, Waldeck, Stanmore, Carlingford, Mannock, and Downhills Park Roads.  The project aimed to improve many aspects of the neighbourhood including reducing traffic speeds and through traffic, enhancing the environment and improving residents' sense of community within their area.  Haringey worked in partnership with ‘Sustrans’ a charity whose stated aim is to “work with communities, policy-makers and partner organisations so that people can choose healthier, cleaner and cheaper journeys and enjoy better, safer spaces to live in”.  Their work remodelling the road junction at Langham Parade (behind Turnpike Lane bus station) is, in my view, a very clever piece of urban design.  If you go down to take a look you will see they have created a mini-plaza by subtly adjusting pavement widths and kerb-lines, slightly off-setting and raising the road junction to the same level as the pavement and extending this into the adjoining roads.  They have used the same (or similar colour) block-paving on both road and pavement to create a ‘semi-pedestrian’ feel.  This has the effect of blurring the separation of pedestrian and car by removing the visual clues that drivers use to maintain speed, causing drivers to slow down and drive more carefully.  The careful siting of trees and planters can also be included in the scheme.  This could work, for example, at the junction of Warwick, York and Shrewsbury, serving as a marker that drivers are entering a residential area and are no longer on an A or B road.  It would also have the advantage of improving the street scene and creating a better local space outside the supermarket.  At Langham Parade the mini-plaza was even lucky enough to be graced by a mural by the artist Frank Shepard Fairey!  We’re treating the symptom rather than the cause but as we apparently can’t reverse decisions made by Haringey and TfL then Alan’s suggestion that we look at options including the ‘status quo with additional features’ might be the best way forward.  Instead of pushing the problem around let’s consider implementing constructive measures that deter drivers from using the route as a rat-run while also improving safety and our local environment.  Admittedly someone’s got to find the money but I can’t see a small scheme such as this costing any more in real terms than even minor works to a major highway such as the A406.

You can find a link to Richard McKeever’s previous post that originally drew my attention to the DIY Streets project (and the mural) here:

http://www.bowesandbounds.org/forum/topics/is-turnpike-lane-becomin...

And below Is a Street-View image of the location (god bless Google for saving me and my camera a journey this morning!):

Comment by Richard McKeever on September 15, 2013 at 11:44

Joshua

I agree that discussions about a Controlled Parking Zone are indeed a wholly different debate - and one that we have had on this site a few times in the past,

However in my view all of the issues about traffic have at their root the problem of how densely populated our area is - many homes in multiple occupation -some without planning approval, proposals for significant further housing along the North Circular Road and public services such as Schools and GPs already stretched to full capacity.

Whilst it's not possible to resolve all these issues together a community planning process such as the Turnpike Lane DIY Streets scheme referenced by Matthew is one way to address some of the concerns. Personally I'd take it further and not limit discussions to single issues like road layout, or housing, or school provision ... I'd like to see a universal local planning process including all of these issues, and others brought together in a community plan.

The people who live and work in the neighbourhood are the experts in their own community and it's infrastructure.

Comment by Alan Sitkin on September 15, 2013 at 11:52

Friends re: DIY streets, Achilleas and I went to Haringey a little while back to check them out and you're right, they look good. To some extent, that is a "feature", something we purposefully left out of the leaflet which is supposed to focus on the possibility or not of new "schemes". The reason was to be clearer and not mix things up: putting "features" on one street doesn't necessarily have a direct effect on another; whereas a "scheme" does.

But I accept it's a bit arbitrary because we need to discuss both. Re: format for discussion, because we expect a lot of people and since this is such a tough nut to crack (meaning that emotions may run high), our organisation is that after brief intros setting the context without much if any Q&A at first, we'd like everyone to break up into subgroups with around 10 people sitting next to them and discuss proposals and other thoughts for about 15-20 minutes before reconvening everyone and having each subgroup present its reactions, choices, thoughts, etc.

It's a much more democratic way of ensuring that everyone has an input and time to think and speak - something that can be anarchic otherwise in a large crowd.

Any Q&A would then be between subgroups as each presents its thinking. You see, it doesn't make much sense to have much Q&A with the Council because we don't have a specific agenda, i.e we just there to facilitate whatever it is that the public wants - within the very real constraints of our limited budget and, even worse, TFL and Haringey's refusal to change their schemes (two of the main root causes for this whole thing).  It seems to me that this subgroup format - something I use in my day job teaching - is the right approach

See you tomorrow

Comment by Kevin on September 15, 2013 at 19:18

TomJH  the confusion is all mine not yours, must remember less haste more speed.  Looking back 18 months I had already noted the failure to allow right hand east bound turns and the impact it would have. Bounds Green & the A406 traffic   I suspect the introduction of one way traffic and the closure of some of the local roads like Shrewsbury have forced even more local traffic onto Warwick road.

What I meant to write in my post was;

It would be interesting to understand if the (re)introduction of a right hand turn at the junction of Bounds Green road and the A406, might encourage drivers not to turn into Warwick road to access the west eastbound North Circular.  At present the only way residents or rat runners from Gorden Road down right down to Cline Road can get west eastbound on the A406 is via Warwick road. 

Improving the east bound right hand slip lane off the A406 onto Bounds Green road might also help reduce the level of south bound Warwick road traffic that has built up now that Brownlow road is inaccessible to eastbound A406 traffic.  The design of the existing slip lane is so bad that it frequently reduces the A406 to one lane as the traffic backs up, cars continue on the NCR using Warwick to to access the local area. These change might at least offer some reduction in traffic volumes.

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