Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
“Opposing LTNs is not about culture wars”
Probably more people on HoL than at the council read The Guardian, but, if you haven’t seen it, this piece in today’s paper edition (and online) by Joseph Harker reflects on the consultation process his council did — or didn’t — go through in creating their LTNs and could be worthwhile reading for Haringey councillors when the next round of closures is proposed. His point about carrot and stick is crucial to the whole debate (though the title of this post is taken from the printed article’s heading and may not appear in the online version).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson
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Since starting cancer treatment in July last year I haven’t been able to use public transport so rely on Ubers. At one point I was travelling from Harringay to Barts just behind St Paul’s Cathedral every single day for three weeks. The thing that held me up were cars. They were cars in Haringey, in Hackney, in Islington and in the City of London. And when the driver stopped for 30 seconds to let me off at the door to the hospital it was not pedestrians who were honking and shouting out of their windows for us to move, it was car drivers,
People talk about traffic problems as if it was something that they as car drivers do not cause themselves. I hear drivers complain about being stuck in a traffic jam as if they were not the very people who were causing them.
Traffic problems in London are caused by cars, not LTNs, not road narrowing, not schools streets - and it is other cars that cause problems for people who have no choice but to use one.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter
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Michael, agree completely!
And in Haringey, The Traffic is Terrible will be the situation for the foreseeable future.
Transport failure by the council is near-total.
I see it as a combination of:
- Net-Zero political Will
- Councillor complacency
- Haringey Exceptionalism
- Poor or absent leadership
- Unwillingness to grab the nettle
- über-conservative Highways employees
- Intellectual dishonesty of some car-owners
.
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Permalink Reply by Don
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Michael, we don't disagree about cars being the problem. What I'm trying to suggest is that it's where they are that causes the congestion, and forcing more cars on to roads that are already over-capacity makes the problem worse – especially because it directly affects bus journeys. My Hackney LTN example is indeed relevant: my cab now has to make an extra one-mile journey, with more polIution, petrol used and time taken, along a bus route, just for the council to prove a point.
The only way to persuade more people onto public transport is if the boroughs, TfL and the Mayor's office improve the frequency and reliability first. Just imagine – as a fantasy – if GL was buses-only (or bus and taxi only) from the Salisbury to Manor House: access to Manor House tube would improve, pollution would drop, commuting would be far less of a chore and overall journeys would be faster, so people would be shown why using public transport was better. But neither this nor any other ideas above will ever happen while just blocking side roads is cheap to do and generates council revenue from fines for infringement. Oh.... and closing GL to cars would mean throwing Ladder and Wightman residents under a bus, so to speak. So perhaps not, then.
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