Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
cyclist hit tonight?
Cyclist hit by a car tonight; I'd guess at about 6pm tonight. Near the pelican crossing where New River crosses Green Lanes, Northbound direction.
The traffic was delayed, police & ambulance attending, it did not look nice!
I cycle down that hill at least 3 times a week, there are 1 or 2 nasty potholes by that crossing. Of course this is my speculation but maybe the cyclist hit a pothole & then collided with a passing car.
I hope the rider is OK, if anyone has more info please post here.
If I'm right (above) then the council is at fault for the pothole (plus the street lighting is poor) &, if the car was overtaking the cyclist, the motorist would be at fault for passing too closely.
Furthermore: there was another ambulance positioned further North; under the railway bridge. (I did see a bicycle leaning against the wall but no-one lying on the road).
Motorists: please don't overtake cyclists when it is not safe (they may suddenly wobble if there is a pothole).
Cyclists: please overtake motorists on the right, it's safer than passing down the left by the curb. AND, move out into the centre of the lane to prevent motorists from overtaking you if it is not safe for them to do so (use your position to control the traffic behind you, the gutter is the most dangerous place to ride).
Tags for Forum Posts: cyclist
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
Gerry, you may not have seen a previous discussion in October 2009 about this stretch of roadway. Very Interestingly your post has already had 100 views. (The earlier one barely made double figures.)
The 2009 topic was posted by Alison P. It eventually covered potholes, lights, and overgrowing tree branches, as various HoL cyclists put the jigsaw together and what might have been a tragedy was avoided. I hope the accident this evening was not as serious as you feared.
In brief, the potholes were then on the Hackney side of the "border" - south of where the New River runs under the roadway. Hackney had also failed to maintain a streetlight. And Haringey had failed to cut back overgrown trees in Finsbury Park, so branches were obscuring some street lights which did work. As well as Alison, there were comments from Adam, Muriel Zaccari, Nigel Lupton and other HoL members all chipping-in with bits of information and also reporting the problems to Hackney and Haringey Councils.
However, there seemed to be a lack of response — probably due to cross border complication. ("Far away borough of which we know nothing" etc etc.) I was able to find a helpful person in Haringey Highways who got in touch with his opposite number in Hackney and resolved the problems.
Hopefully things have improved a bit since then. (Although judging by the Endymion Road zebra crossing absurdity I wouldn't like to bet on Haringey having learned anything.)
Can I suggest, Gerry, that you have a look in daylight and phone or email Haringey and Hackney in the morning if you have time. They should at least talk to one another about inspecting the location and urgently sorting out any pothole or other problems. Please post the outcome here.
-
Permalink Reply by Ruth on
-
There were a lot of buses being diverted from Green Lanes so seems serious. Really hope that whoever was hurt is going to recover.
I am not a cyclist but that part of the road/path seems dark and gloomy from a pedestrian point of view. seems to be in need of improvement. Does it always take an accident for change to happen?
-
-
I forgot to give the link to the 2009 discussion thread. It may be worth a comparison.
-
Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
-
I cycle down this stretch of road relatively infrequently now, but did it every day when I worked in town. Just below the traffic lights were are a few sizable holes right where a cyclist would naturally place themselves. I think they are still there, or there are new ones if I remember right.
As a cyclist, what is happening as you get to this part of the road is that you are probably at speed (15mph as you ride down hill) and catching your breath having hauled up the road to Manor House- so your 'zone of awareness' as to what you can actually take in ahead of you is narrowed. As a result your eyes are moving more (and not glued to the road surface), constantly, watching for folks crossing at the pelican, and also with an eye to cars behind you trying to (legitimately) get past you. Just below the lights these 2-3 holes come at you very quickly (and the time you have to react is often reduced because of the dark nature of the environment), and one of two things can happen:
- You it the holes- and bingo you are over you handle bars and spilled any which way into the road, including possibly under someone's wheels, or
- You swerve, usually out, into the road- and bingo, you run the risk of finding yourself under someone's wheels. In this case it might not actually be the fault of the car driver (and I do not often say that), but if you have moved rapidly into the safety zone and they are facing oncoming traffic, they may not have anywhere to actually go or be able to react quickly enough to get around you
There is something odd about that part of road, on the uphill stretch there are patches that are constantly lifting, and it looks like spring water pushing up as the water table must hit the surface. It looks to me that the problem is as much keeping the road in good order, but also water management as this is damaging the road in the first place...
-
Permalink Reply by Takaokagiejin on
-
This is a very good description Justin and matches my experiences exactly. The other side of the road going into town can get sticky at times too as people always park in the bus lane outside the cab company at Manor House forcing cyclists into the middle of the road just as cars are changing lanes and rushing to beat the lights. I think this tiny stretch (New River - Manor House) is in Hackney not Haringey so not too sure who would be in charge over there. But on a positive note, isn't it all due to be redone soon? So we need a short term fix re lighting, pot holes, parking and trees and a longer term fix re layout. The good description we are coming us with here can be fed into the refurbishment consultation.
-
Permalink Reply by Gerry Platt on
-
Tris, for the record it is completely false to accuse me of "jump(ing) to an uninformed conclusion that there must have been some reckless motorist at fault".
Please re-read my post. "if the car was overtaking the cyclist, the motorist would be at fault for passing too closely".
-
-
Hmm. Whatever the details of what happened, Gerry, you spotted "nasty potholes" ; Ruth says that a part of the road is "dark and gloomy" ; and Adam reported a tree blocking "light from street lamps".
So once again practical things along this stretch of roadway can and should be tackled. Have you or someone else living nearby got time today to contact Council staff to give them details of the location of each of these hazards? Especially north or south of the New River? (Borough boundary.) Street trees or inside the park?
-
-
OK, so I went to the spot as promised. I filed the following report and it picked up the fact I was in Hackney (just..).
"Damaged road surface and potentially lethal pot hole before and after the pelican crossing on Green Lanes. This risk from this poor and dangerous road surface to cyclists heading north is compounded by the horse chestnut tree just outside the park boundary obscuring the road lights which make the road surface difficult to see at night or in the dark. This puts cyclists at risk of having to either hit the pot hole or swerve possibly into traffic that may also be heading down the hill and may be in close proximity. The poor light gives little time to react safely. "
This is apparently a link to the report, you can see the images of the tree blocking out the two lights on the other side, but I cannot see the other two images of the pot hole that is already spray painted around so as to indicate it is in process of being filled in at some point: http://lovecleanstreets.org/reports/report/bcd8b2f3-6f11-430a-9783-...
Interested to see how long this takes and if anyone contacts me to let me now it is done or ask any questions... Alan, do you know if you get a notification if a job you report is completed?
-
-
it's filed under the category 'Refuse/Recycling Collection'. Is that OK???
-
-
Ha! Did not see that, nor is it the category I thought it was filed under. Will see if I can change it- though incorrect filing should not be a barrier to getting it solved.... Lets hope it does not fail at the point a human has to get involved, eh?!
-
-
From memory (it has been a few weeks since I was down that route at night (though I am tomorrow)) it is not easy to see the hole (light or no light). I remember a few obscenities muttered as I nearly piled into it or other holes on many occasions, and that was when I was doing the route every day and should have remembered exactly where it was!
-
-
"Do you get a notification if a job you report is completed?"
Well, Justin, that's what the "Love Clean Streets” website says will happen. Though things seem to have got off to a poor start with the software filing your report in the wrong category. While your amendment now corrects this, as you say, we don't know whether or not the workflow in Hackney's system will mean a human spots this.
Hopefully they will spot your reference to the tree blocking the streetlight - especially as Adam has twice reported it.
Interestingly, the website seems only to show today's reports; or those from the last seven days. (I may be wrong but I can't see how to extend that time-frame.) If I'm right it means that residents can't check a past pattern at that location. Hackney staff should have those data, of course. And from your description it seems Hackney already have this on their system to repair - indicated by the spray painting round the potholes.
Another question is whether Hackney's system will pick up your concern that this is an especially hazardous stretch of roadway. Your phrases "potentially lethal pot hole" and "poor and dangerous" should sound an alarm. Will it? Or will your report join the Hackney queue with hundreds of others?
A few years back I had an extremely unsatisfactory email correspondence with a Haringey officer named Ita O’Donovan, then Chief Executive. She and I disagreed about whether residents are or are not able to assess the seriousness of a pothole. My view is that residents reporting potholes should be asked if they are dangerous. Her view was that this should be left to the expertise of officers. Haringey the 101 Council yet again.
As a practical suggestion, can I urge you and other cyclists to keep an eye on this stretch of Green Lanes; re-reporting it if nothing is done to fill the potholes and prune the tree branches within a reasonable time. Nobody wants another night-time accident.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
