Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Green Lanes Transport Study - Final Report
The Green Lanes Area Transport Study has taken two years, and cost about £200,000, to complete, and was intended to address the longstanding problem of excessive traffic in the area, and consequent issues of safety, pollution and (in the consultant's jargon) "loss of amenity" to residents. The final report was published today without much fanfare.
The above photo from the cover of the report shows motorists, cyclists and buggy-pushing pedestrians apparently co-existing in harmony at the tree-lined junction of Burgoyne Road with Green Lanes, with Stanhope Gardens (one of the side streets on the eastern side of Green Lanes which enjoys protection from rat-running) receding quietly into the distance. I assume the subliminal message here is that everything is already hunky-dory, there is little room for improvement and all we can do is tinker around the edges?
I've attached a copy of the report to this post or you can download it and various other documents from the Council's webpage at http://www.haringey.gov.uk/transport/green-lanes-area-transport-study.
I actually think £200K would be good value if the report recommended measures which would significantly improve the quality of life of local residents - measures to reduce traffic and pollution, measures to make walking more attractive, or make cycling safer so that more people would choose those "active transport modes" and have healthier lives. Unfortunately I can't see many measures that will make much difference.
Tags for Forum Posts: harringay traffic study
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Thanks for posting this Joe.
My first reaction was that simple politeness would have been to email this to the hundreds of people who sat through consultation meetings, made comments and participated in other ways and gave their contact details but hey, pressing that send button is probably a little arduous.
My second is to wonder why I and many, many others sat through consultation meetings, made comments etc. There is a complete lack of ambition in what has been proposed and it could have mostly been pulled together by sticking a map of the area on a table and giving a group of people a few felt tip pens to scribble ideas down for a few hours.
An example are the proposals for north/south cycling.
Make the section of the New River between Turnpike Lane accessible to cyclists - lovely.
Reconfigure the entrance and exit gates to make cycling in and out simpler - check.
Emerge on to Wightman Road and.......nothing.
So you have cyclists having a lovely, peaceful ride along a very short section of the New River before emerging on to the carnage of Wightman Road just like they do today.
Why on earth did any of us bother.
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Permalink Reply by JoeW on
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I'm sure it's hilarious, were it not for the fact that lack of significant action on pollution is (a) illegal and (b) killing over 9000 Londoners every year. Not to mention the public health crisis of inactivity (not enough people are walking and cycling) causing obesity which is linked to diabetes and numerous cancers.
My understanding by the way is that the councillor who initiated the Green Lanes study - Stuart McNamara - seemed genuinely keen to find solutions. But he moved on and the project was inherited by current "cabinet member for the environment" Peray Ahmet.
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Indeed I'd be happy to see measures to remove cars and vans from the City and more electric buses etc., my sense though is that local councils/councillors hide behind those solutions as an excuse for their own unwillingness to implement solutions - "we need a London-wide or nation-wide policy" etc.
And so year after year they trot out the same measures - bicycle maintenance training or walk-to-school initiatives and so on - which are really important (and great photo opportunities for the councillors) but in the absence of measures to reduce traffic will never significantly shift the emphasis from cars to people.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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One week of cycling on the New River would turn the pathway into a muddy morass unless it were tarmaced which I don't think would be popular.
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You’re right, but it’s easy. That’s what seems to be the overriding priority for the whole report.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I've heard a rumour that the Mayor wants the Enfield cycleway to join up all the way in to Islington. I've also heard that Haringey are really scratching their heads because it's not allowed to go through Crouch End because of the hills and they currently deliberately filter all this f'ing traffic down through us, where the hills are cycleable by mortals. So that's where I think the New River rubbish comes from.
Rather than dumping everyone onto Wightman Rd below the crest of the old Harringay House hill, they could compulsorily purchase enough space for a cycleway through to Endymion Rd from the enormous back yards of those people on Wightman Rd south of where the New River is culverted. ;)
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My “lovely” was supposed to be ironic Billy!
The proposals all expemplify a simplistic, ill thought through attempt to show that “something” is being done while doing precisely f**k all.
I just can’t belive that the consultants, who I met and spoke to and who seemed to really understand their business, would independently come up with this collection of garbage. It stinks of a red pen being drawn through what was considered unacceptable in the eyes of whoever.
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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Michael, as a public sector worker you know as well as me that any private consultancy brought in is done so on the basis of shafting you as much as possible. They are smiling assassins who are well trained in nodding heads and disguising the white noise they hear when you speak. The consultant is purely used to get the spotlight of the council whilst doing their dirty work.
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"the Mayor wants the Enfield cycleway to join up all the way in to Islington" Well it would be daft to have a north-south cycleway in Enfield that fizzles out once it reaches Haringey...
This is from the TfL "Strategic Cycling Analysis" (via overlay map tool by Camden Cyclists):
The (yellow) cycleway becomes a (purple) quietway somehow down to Hornsey High Street, up to the police station and down one of those roads - maybe Inderwick which is already a marked cycling route. I haven't tried cycling up the southern bit of Inderwick Road is it possible? The Quietway is supposed to attract "cyclists who want to use quieter, low-traffic routes, providing an environment for those cyclists who want to travel at a more gentle pace". If they have to get off and push their bike up a steep hill it's not going to attract them.
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Ah, bless. The great British pastime of drawing lines on maps. Have you ever cycled UP Inderwick Rd? It’s very steep on the way up and hair raising on the way down. It will fail if it goes through there. Does anyone have an interest in this failing?
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Permalink Reply by Peter Chalk on
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Surely the obvious route is to follow the roads alongside the new river like Wightman and Hornsey Park Roads?
Filter the car traffic and make cycle and pedestrian friendly?
(And introduce an outer London congestion charge?).
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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I'm not sure where the New River cycle highway proposal came from. I think that would be a real pity. For minimal gain it may well turn a much needed quiet spot into a place where pedestrians end up coming second again. I can see a constant steam of bicycles flying along there. Cyclists, like drivers, are a real mix. There will always be enough inconsiderate ones who will see it as their highway to use as they wish. This will the proposed change unpleasant for pedestrians Unless otherwise convinced, I'm against it.
With regards to the proposal to open the currently closed section of the New River between Seymour and Endymion, I'd love it to be open for pedestrians. However, as far as I'm aware, it was previously floated and rejected following objections by the properties neighbouring the river.
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