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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

I have been on HoL for many years but I have been stunned recently by how many posts there have been on traffic and traffic related issues in the last 3-6 months. In terms of issues of the day for our community this is clearly huge!

I was just posting on a different thread and it occurred to me that we need to try to draw together some of our collective knowledge and experience in order to try to do more than collectively shout into the internet to vent our spleens.

As you may be aware the council have taken a pretty brave step in recognising the collective mismanament of our roads in the last 20 years. The sustainability of piecemeal closing or alteration of the road traffic network so that traffic is concentrated on an ever diminishing number of roads to the detriment of those communities and the political myopia (indeed active intervention) that has allowed Wightman Road to become a defacto trunk road has been highlighted by the closure over such a long term of the railway bridge on Wightman.

This is the issue the Green Lanes Traffic Study will aim to address. Its first Stakeholder Group meeting is to be help on Thursday 9th June. This is one of the forums through which residents will be able to feedback their views. There are several organisations that will be part of the Steering Group (see the Terms of Reference doc for the membership as of May, this may change). If you care about what is happening, you should feed your views in through the various members that may best represent your area, Gardens, Hermitage, Woodlands Park, Ladder, HoL, Wightman Rd, etc, or your councillor.

In the mean time I wanted try to do three things. I want to draw together people's experiences in order to:

1- Hear the anecdotal thoughts occurring to you.

  • I have head people say they are now happier sending their kids from the northern part of the Ladder to South Harringay for swimming lessons
  • People have remarked that there is less fly tipping 
  • It seems the traffic that is moving up and down the Ladder (rung roads and Wightman) is moving in a far more considerate way- its less aggressive
  • Traffic on GL and Turnpike is more aggressive, blocking crossings

2- Try to frame the myriad of problems, before and after the closure.

  • 120k vehicles a week on Wightman (pre closure)
  • Houses being shaken to pieces by HGVs (pre closure)
  • Inability of traffic to turn out of Turnpike Lane in the GL leading to congestion (post closure)
  • Busses not moving on GL (post closure)
  • Increased congestion on GL and the time taken to get from A to B (post closure)

3- Identify solutions and ideas (however nutty)

  • Close Wightman completely
  • Introducing a pricing mechanisms for vehicle using local roads
  • Better traffic management interventions to get folks out of cars in going to their places of worship or taking their kids to school
  • Improved or altered road infrastructure to allow traffic to run more freely and not be held at pinch points
  • Clear parking out of the bus route on GL

In the ideas one or more of you will throw out will be part of the solution, and while the Stakeholder Group is not a decision making body, at least this is a forum where these ideas can be heard!

Tags for Forum Posts: harringay traffic study, traffic

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It seems to work ok ( top of Hampden )

Width restrictions like they have in Islington/Hackney instead of the mega intersection at Turnpike Lane.

I wonder how effective width restrictions would be at minimising traffic, rather than just preventing larger vehicles?

Another option which would not minimise, but could deliver a significant reduction, would be to make all the rungs residents only (block or fobbed bollard at one end or micro-charging as previously), but leave Wightman open at both ends. I calculate almost 90% of Wightman traffic is only using Wightman for the purpose of ratrunning on a rung road, so preventing access to the rungs should significantly reduce Wightman traffic (though obviously not by the full 90%).

Lorries have been the true bane of life on the ladder. Especially for those fortunate enough to have a speed hump outside their house.

Width restrictions aren't much fun for cyclists though. All those pinch points are one of the things that made cycling on Wightman Road so bad.

Interesting video of a tunnel being built under a highway in Holland over ONE WEEKEND: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEa9jrkQm0c

Makes you wonder how it can ever take the builders on Wightman road over 4 MONTHS to reinforce one small bridge...

As someone said earlier to a similar comment: Back seat driver.

The traffic going into and out of the shopping arena car park at the weekend is so bad that drivers are turning to the roads off Endymion to park. Lothair road north is chocker - we also have all the taxis from golden cars using it as a base and with the closure of Wightman road some drivers are now using it as an illegal cut through. There has also been a noticeable increase in litter from takeaway boxes and plastic packaging all over the streets. I'd be interested in requesting an extension to the parking zone to cover weekends to deduct the amount of cars in the ladder roads. Residents with permits currently struggle to park their own cars in the road if they leave the house.
There needs to be a vehicle weight restriction on all ladder roads.
The over sized trucks continuously shake and damage the properties and the small residential roads of the ladder should not be used as trade vehicle cut through.

It would be good to start slowly reopening Wrightman road from theTurnpike end.

There IS a weight restriction - 7.5 tonne except for access.

We have previously spoken to the council and they informed us that there IS NOT a weight restriction for vehicles on many roads on the ladder.. so it seems that there is conflictioning information. If there are any weight restrictions then these need to be increased to address the problem which is the shaking and damaging of the properties.
I was sure there were signs up on weight restrictions - maybe I was dreaming.

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