Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Don't Forget - Wightman Road Closed for 5 months from Next Tuesday (29th March)
In case it's escaped your notice or slipped your mind, Wightman Road will be closed to through traffic for five months starting next Tuesday 29th March.
This will be a significant dislocation to North London traffic movement. So much so that warning notices have been placed as far away as Archway. No doubt it will also have a significant impact on Harringay's traffic.
However, there really is no alternative to at least partial road closure. The railway bridge between Alroy and Wightman roads is being replaced and there will simply be no road for a few months!
One option the Council could have taken would have been to simply reroute the traffic via the Ladder rung roads. It is to their credit, however, they recognised that with over 16,000 vehicles a day using Wightman Road, this would have placed an intolerable burden on our narrow residential roads, already beset by undue traffic volumes.
After consultation with residents, the solution decided upon is to place blocks at regular intervals along Wightman Road, in effect creating clusters of two or three rung roads. Whilst this will retain unfettered access for residents. it will render the whole Ladder, including Wightman, useless as a rat run. You can clearly see the details on the full size pdf map attached below.
Quite what it will mean for traffic in Harringay, Haringey and further afield remains to be seen. Those of us who have been working with the Council on this very much hope that traffic will quickly find other routes. It's fair to say, however, that at very best, we're going to experience some very heavy congestion on Green Lanes for a month or so.
At the same time, the Harringay traffic study will continue. The coincident timing of this piece of work with the bridge closure may be fortunate in that it will give the consultants an opportunity to study the outcome of diverting traffic away from Harringay.
A pdf copy of the Wightman Road closure is attached, along with some Council-produced documentation. You can stay up to date with what's happening on the Wightman Road closure on a dedicated page on the council website here.
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic, wightman bridge, wightman bridge closure
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
-
I cycle on Wightman Road on a more or less daily basis and my perception is that Wightman Road has a lot less traffic on it even now. It may be that lots of drivers have already found alternative routes. I have not noticed Green Lanes being significantly worse (if at all).
This could really change Harringay for the better.
-
Permalink Reply by JulieB on
-
I found this week to be a little bit quieter, I've put this down to the fact some schools broke up for Easter holidays at the end of last week. The rest of the schools break up today so I think traffic will be less than normal for the next 2 weeks.
-
-
It was quieter last week too - and my perception is that it is very much quieter.
-
Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
-
As the schools break up today, the full impact of the Wightman Road closures aren't really going to be felt until the week starting Monday 11th April.
-
-
Like my neighbour Wightman Paul, I've had oodles and orgasms of pleasure reading of how all these rung residents have suddenly come awake to the reality I've lived with on Wightman Road for over thirty years, but especially over the past ten or fifteen.
With apologies to Paul, I'd add that if the Council would just force the car-owning Rungers to park their masses of tin junk half-on half-off the footways as on Wightman, they'd have lots of lane space for two-way traffic.
Wightman Whiteman - I'm going to enjoy the next five months.
-
Permalink Reply by WightmanPaul on
-
OAE, I'm only on blood pressure tablets for the noise and anti-social driving behaviour and asthma inhaler for the air pollution - so no orgasms.
Seriously though, isn't it time the cars came off the pavement on Wightman? Elsewhere, where cars are on the pavement to facilitate TfL's priorities [Ferme Park Road for example] money was spent to drop curbs. It seems to me that TfL are taking the piss by pushing 75% of the traffic flow of Green Lanes onto our residential road so that their precious buses can run 'on-time' with no regard for their wider transport or environmental responsibility and that every other authority concerned is complicit historically. Simple equations:
Wightman/Hornsey Park Roads=Residential
Green Lanes buses late = red route
-
Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
-
I find the [us vs. them], [Rungers vs. Wightmans], [Ladder vs. Gardens] a really divisive approach OAE. I appreciate there is a bit of humor in there too and you might feel you have had a lack of support from your fellow Rung Road residents in the last 30 years but it is only when we push together will anything actually change- alternatively we can all bicker and finger point as to who has it worst and whose fault it is, and how the council do not listen. The key thing is we have a real opportunity in my mind to make real meaningful change.
For me, the two priority roads I think we need to get a solution for first are Wightman and Warham, given the traffic volumes they have to be a focus if we are to have some equity (in case you think I don't care)...
-
-
Nothing divisive or finger-pointing about my orgasms, Justin. But if we can't extract a modicum of humour or urine from our Wightman rat-run (and that for me is all on the footways) once every three decades, that's surely a bridge too far.
-
-
Well as someone who remembers with dread what is was like trying to get my son's buggy up Wightman Road when he was little without being forced into the road to get round cars/vans who parked so far into the pavement as to make it impossible to pass I don't think that's a good idea. It must be even worse for wheelchair users.
-
Permalink Reply by Rachel Warren on
-
Not sure how effective the warning sign is on Salisbury Road The sign has been placed on the left hand side at the beginning of Warham, behind other signs and a tree. As traffic planning to come up Warham is on the right hand side of the road it would be more sensible to place the sign on the right. Better still, have signs saying "Access only" or perhaps this will happen when the works are in place? If there is no restriction of traffic crossing over Green Lanes into Warham, Pemberton is going to have more of a nightmare than most of the other roads leading down to Green Lanes.
-
-
I'm still waiting to see when the yellow box junctions are going to appear on Green Lanes...aren't they going to need some considerable time to get those done....presumably at night?
-
Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
-
With regard to the junction of Warham Road and Salisbury Road, Rachel is right, at the very least there needs to be signage (Resident Access only) stopping traffic from crossing Green Lanes, otherwise traffic will be going in a continuous loop around Warham and Pemberton which gains nothing for drivers and will be horrendous for residents.
On the issue on pavement parking on Wightman Road, I have mixed thoughts. As a Wightman resident I would love to see the pavement parking stopped but I worry about the result of that. At worse the council could decide to ban parking along the whole length with double yellow lines which would be an absolute nightmare for the roads residents and would push all their parking on to the ladder roads which are under pressure already.
Alternatively, parking could be restricted (off the pavement), alternating from side to side. This in my opinion would narrow the road sufficiently to make it useless for HGVs and would also slow the traffic down. Parking off the pavement on both sides would make the road very narrow (almost single track) – much as I love that idea I am not sure it would be workable.
My view is aim high – let's push for the Wightman to be closed to through traffic and at the very least completely closed to HGVs. While we are at it lets demand that something is done about the death trap (for cyclists) islands. I cycle to the city every day and by far the most dangerous and scary part of my journey is my own road!
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
