Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Farewell to the Tottenham Gyratory
As I see it the opening of Broad Lane to two-way traffic on Sunday marked the end of the Tottenham Gyratory. I don't claim to be a great authority on this, which I'm sure some of you are, but just a few observations....
1) I think that widening the pavements and allowing cyclists to use them is a pretty good idea. It certainly used to be too frightening a prospect to ride a bike round the Gyratory - the cars used to try to push you off the road - so opening the pavements gives cyclists a convenient route to the retail park and the marshes. There have been complaints though that the pavement isn't separated into lanes for cyclists and pedestrians, but surely that wouldn't be possible because the pavement narrows at various points. There may be a few teething problems as cyclists and pedestrians learn to rub along together, but I find that Tottenham residents are quite a tolerant bunch: cyclists on the pavements is a minor annoyance compared to many of the tribulations of living in this neck of the woods.
2) I imagine there will be teething problems also with the new road system. We were hoping on Sunday morning to become among the first motorists going east along Broad Lane, but when we tried to cross over from the West Green Road we were met with a stream of traffic cutting across in front of us - we chickened out and went up the High Road as normal.
A further point is that I expect it will become quite congested along the new Somewhat Less Broad Lane, although with extra lanes/options on the High Road and Monument Way perhaps the traffic will even itself out over time.
3) Driving round the Gyratory always used to feel a bit like being in the Monaco Grand Prix. There was a frisson of excitement to it all, but more seriously this created a fume-choked dehumanised autogeddon in the heart of Tottenham. (I suppose there could even have been a case for giving the Gyratory listed status as a classic sixties/seventies urban planning disaster.) I can't say that the new-look Broad Lane has the atmosphere of a tranquil country by-way, but it has to be an improvement on what was there before and I hope that it will play a part in the rejuvenation of Tottenham
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by 24g2s8fz5ir06 on
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Perhaps we should organise a day of slow driving - round and round and round.
I never thought crossing the street at a zebra crossing would make me so happy - but after years of waiting at pedestrian crossings while cars whizzed by, I am getting an odd surge of power now that the cars have to stop for me! Is this how Moses felt when he parted the Red Sea?
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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What's the busiest time of traffic heading west? Morning commuters? The eastbound traffic is still minimal so I'm not bothered about that, yet. Crossing and re-crossing the zebras would also help get the message across.
Some white lines have appeared on the pavement in Monument Way, so perhaps they will be painted on the rest in time. They are only really needed to alert pedestrians that they are sharing with cyclists, the new 'lanes' should make that clear.
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yes definitely morning commuters, I think... I just cycle past them all using the other lane which is mostly empty.., There seemed to be quite a lot of them this morning.
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Permalink Reply by john higson on
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Yes, I've been round on my bike a few times. As I think I said Tottenham folk are pretty tolerant about minor annoyances like cyclists on the pavements so I've not had any problems.
Thanks for the replies btw. I was expecting someone to say I was a naive fool (which I am) and that the redevelopment of the gyratory was part of some evil capitalist plot (which most things are of course). But actually it seems everybody is fairly happy with the new system. A redevelopment which virtually everybody likes - there's got to be a catch somewhere!
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it was so needed - and by motorists as much as locals and pedestrians... shocking that it was allowed to happen for so long. It's as if that part of Tottenham can breathe again.
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Yep you can't turn right coming up from the south, into Broad Lane - allegedy because this would create tailbacks of traffic stuck behind that RH lane. If coming from Harringay you need to get across into West Green Road before you reach the High Rd. This will inevitably move a lot of traffic into the road behind the market, Suffield Road, which is a narrow residential road. This is obviously not thought through. From St Anns Rd you need to go up Avenue Road and then get stuck trying to turn right into West Green Rd - there's no way through the maze of one-way side roads any further east. The planners did not have West Green Road in their brief, because it is not a TFL road, so missing this one chance to sort out the bottleneck it has become, when eg two buses try to pass each other by the parked dealers' cars in the narrow stretch east of the railway bridge.
Hopefully that no right turn will be revised, if the traffic on Broad Lane does decrease as it is meant to. A few cars going r e a l l y slowly along it at odd times, and maybe some buggies and dog-walkers crossing even slower, may dissuade chancers who think it will be quicker than using Monument Way. SatNavs also need re-setting which will take time.
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