As soon as @Anotherjohn mentioned this solution to me it was a lightbulb moment for me!
It’s the perfect solution but no one seems to want to listen to us!
We are both on D Rd day in & day out so see everything & both of us are nosy too, hope you don’t mind me saying that boss but it’s true
I’ve checked with Laurel’s are they are more than happy with this & so are all other traders I am aware of.
Having a parking bay/bays on the wide pavement outside Paddy Power & leaving the other side of the Road/Pavement free to let the traffic flow seems to be the best solution
I remember this begin debated at length on other local forums. It’s such a sensible idea I thought it had gone through to the plans after the consultation. Yes there would be a loss of some social space outside the Sylvan Post, but there’s little difference between sitting beside parked cars and traffic queuing for the lights.
So they are putting a bay outside Laurels? Will we all have to shimmy along sideways? I assume it must leave enough room for wheelchair users and buggies, but only the bare minimum, and assuming there is NOTHING else on that stretch of pavement.
As far as I know that’s still the plan to have the bay outside Laurel’s.
The pavement space outside the shop where the display is belongs to the shop & not LC so I don’t think there will be a lot of pavement space there at all!
I’ve just asked what’s going on & been told the work being done is the start of the D Rd improvements.
Been told the work on the pavement outside the pools is the electrics being upgraded.
The crane in the background is apparently for repairing the lead on the roof at the pools that was hanging off - there was another thread about this a while back.
I find it really hard to understand why that whole narrow section of Dartmouth Road is not double yellows. I was there yesterday and people just seem to randomly park on the single yellow section to pop into the shops, causing unnecessary traffic jams. I am sure they wouldn’t do this if it was double yellows and traffic cameras. There are plenty of 30 minute parking bays further along where the road is wider, there’s no need to park on that narrow section.
I said a similar thing at the consultation stage 18 months ago -
‘… and my solution (breaking a few eggs!) would be to insert camera-enforced double red lines (as it is affects the movement of buses and traffic on Tfl’s junction on the Sth Circ) and very strong bollards all the way through the bottle-neck right out to the kerb line to protect pedestrians. This would unfortunately prevent loading and unloading for the traders along that part of the road so, to compensate for this, there would have to be a re-jigging of the wider pedestrian areas extending from the bottom of Derby Hill to the betting office to provide some strictly enforced loading bays.’
Unfortunately, the Highways Department have chosen not to do anything about the inconvenience suffered by hundreds of motorists and bus passengers who are suffering unnecessary delays travelling through this part of Forest Hill every day.
As someone who used to live in that narrow section (above the convenience store that used to be Doopo Doopo), this really does need sorting. There is NO reason for anyone to be parking there, day or night, and the ‘if you can’t park directly outside my shop I’ll go bust’ attitude of a number of people on that parade hasn’t helped.
Pauline, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to get involved. This is a matter for Lewisham Council and their parking management people - and possibly even the police where obstructions on the pavement and to the free movement of public transport are concerned.
Problem is @Anotherjohn the people you mentioned are just not around. I watched one of the scooter parking guys ignore the cars parked on Tue pavements and on double yellow and look at cars in dedicated parking bays, as they are paid to. The only enforce parking bays. The police have bigger issues to deal with and the council. Well, cuts all round.
Feels like they’ve been playing about with the timings of the traffic light at the end of Dartmouth road onto the junction to the South Circular. I was watching it this morning, after marvelling at the massive queue along Dartmouth Road, and it seemed like the phase was only about long enough for 2, maybe 3 cars to get out?
Maybe its just a sneaky way to encourage people to start using alternative routes and lessen the impact for when the works start proper?
I had to go down there at 8:15 am yesterday, luckily I was travelling to Kirkdale. The bus stop, plus inconsiderate parking has always made that a very slow road but it did seem much longer yesterday.
