Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Social Distancing - finding it hard around the park or on Green Lanes?
I attended 2 Urban Design London webinars on "Street interventions during Lockdown" in the last couple of weeks. I was reminded of the successful initiative when Wightman Road was closed a couple of years ago to fix the bridge. A consultation then emerged to traffic calm and green Wightman Road with a limited amount of success and then we see a similar initiative start in Crouch End which is now being promoted in Highway and Urban Design circles as innovative. Wightman Road could have been innovative so is now the time to open this up again?
Has anyone else noticed how congested and difficult it is to social distance at the end of Wightman Road/ Alroy Road/ Endymion Road and the lead up to the park at Priory Gate? With the increased pressure of local residents having to exercise in the park, could this now be the time to make some interventions in this area? The bridge between the Priory Gate entrance and Tollington Park Road is also a pinch point for pedestrians trying to social distance. I think if this bridge, Endymion Road, Alroy Road and some if not all of Wightman Road were closed or the pavements widened, this would be a great help. I was surprised by a recent ipsos Mori report which said that 60% of families are afraid to go outside to exercise and 9 out of 10 people are not going outside for exercise everyday.
I attach some pictures of simple interventions internationally (New Zealand of course) which Urban Design London are promoting and I am pleased that Haringey is engaged but one thing that was loud and clear from the webinar was that residents and local councillors need to be engaged and tell the Council officers what is needed. We can’t just be dictated by a few examples around the borough. We need a proactive approach or further lives could be lost.
Below is further reading.
Ipsos Mori poll on how people are feeling:
Playing Out has a webinar on next week:
The CHIT blog:
The Berlin Guide: (Two links):
- mobycon.com/updates/a-guide-to-temporary-bike-lanes-from-berlin/
- philjonesassociates-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/phil_pja_co_uk...
Lambeth Committee Report:
Relevant Highway Act and Regulations mentioned by John Dales:
- Highways Act 1980 Sections 65(1), 66(2), 75(1)
- Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 Sections 14b and 122
Information on how people are behaving, for example how often people are travelling:
Tags for Forum Posts: coronavirus social distancing
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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It's incredible why they haven't opened more gates particularly the large gate on the baseball field off Endymion Road.
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Permalink Reply by michaelw on
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As far as I understand the Baseball field (originally a cricket field, opened in 1866) is not legally part of Finsbury Park.
Someone else on here will know more....
People were walking through a gap in the big gates a month or so ago, but that was blocked with temporary fencing last time I looked.
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My understanding is that it's still part of the park but leased at near peppercorn rates to the baseball club. The cheapest and least used piece of park land in London.
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Permalink Reply by TTTH on
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A response from Cllr Chandwani. I just wish the Council did not over complicate things and take the initiative to work with TfL and experiment with the simple solutions above.
She says:
1.Endymion Road has been raised with me by another resident and he gave some useful information too - the team are looking into this
2. The team will also look at Tollington Park Rd.
However if you are also suggesting closure of the road, this is a matter for Strategic Transport as it’s different to widening pavements where it doesn’t change how the carriageway/transportation works. This comes under Cllr Hearn.
Your links, which I read, are very oriented around Transport and Active Travel (ie cycling) - some even say so in title. In Haringey the council department who deals with this is called Strategic Transport and its not me but Cllr Hearn
I am cited in the council initiative because what we have done to widen pavements has not impacted on transport. We have widen the pavements without needing to close roads, pert traffic or change how the road network is being used.
I appreciate that there is cross over as a concept but operationally closing roads are very different to extending pavements with temp barriers into parking bays or zig-zag lines with no impact on the road network. The 10 spots in phase one had no impact on the road network.
For us to close roads, turn them one way or change how they’re used requires planning (the Strategic Transport team sit under the Planning Team). It involves looking at/consulting emergency services, assessing where vehicles will go if perted, how that impacts on the network, discussions with public transport etc.
Cllr Hearn is the person to discuss this with
The pavement widening we done and are doing under the Highways and Parking team are not closing roads - so we don’t need to do these wider assessments.
By virtue of closing a road it extends the pavement, however extending a pavement doesn’t necessarily mean closing a road."
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Permalink Reply by Sapphireblue on
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As a car driver (yes one of those people seemingly to be characterised by many on this site as evil demons), I would definitely take issue with the statement that the Wightman Road closure 2 years ago was 'successful'. Successful for who - the people who live on Wightman Road? The Wightman Road closures were a nightmare not just for car drivers due to the long queues and congestion it caused but also to everyone walking on Green Lanes due to increased traffic pollution by long queues of cars. Those living on roads close to Green Lanes (ie the ladder, were now living with 10 times the smog and pollution). And we can't all get on a bike or walk as many people with a host of disabilities will tell you.
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Permalink Reply by Elaine W on
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I agree with you, wholeheartedly! Ladder roads became more of a rat run and the congestion everywhere else was ridiculous.
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Point taken. I'm all for inclusive mobility and appreciate that some people will still need to use cars (hopefully more electrical in the future) but given the current circumstances where social distancing is paramount I think there needs to be a balance between whether we should walk or cycle rather than jumping into a car because otherwise we are just adding to more pollution. Can we not honestly say that we are currently benefiting from less traffic pollution at the moment and this is an opportunity to create greener, safer streets where children can eventually play, etc?
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Successful mostly for the people whose roads are routinely used as a time convenience by a huge majority of drivers who live outside the borough, by bringing down air and noise pollution. The streets returned to familes, walkers and cyclists. It was wonderful, Sapphireblue. It's impact on our quality of life was immense. The cleaner air might have added a wee bit to my life expectancy. It gave us a sense of what a low vehicle neighbourhood might look like. You're posting on the wrong forum if you think you're going to convince us against the merits of traffic calming on Wightman. The result was largely inconveniencing people driving through the borough and elevating the quality of life for people who live here. I own a car and was often inconvenienced by the traffic on Turnpike Lane and Green Lanes, but the merits for me far outweighed the odd bit of inconvenience. It was a huge success and I hope we can pressure the counterintuitively car-friendly council to reinstate something similar in future.
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