And this is caused by? Excessive volume of vehicles in narrow 100% residential streets. If the volume was reduced, there would be no congestion, and more importantly there would be a very different environment and quality of life. If you have traffic flowing anywhere is the area, Waze will direct more traffic there and congestion will build up. Some streets are having measures to reduce volume of traffic or prevent thru traffic, our street should have similar consideration. But the Council refuses even doing a traffic survey.
I completely agree, there comes a point where the volume of traffic just overwhelms the roads. That happens every evening on Devenshire Road when the traffic backs up 100s of meters.
On Ewelme the Road often gets to the point where there’s too many cars to filter through the parked cars and there’s a chaos for 5 minutes while cars reverse etc. I have witnessed a fist fight where drivers have got so angry.
I have counted traffic and about 220-230 vehicles pass through Ewelme an hour at peak times, so let’s say 500 over morning and 500 evening rush hours. Thats car after car 4 hours a day. Ewelme / Woodcombe is only one of the routes that lead to and from end of Devonshire Road, so must double or triple that there.
These roads are just too convenient to cut-through, ironically and the only thing that act as a deterrent is other cars when they block the roads. Apart from a few ineffective speed bumps there arent any measures to disrupt the traffic flow, no chicanes, one-way streets, no entries etc. Woodcoombe even has pavement parking down both sides, so cars can pass more freely.
Making the streets to handle the volume of traffic is exactly the opposite of what’s needed, we need measures to close the rat-runs or add 2/3 minutes to any journey through which might disincentivise their use.
Actually what needed is that a full consultation and investigation into all the streets around Forest Hill to make a hositic cohesive plan to manage traffic through Forest Hill and Honor Oak.
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And there’s the catch 22. Everyone wants less traffic on their residential street, nobody else wants it displaced to theirs. Close a few roads and encourage people to walk to cycle and people get rapidly militant about their right to drive.
I know there was a study a few years ago - I think @Michael can comment. Also maybe ping @LeoGibbons re kicking off another consultation (Leo does this fit in FH ward - if not who could we talk to). People will always have diametrically opposed opinions about these sorts of things.
But not militant enough to ignore existing measures or lobby to get them removed.
What I proposed for discussion was effectively a low traffic neighbourhood before the term was so wide-spread. Perhaps with the ‘popularity’ of LTNs it is worth reviving the idea, at least to see if it has any merit.
A version is available at https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4434012,-0.056572,15.25z/data=!4m2!6m1!1s1NB2tBCJj6FKXDJ2cO7emBvavpkE
Cameras could be used to prevent southbound traffic on Honor Oak Road and Devonshire Road, and northbound on Wood Vale (Honor Oak is a bus route so buses would be exempt). They could even be used to prevent people who don’t live in SE23 from using certain roads rather than shutting them completely (I’m thinking particularly of Langton Rise which is a handy exit for residents in the Horniman Heights but not a suitable rat-run).
By making three roads partially one way, it shares the traffic burden between the different roads stretching from Barry Road to Brockley Rise, as these north-south roads are used to avoid east-west traffic that is forced through three pinch points at Sydenham, Forest Hill and Honor Oak railway stations.
The map also appears to have options for a tunnel to bypass Forest Hill Town Centre, a second road through Catford, and a tunnel under Wandsworth. The aim is to remove three major pinch points on the South Circular.
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Yes this covers FH ward. LBL has a Healthy Neighbourhoods programme - these programmes are funded by TFL primarily, through Local Implementation Plan/LIP bids, which are currently paused due to TFL’s financial position. The area in discussion here is the Honor Oak ‘Healthy Neighbourhood cell’ https://lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/roads-and-transport/our-traffic-reduction-programme-healthy-neighbourhoods.
Assessments on prioritisation of Healthy Neighbourhoods focus on assessing personal injury and collisions, air quality, levels of obesity and deprivation, and appetite in the community. @SophieDavis has been working hard to organise supporters of a Healthy Neighbourhood in Honor Oak and help ensure their voices are heard. However, local support for these schemes is just one of the factors assessed. And on that note, can the admins please act and stop @DevonishForester from misrepresenting my words.
Sophie can speak to this issue better than I can - as she can for most issues to be honest!
Wouldn’t it be better to organise public consultations to enable all views to be heard, rather than organising just the supporters?
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I just checked and there doesnt appear to be an ‘Honor Oak’ cell on the map, do you mean the Forest Hill cell?
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Oops my bad, that yellow on yellow is very hard to read!
There will be a public consultation on any Healthy Neighbourhood.
But if you’re a local councillor who thinks part of ward would benefit from Healthy Neighbourhood schemes, then its your imperative to campaign for it. In my opinion.
Isn’t it a conflict of interests for you to organise the consultation whilst also organising activists from one side to “ensure their voices are heard”
How will residents be able to trust the consultation?
Oh no, those pesky activists again, campaigning for safer streets and healthy neighbourhoods. Why don’t we invite some people who want to campaign for speeding down residential streets, breathing more pollution and generally in favour of making neighbourhoods more unhealthy. Feel free to join the consultation. Everyone welcome.
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I think I’ve addressed that reductionist rhetoric and those straw man arguments before, the last few times you used them. I’m not going to repeat myself by responding to them.
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You may not want to do that, the result may go against what you feel is right.
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This post was flagged and is temporarily hidden.
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The traffic throughput limit has been reached this afternoon, traffic was all the back all the way from the south circular, the whole length of woodcoombe cresecent to Ewelme Road. And all the way along Devonshire Road to the bottom Ewelme Road, according to google that’s 600m of standing traffic.
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Very few narrow residential roads (in a supposed conservation area) have an unregulated junction with a major commercial / commuting route.
I would hope that the moderators would address your attack on me rather than on something I have written. Please let me know where the misrepresentation is.
Total chaos out there tonight, backed up to the top of Ewelme that’s about 1km of standing traffic.
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