Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
As the Wealthy Clog our Streets with Cars
Interesting article from local resident Catherine Shoard from the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/07/cars-breathe-...
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic, wightman road, wightman road closure
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Interesting, but spoiled by exaggeration and class prejudice.
It's not only the wealthy who run cars: few of us buy new cars. I'm by no means wealthy and I have a car which I bought for £4,000 ten years ago. Annual running costs are about £ 1,000 so those don't add up to the nearly £19K she claims. I don't use it to commute and it's parked in the street in front of my flat. Since we have residents' parking zones which prevent out-of -zone commuters from parking near stations there can't be many who do the short run from their home to the station.
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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Well quite...it's not exactly bumper to bumper with Maseratis on my road... my 14 year old VW Polo 1.2l is far more typical...as I look out my window right now I can see nothing worth more than a couple of grand... all run by ordinary working people
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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Porsche Cayenne in our street darling, worth up to £80,000 apparently ... so there! Seeking refuge from Highgate ...
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Permalink Reply by Ben Adam Sohawon on
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My post in the bigger thread:
Reducing other community members with cars to simply the rich, or those from "posher" areas (and I have to say: this is only a development of the last five years or so, because I haven't known this area to be any kind of posh until recently), or those with the money to buy a new car, with a few grudging caveats of "with some justification", is not exactly a way to encourage dialogue with said community.
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, my parents are an example: where possible, they use public transport, but there are a lot of occasions, because of their age, when they need to use the car. This car is NOT brand-new - it's a 7 year-old Prius. My family are working class, and we moved here when Endymion Road was gradually grinding to a halt from being the red-light district of north London, with drunken greyhound racing punters from Harringay Stadium ducking with hookers into Finsbury Park. Most of the houses on the street were in an absolute state, accommodating low-rate rent tenants, and needing extensive repairs. My parents were able to afford our house because of this state, something that wouldn't have been possible even 20 years ago.
I and my sisters went to the South Harringay nursery and primary schools, regularly making the trip either along Wightman or Green Lanes, and we grew up with a lot of kids in the area. Quite a lot of them still live there; they also are working class, and do not necessarily own brand-new cars: in fact, one of them's father is a plumber and needs his van, whilst the other is now an electrician who needs his also.
Nobody on here is questioning that commuting habits need to be changed, nor that something must be done about traffic planning around these roads. But declaring that everyone, or even the vast majority, of people using cars in this area "must" be the poshos up the road with their latest reg, gas-guzzling Mercs to ferry just themselves a a few hundred metres to the station is not only downright rude, it displays an ignorance of the history and demographic of this area.
You want people to get on board? Try talking to others in the community, rather than just automatically painting with a wide brush those who have valid and serious concerns as inconsiderate richies obdurately imposing barriers on your attempts to achieve suburban idyll. We want the pollution, the congestion and the danger reduced just as much as you do; we're not idiots, we can see the problems. We just know it's never been as simple as is being made out.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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Only trams will ever get them out of their cars..
Trams at the bottom of the road, not ten to fifteen minutes away by bus and then another ten minutes down to the platforms with extra waiting time. Plus ten minutes up time on the ecalators at the other end.
But a tram every 2-5 minutes during the day.. that will whisk you off to where you want to be.
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The vast majority of my commutes in the Harringay area are by bus or Tube. Get trams in this area, and you will never get me off them. The only problem you'll ever have with me is the occasional* fight with your kids for the front seat.
*frequent
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Interested to know why trams are considered better than buses ? Surely buses are more flexible ?
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Trams are way cool. And fun. And cool.
Seriously though, I think it's possibly because they tend to get more priority when on the road - nobody will mess with a bus, sure, but even fewer will try to cut up a tram, because they know it hasn't got room to manoeuvre.
Also, trams can get tram-only lanes in certain sections of the road.
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Surely if Green Lanes too narrow for 2 way bus lanes doesn't it also follow that there wouldn't be enough room for tram's? I like the idea of trams but I just can't what the infrastructure investment would be
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There is plenty of room. But what you have to do first, is get away from this idea that the staus quo is sustainable. It isn't
Everyone, locals, as well as through riders are going to have to change their habits, with or without trams.
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You've hit the nail on the head John. Buses are more flexible, therefore get caught up in all the other traffic.
Overground rail lines and tubes are rigid structures, working free from traffic. Trams can be made to do that too. Try gurgling tram renaissance and you'll get your answer.
Amongst others:
Tramway renaissance in Munich – Effects of the new Tram 23 on urban structure and mobility behaviour.
Modern Tramways are nothing like the earlier generation, as can be seen in Croydon. The closest possibility to Harringay to 'ride' London trams is near Lowestoft at the East Anglia Transport Museum, where trolleybuses and trams are in working condition.
A L.C.C. B class of 1904/05 and a L.C.C., later London Transport HR/2 class (Hilly Routes) of 1930.
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