Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Wightman Road Closure – is your road benefiting?
I was just wondering this week how the other ladder roads are being affecting by the current Wightman closure. Are any road benefiting more than others or suffering more traffic. It would be really interesting to know as I have always thought that Wightman Road is the key to finding a solution the traffic issue on the ladder.
The traffic situation seems much calmer on Endymion both in the morning and evening and I walked down Green Lanes this morning about 7.30am and it didn't seem any more congested than normal (before the closure of WR). I appreciate that there are still issues with the traffic on Hornsey High Street coming down to Turnpike Lane.
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic, wightman bridge, wightman bridge closure
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sapphireblue on
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Actually I'm astounded by the low key response here to this nightmare - that's what I and many others I speak to call the closure of Wightman Road. From Harringay Gardens to Crouch End library a drive that for all of the many years I've lived here, previously took 10-15 mins up Falkland Rd and up Tottenham Lane, now can take 45 mins. And the return trip, gridlocked from way up Hornsey High St? Its impossible. I've stopped going to the many places I went to in Crouch End. YMCA, Library, Park Rd gym, shops. Even if I can get there coming back is a nightmare. By bus? Used to take 20 mins on the 41. Now double at least often much more. Am I alone? Apparently not. Many people in Wightman Road I spoken to can't get to their homes on Wightman without getting stuck in the gridlock nightmare. Many people on the Gardens as well as on the ladder have been badly affected. We're all finding devious ways to avoid Turnpike Pike Lane - ie being displaced /dispersed into WG roads, Result there's often gridlock along by the Civic Centre now. I've tried going over Ally Pally to get home, a hugely circuitous route, so have so many others. Result, gridlock often from the skating rink onto WG High Road. The traffic HAS NOT GONE AWAY it has been displaced into surrounding areas causing HUGE problems within a 2-3 mile radius. Due to displaced traffic jams it can take 1-2 hours to get from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill for example. The Wightman Road closures have instead of spreading out the impact of traffic from Green Lanes, has caused huge problems all around. I shall NOT BE Voting for any Councillor who supports this closure EVER again. Especially not ANYONE of them who (as suggested to me last week) thinks wouldn't it be nice to make the closure permanent. WHAT? ARE YOU INSANE? GRRRRRRR.... I shall be writing to David Lammy and anyone else who might listen...
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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on
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I think it is hugely disappointing that more hasn't been done to mitigate the traffic issues in surrounding areas other than some minor tinkering with traffic light phasing. There must be ways to manage the traffic better and hopefully the Harringay/Green Lanes traffic survey will come up with some workable solutions.
However, it remains a fact that after the bridge works are completed the road can't simply reopen to carry the 120,000 vehicles a week if was carrying before. Wightman Road residents have seen huge benefits from the road being "access only but no through route to traffic" and as a consequence every single ladder has benefited too from huge drops in traffic.
I agree it isn't fair to displace all the traffic to surrounding areas but neither is it fair for our wholly residential road to take the brunt of what is almost entirely rat running by people outside of the immediate area.
People live on Wightman Road, it is our home and it has been blighted for years by increasing traffic. I am glad the bridge needed replacing because its shown how things could be - but of course with the right solutions put in place to keep traffic moving elsewhere.
I have huge respect for Cllr Stuart McNamara, the cabinet member for environment who agreed to the closure as the most sensible way of managing this. It was bold, courageous and an immensely difficult decision to make.
I sat in Green Lanes traffic for 25 minutes last weekend trying to get back from Muswell Hill so I know the frustration but with careful traffic management these problems could be resolved.
Nobody wants 120,000 vehicles passing their front door every week and it is not right we should have to just so people have a quick and convenient way to do their journey!
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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I'm sorry Karen but the huge benefit to the Wightman Road residents comes at an unwarramted cost to everyone else. I'm a ladder road resident who can't wait for Wightman Road to reopen.
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Permalink Reply by MR G on
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couldn't agree more. Also while all that traffic is stationary the pollution is at a far higher concentration than if they were freely moving.
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Permalink Reply by Isabelle on
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Agree with Sapphire. Being an occastional cyclist and ex-Ladder resident myself, I totally accept that the traffic on Wightman Road is horrendous, but this can't be all about it being better for the Ladder residents, when every road and resident around suffer badly as a consequence – increasing travel time and distance, traffic and pollution everywhere else around.
What can be done about a road that lives along a railway line, with a big park at each end and hardly any other alternative route? Build an underground tunnel, or get rid of the houses and the residents themselves? It's always going to be a problem.
Doesn't mean there is no solution to make it better (like improving the flow on Green Lanes, Turnpike Lane and Endymion Road – encourage drivers to use these routes instead or 'rat running'), but simply closing Wightman Road would be a very selfish one indeed. Until such day that cars no longer exist, we need to spread the traffic everywhere as evenly as possible, not strangle it further.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Some fair points, Isabelle. I am one of those Ladder residents benefitting from the current road closure on one hand, but also struggling to get anywhere due to the congestion.
What ever happens the key to this is going to try to be able to see this from all perspectives. Karen is right why should Ladder residents suffer a diminished quality of life so as to facilitate others having an easier car journey. Equally, we all need to be able to move through our own community. The reality is we (collectively) have become used to the fact that Wightman acts as a Green Lanes relief route. It was never, nor is it now, appropriate for such use, so we need to actually get back to fundamentals and realise Wightman is not an arterial route.
This means we (collectively) have to make different decision about how we use cars. Some folks need to use their vehicles, but a lot of us do not- and I include myself in this, and I have changed my behaviour accordingly. I cannot remember the last time I went to Sainsbury in the car, I cycle to football on Mondays instead of take the car.
That said, I believe it was John McMullan that first highlighted the fact that some of the issues with traffic flow are being affected by the infrastructure we have in certain places- ie, traffic lights that cannot physically be made to allow longer periods for certain lights, thus limiting the amount of cars turning out of Turnpike Lane for example. So, technology and design play a part here too.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Yup.
- Traffic short cutting around the back of Duckett's Common and onto Turnpike Lane is sneaking in ahead of traffic coming over Westbury Ave.
- The lights phase for turning right into Wightman from Crouch End is still inordinately long and prevents traffic heading west on Turnpike Lane from having a fair go.
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That's the one John. And this is down to the controller unit simply not being able to allow a longer green light to turn right...
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I completely agree - the closure has cut off the east of the Borough from the West and I'm amazed that the Council and Councillors think this is OK. For a couple of weeks it might have been but for several months....
Last Friday because of an accident in Turnpike lane it took me an hour and forty five minutes to get back fro Alexandra Park - because Wightman was closed I had to go all the way back from turnpike Lane, to crouch end and back down Endymion to Green lanes - lost the will to live.
I now think twice before going to Hornsey, Crouch End, Muswell Hill etc and will miss walking in Highgate Wood
Lord knows what the pollution levels are.
Parking in bus lanes on Green Lanes should also be suspended to allow for 2 lanes of traffic - as there used to be,
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This has been suggested on many occasions, and many residents agree. They cannot understand why this has not been done. If the traders want parking for their customers, they can easily be accommodated on Rung Roads and in the Gardens if every road makes a block of 4-5 30 min/1 hour/ 2 hour parking bays available. Walk up any of these roads now and there is plenty of parking space to share. We absolutely have to keep buses moving!
The problem with the example you are highlighting though Michel is that I believe that accident demonstrates how little slack there is in the road traffic network everywhere, not just on Green Lanes. It may be worth considering that it would have had the same impact on congestion whether Wightman was open or not- many a time I have come down Green Lanes and it has been chocka and there has been no apparent reason on GL itself. It is likely road works, and accident, or some event somewhere has caused one part of the traffic network to freeze up and then caused spasms elsewhere. For example, when Endymion freezes up because of flows from Stroud Green Road nothing can move near the Arena junction which blocks Green lanes in both directions, and sees Manor House freeze up, and traffic simply backs up on Wightman because it cannot get out, sending more cars down rung rods trying to get out into an already congested Green Lanes. Everything freezes when one part of the network freezes.
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Permalink Reply by Stay Sure on
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I was just talking to a neighbour about the wonderful Stroud Green/Harringay Library just over Harringay Station bridge, whilst the collection is of course smaller than Crouch End's the staff are brilliantly helpful in ordering books from other libraries for pick up. I've only been regularly using them for the last year, but have saved a fortune & put a stop to growing piles of books at home cluttering up the place. Location of Stroud Green and Harringay Library It would be great if more local people could start taking advantage of this little gem. I do worry that unless local services like this can show many residents use them, they could be under threat as Council budgets are reduced.
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