Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
FAO: Zena Brabazon - Endymion Roundabout
Have written to Zena Brabazon about this already but wanted to share my outrage and possibly gain some advocacy on this issue.
I frequently run and walk by the Endymion road mini roundabout - as some of you may know vehicles tend to enter it at excessive speed.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised that the council had installed traffic islands which I noticed had achieved the desired traffic calming effect, and negotiating the roundabout is now very pedestrian- and cyclist friendly.
I walked by it today and was dismayed to see that the whole section had been re-surfaced and the added layer of tarmac has effectively levelled the islands with the main road (no more than 1.5" height - won't be felt by the average van) and the sidewalk, where it is 100% level. The result - the islands now have traffic calming properties of 0, and the roundabout is wide open to manouvres on to the pavement!
Given the speeds at which vehicles drive through this creates a lot risk for pedestrians, cyclists and bikers.
- for pedestrians, and especially individuals with impairments/disabilities, the lack of elevation may cause one may struggle to identify where the road ends and sidewalk begins
- for cyclist and motorbike riders it now creates ambiguity - some may not notice it at all in adverse or low visibility conditions, could run unexpectedly into the island and cause an accident. I have personally witnessed a fatal accident involving a motorcyclist in a similar situation (newly installed roundabout.)
Complete and utter shambles. The council and subcontractor need to be held to account.
UPDATE: 11 October 2018
Here is the full explanation from the officers in charge of the fiasco. Note the multiple contradictions such as references to crossing facilities, while discounting the traffic islands as such, and the interesting rationale for the raised junction table. I have set out a number of questions back to the council.
"The traffic islands at the junction have been designed and installed such that they can be overrun by traffic (particularly large vehicles) whenever necessary, however still providing the needed visual contrast to the asphalt junction table and thus help to slow down traffic going through the junction. Unfortunately due to the tightness of the junction, we are unable to install a pedestrian refuge islands with high heights and with ‘keep left’ bollards as desired as these will be subject to abuse, requiring regular maintenance and also jeopardise the safety of pedestrians using the crossing facilities at the junction.
The raised junction table was installed at almost the same level as the adjacent footway to ensure the required gradient for the raised table ramps were achieved whilst avoiding undue adjustments to the adjacent footways, which in some instance could result in the backfall of surface water on to adjacent private properties."
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Has anyone met Sarah James? Our last James was conspicuous by his absence.
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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Yes. She's great.
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Permalink Reply by Nicky on
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The whole road is such a bodge job. Apologies if I’ve missed it here but anyone know who we can complain to?
Thanks
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Permalink Reply by kotkas on
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I have been sending emails to Zena Brabazon for more than 2 weeks. She hasn’t even acknowledged receipt. Quite disappointing.
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That is shocking. I’m going to hunt down the survey thing they sent round and try to find a named person.
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Zena has taken on a cabinet role and I think that's keeping her pretty busy. Why not drop a note to our new councillor Sarah James and see how she does. Ben says above that "she's great".
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Yes, I saw Zena yesterday and she was clearly putting a lot of hours in. Don't give her too hard a time Kotkas as Zena is a really hard working Councillor for this ward. She was at a meeting on waste and the state of our streets until 9pm last night. She cannot be everywhere, and in fairness there are three Councillors for this ward. I met Sarah a coupe of months ago, she seemed ok, so yes, try and get Sarah's attention.
I would suggest going to one of the surgeries if email does not elicit a response.
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Permalink Reply by DavidJ on
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We tried this junction out as pedestrians yesterday - on a walk to Finsbury Park. There is no doubt it is very dangerous.
On our way there crossing on the eastern side of Endymion we had (small) car sweep across the pavement in front of us - luckiloy we were stood a couple of fee form the edge - but otherwise managed to use the island to cross.
On the way back it was awful crossing on the western side- it was busier and we had to take advantage of a small gap in the traffic to get to the island - a van coming out of Wightman/Alroy swung across the 'roundabout' to take advantage of the same gap. He had to break as we crossed and then shouted at us for crossing there - 'Its not a pedestrian crossing!'. I pointed out it is raised up . .. only to have another van driver joining in shouting abusively at us - it is not a crossing!
There seems to be something about the design that is giving drivers the message that this is their bit of road. It is indeed a shambles - it needs to be re-done.
I suspect the problem is that Haringey wanted to make it better for pedestrians (hence it is raised and there are islands) whilst at the same time wanting traffic to move quickly through ~(so the Islands are not raised, there are no real means of slowing traffic or giving drivers the message that this is not 'their' space. This is contradictory and dangerous.
Haringey has got to stop pretending that Wightman Rd is somehow a major trunk road that can carry on with the volume and speed of traffic it has. It is magical thinking and a disgrace.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Pedestrians in Britain have the right to be in the road at any time. There is a law against deliberately holding up traffic but you're actually allowed to cross wherever you like, whenever you like. They're supposed to stop of course because deliberately running someone over is murder (well it should be).
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That may be the case, John, but it's also true that custom says the road belongs to traffic, and most of all to vehicular traffic, except where pedestrians are expressly given primacy, i.e. at a red light or zebra crossing.
Road design schemes can reinterpret that custom to some extent, e.g. shared space. But the scale of effect of such interventions tends to be in direct proportion with the degree to which drivers are given explicit information as to the pedestrians' rights. Without that you will inevitably get the sort of scenes described by David, and worse.
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