"For good neighbours, live in a quiet, car-free street"

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Permalink Reply by AnnieH on September 19, 2008 at 15:13

Hugh, this is really interesting...
As someone who's sitting at home looking out of the window onto Endymion Road at the busy Friday afternoon traffic, listening to the revs of motor scooters and the impatient drivers beeping at the car in front because a driver (one-up) happens not to be moving as quickly as the driver behind wants (heaven for bid anyone doesn't "drive at the lights" while green is showing. Anyone would think you have to wait hours rather than minutes to get onto Green Lanes and often just to sit in more traffic anyway - worth the beeping, distress caused to all within earshot and aggressive behaviour? I think not.) I couldn't agree more about facilitating a workable solution to traffic reduction.

I'm considering having double glazing fitted at the moment which I hope will improve our quality of life slightly, but it's more than that, it's exactly what you (and The Guardian article) talk about - better safety and wellbeing for "everyone" using these residential streets and one of the first steps is definitely to reduce the amount of cars polluting and jamming up our streets (especially when you see most cars only have 1 person travelling in it - what happened to us being a city of car sharers, bike and public transport users??!).

I've considered positive action in putting notices on all the lamp-posts down Endymion Road asking drivers (scooters, vans, cars alike) to be considerate when using their horns while they are driving through a residential street, but the reason I've not done this is;

1) I don't think people would read the sign (they tend not to read the traffic light signals and a lot quite blatantly cruise through on red, so I have little confidence they would read a an additional street sign!) and give anymore consideration to the residents than they do at the moment
and
2) I don't fancy getting fined for posting flyers by the council!

I'm interested to see the impact the car free day on WG High Road has on the ladder, while I'm sure Endymion Road will just be as busy as ever! :-(

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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on September 19, 2008 at 20:11

I remember thinking "oh good grief" at the daily mail's rant a few months ago at an American airline's decision to continue a flight to London with only 5 passengers on board... It's the thousands of cars with one person in them that screw things up.

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Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on September 20, 2008 at 9:51

Interesting, I've always wondered why Vale Road is so friendly, must be the lack of cars

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on September 20, 2008 at 9:56

BTW, I've found the original research source. The full research report is available on request as a PDF. If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll be delighted to pass on a copy.

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Permalink Reply by RuthE on September 20, 2008 at 14:14

I've often thought that cars are at the heart of the break down of community life, not the so called 'single mum/parent' who they seem to blame for everything thats bad about modern family life. Before everyone had a car, most kids played in the street, mixing with all kids of different ages (not just the ones in their class year at school) kids play with each other regardless of which one lives in the posh house, the shabby house, or the HMO. Parents were forced to mix with each other whether they liked it or not because their kid could could be playing in someone elses house. so kids got to know other kids parents in the street, who hopefully would look out for them too and not be frightened of them when the kids get older and hang around in groups. (hoodies) Kids got atleast 2 hours a day outdoor excercise even in the freezing cold. It must have been pretty noisy but I'd much rather that then the noise from those polluting cars.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on September 22, 2008 at 16:00

Here's a link to the full study.

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