Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Dangerous Wightman Road?
Hi Harringay Online!
I recently moved to the area and so far have lots of praise. My one main gripe however is that cycling in and out of the area is a real ball ache. Understandably Green Lanes, as a sort of commercial hub, is busy and somewhat risky but the real shocker is discovering that the more residential Wightman Road (the only other option...) is probably just as bad!
I've got about a decade's worth of experience cycling throughout different parts of London but the current state of Wightman Road is probably the worst I can think of.
Is this a shared sentiment in the area? And if so is there anything being done about it?
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic., wightman road
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Classical Contrarian on
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Mike Hakata is good, but I have two observations;
1. All the planned LTNs are in the East of the borough.
2. He's already pointed out directly to me that no LTN will happen in SG until traffic calming on Endymion and Wightman work out.
So in essence, great progress in StAnns, but will that be replicated?
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I understand your scepticism. I’m sure you detected the note of extreme caution in my last comment/s. But I remain optimistic.
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One can only ever be optimistic otherwise all is lost!
Fingers crossed we can get this across the line!
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Cllr Hakata also said to me, in correspondence, that the St Ann’s LTN wouldn’t be instigated either until planned changes to Green Lanes had been made, but gave no timing or detail for these, so I’ll press him again after the break. So far the council hasn’t published any plans at all for GL, which is the root cause of the problems in the area; unless its role as an arterial route between the N Circular and Manor House, and the “funneling” effect of the impassable barrier of the railway, are tackled, through traffic will always be a problem as it tries to find alternatives to a road that’s frequently impassable. In the short term, I’d still suggest that creating LTNs east of GL from Hermitage Road to Turnpike Lane will just exacerbate the problem by throwing more traffic onto GL and the Ladder.
Elsewhere on this thread someone says that, following accidents as a cyclist on GL, they took the completely reasonable and understandable decision to drive instead, which is probably not what the council’s plan to prioritise two wheels over four was designed to achieve, while consensus seems to be that the Wightman ‘improvements’ have actually made the road more dangerous for cycling than before. None of this suggests any degree of insight or ability to see the bigger picture. Putting in bollards and plant pots to block side roads is an easy way for councils to appear to be doing something without it costing them anything (funding comes primarily from City Hall and central government) but the overall problem needs a wider focus and solutions involving Haringey, TfL, the Mayor’s office and the DfT.
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Interesting points! Although I do think that with electric cars, despite being a great progress environmentally, the fundamental problem of a large, metal box moving at speed will still persist. Will still be interesting to see what the new technology spits out.
Equally I'm far from an expert on this kind of thing but I thought that in London car ownership heavily skewed towards wealthier demographics? Happy to be proven wrong though of course!
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Permalink Reply by Costa on
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Yeah north/south routes are pretty limited locally to main roads. And generally within Haringey cycling infrastructure is very poor - it's immediately noticeable at the borough boundaries how much worse things are.
I prefer Green Lanes to Wightman, the bends and those chicanes on Wightman make it worse for me. Green Lanes is doors flying open and weaving buses so it's very pick your poison unfortunately, but once you pass Manor House and get onto Green Lanes in Hackney it becomes a lot safer.
Powers that be are working on something at the moment. Personally have very low expectations for improvements as it would require removing parking.
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Yep you seem totally right. I'm going to give Green Lanes a few tries now to see if it improves things. Sadly it doesn't help with the slight westwards journey I need to make but it might be better to detour than end up in A&E!
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Permalink Reply by Dan77 on
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I also prefer Green Lanes, marginally. What it really needs is a 24-hour bus lane - that would improve the cycling situation hugely. Decent public transport connectivity might even persuade a few of those who travel in to the lanes to leave their cars at home.
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Wightman Road is still pretty grim. They did some "improvements" a few years ago to make it slightly less lethal for cyclists (the previous iteration had traffic islands that cars liked to bomb through as you tried to cycle through them https://goo.gl/maps/8JKNJQwf4EiDrXAn7 ) but, although they tried to pretend it was a success, it's still pretty grim.
Up until recently I'd have said that there was no chance of improvement and the council wouldn't do anything to slow the traffic. However, there seems to be a new move away from the "car is king" view that has been prevalent in Haringey for so many years so who knows (although I wouldn't be that surprised if minimal filtering happened with Wightman, similar to what's happening with Downhills Park Rd and Belmont).
In my experience Green Lanes is far better for cycling than Wightman. You need to be aware of people stepping out and cars at the junctions but it all tends to happen at a lower speed than Wightman which makes it easier to manage.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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Haringey council is currently consulting on its draft walking and cycling action plan. There is a survey you can fill out and an online meeting coming up on 6 Jan https://www.haringey.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/travel/haringe...
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Permalink Reply by Leesa Herbert on
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Hi Simon welcome to the Ladder. For too long local residents have suffered from heavy cut through traffic, expensive Council consultations and road adaptations that have not reduced traffic. Wightman Rd was one of the most recent adaptations and the required formal safety audit identified a number of safety issues. Most of these focused on risks to vehicles, of side swipes, danger of drivers fearing head on traffic and risk of swerving and poor sight lines pulling out from ladder roads into Wightman Rd.
There have been a number of very good local traffic groups and lots of work done by local residents. And there are alot of residents with knowledge and expertise, but they have felt very frustrated and let down by the Council.
The good news is there is a local group set up by residents called Haring Ladder Healthy Streets. And it does seem the Council are beginning to show signs they want to make change and we have had Cllr Mike Hakata speak at our last on line meeting attended by 75 people. Mike made it clear the Ladder would be in the next round of areas to be consulted and changes made to reduce through traffic. But we know we will need to work very hard and build a strong, active campaign with high numbers of the wide community making it clear they support change.
Please join HLHS and there are lots of ways to get involved and help.
Happy Christmas Leesa
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Permalink Reply by tigha on
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Welcome to Haringay. And as you can see, you have opened a hornets nest. This is supposed to be the recently renovated,safer, Wightman road. I have almost 4 decades of daily cycling around London, and other cities, but I generally avoid it, and prefer to use green lanes, where my biggest worry is pedestrians jumping out. Mostly vehicles are going slower, and give way etc
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