Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
What if the council banned overtaking on Wightman Rd?
I wonder what people would think if the council experimented with completely banning overtaking on Wightman Rd as a step towards giving us a more liveable urban environment without offending the motorists of Crouch End and Enfield too much? The 20mph limit is set by the council and this ban would also be in their remit. Although speed limit is mostly enforced using road humps I challenge you go and visit another English town without 20mph limits in areas like Harringay, it's frightening.
The idea would be that in rush hour, maximum speeds would be enforced by cyclists and that cycling down there would be a much nicer experience. There is already precious little room or incentive (I'll get to that) for vehicles to overtake anyway.
At rush hour there are queues at either end of Wightman Rd, quite big queues, that make it nonsensical to over take anyway. We have seen video footage on here of dangerous overtaking on Wightman Rd and it has to be done at much more than the 20mph limit because of oncoming traffic and the pedestrian islands.
Thoughts?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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As I've said, the police seem to think that it's possible your speedometer could be out if they stop you for speeding.
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The police are accepting video footage but they also want a clear two minutes either side of the incident, presumably to stop people winding up drivers, turning their cameras on and deliberately getting themselves assaulted or run over. I see lots of cyclists with cameras, I want one myself but am worried I'd get obsessed.
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With the camera Gordon. Next please.
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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I would have thought that putting double while lines the length of Wightman would result in more danger to cyclists as those drivers intent on passing ( and there will always be some - see the number of drivers going to the right of the keep left signs ) will be " forced " to pass the cyclist much closer than at present.
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Forced? They can toddle along at 15mph and then spend less time in the queue at the end. It's as if you think cars don't have brakes. I appreciate that people are reluctant to use them but that's not the same.
Now I appreciate that I'm not good at coming across as anything other than a bit mad but I'm thinking of the future and the future is e-bikes by the looks of sales figures in Germany. There is currently very little rational incentive to overtake a cyclist on Wightman Rd, soon there will be no rational incentive at all.
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John I put the word Forced in inverted commas. Maybe " tempted " would have been better.
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Permalink Reply by AndrewAW1 on
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From the first traffic survey these were the speeds recorded on Wightman.
Click on it to get a bigger version but speeding doesn't seem to be a huge issue looking at that, under 5% exceeding 25mph.
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25 mph on Wightman IS speeding and it IS an issue. Some time ago, after the introduction of the 20 mph limit, I recorded the number of times the illuminated SID lit up in an hour. Approximately 45% of vehicles passing were speeding.
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In terms of the "no overtaking on Wightman" I can't see it working without vigorous enforcement which isn't going to happen.
A large number of drivers haven't really got the concept that this kind of thing applies when overtaking cyclists as well as other vehicles so they'd continue with the dangerous overtakes as normal. Add to that you'd get some trying to overtake without crossing the white lines resulting in closer overtakes and a whole load of abuse for cyclists by car drivers who are upset that they have to wait 30 seconds before reaching the queue of traffic down the road.
Ultimately the only way to sort Wightman is a drastic infrastructure change or a sea change in the attitude of car drivers.
The council have vetoed the first so it looks like it is down to the second.
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If there was a sign saying "no over taking" then I think you'd find a lot of compliance. Some people are only over taking because they're "thinking of the poor souls stuck behind them".
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Remember the 'Think' campaign from a few years ago - see
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_dat...
One of the posters was 'Cyclists, ride central on narrow roads'. Still on sale from the 'Think' shop. Get Haringey to buy a few? - https://public.shop.dft.gov.uk/catalogue/cycling/cyclists-ride-cent...
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