Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Parking stress on The Ladder and proposals for changes to Wightman Road
In response to Haringey's proposals for Wightman Road a group of local residents have been surveying parking on the Ladder "rung" roads to help make a judgement of the capacity the east/west roads may have to handle the reduced capacity on Wightman if Haringey's proposed scheme goes ahead.
Haringey carried out their own survey into parking stress (the match/mismatch between demand and availability) last year and we surveyed at the end of July this year with the results feeding in to the Ladder Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) response to the Haringey consultation.
As the first resident survey was carried out during the school holidays we decided to carry out a second survey in September as we felt that more residents would be at home, so giving a more realistic picture of what the Ladder looked like when it was at its busiest. This second survey was carried out on 30 September. Both surveys were carried out on a Sunday when the Ladder is busiest with parked vehicles.
For practical reasons (the sun setting!) the second survey was carried out a little earlier than the first so probably doesn't show true full capacity.
I've attached the results in Excel format and as a PDF. Reading across the tables
- Results from the first resident in July 2018
- Results from the second resident survey in September 2018
- The average of the data from the two resident surveys
- London Borough of Haringey survey data from 2017
- Difference in the estimated overall capacity of the Ladder rung roads (average of the resident surveys vs the Haringey survey)
The numbers are suggesting that parking stress was greater in survey 2, which is what was predicted because of the impact of the summer holidays on survey 1.
There are anomalies which you would expect with any on the ground survey, with some roads quieter and others busier when you compare the two resident surveys. To try and smooth out the peaks and troughs I've averaged the data from both surveys to give us a more realistic snapshot of parking stress on Ladder roads.
There are some differences between the potential capacity for each road between surveys 1 and 2. People don't park perfectly, making the most efficient use of available space. All it takes are a couple of cars and a motorbike and a section of road that could reasonably take 10 cars can only take 5. That is, I'm surmising, the difference between our two surveys and Haringey's. We walked the roads and looked at how they are really used. Haringey seemed to have used road measurements and assumed the capacity if everyone parked with a perfect space between each vehicle and then derived the result arithmetically. We all know that reality doesn't match up to that.
The main messages to me are that on Sunday evenings (the busiest time) -
- Overall capacity - Haringey have overestimated this by 237 spaces
- Vacant spaces - Haringey have overestimated this by 270
- Vacant space distribution - Spaces are not evenly distributed. While at the extreme north end of the Ladder this isn't going to pose as much of a problem at the moment, as their are fewer residential properties at the north end of Wightman, elsewhere it will be an issue for displaced Wightman residents. However, with the new 200 odd unit development coming on line at Hampden Road next year this will change. Even though residents in the new development will not be able to get resident parking permits, both they and their visitors will be able to park outside of controlled parking times.
- Vacant space location - the messages coming back from those surveying (with some exceptions) is that vacant spaces are mostly east of Harringay Passage, so located at some distance from Wightman Road residents
All my thanks to the residents who have slogged the streets of Harringay to collect this data.
Michael
Tags for Forum Posts: harringay traffic study, ladder parking changes, wightman road improvements
- Attachments:
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Survey.pdf, 416 KB -
survey.xlsx, 14 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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Agree in principle Michael, but if it's businesses and commuters, I find it odd that it's always easier to find a parking space at the East end of the ladder rungs than at the Wightman Rd end where there are very few businesses.
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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Not if you live on a road with a highly successful kebab house at the bottom John.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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...and none of this explains why some roads reach their parking peaks overnight.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Some is right. Mine doesn’t for example. I suppose the next experiment is a count of vehicles with resident permits vs not.
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What surprised me from the count was how different the parking situation is across different roads in the Ladder. It's easy for any of us to assume that what happens on our road is the same as it is elsewhere on the Ladder. This survey showed it's not. It would be interesting to understand why. I can't think of any reason why Warham should be so different Seymour, Hewitt and Allison, but by all accounts is it. And yes, I think a look at visitors vs permit holders might be an interesting next step.
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Permalink Reply by Itsjono on
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Can I ask, what's the purpose of this survey? Why does it matter if council's figures are wrong? What's at stake if they are?
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The Council is trying to use their figures to say that restricting parking to only one side of Wightman is practicable and that there are enough unused spaces on the rung roads to accommodate the overflow
Some people who actually live here say there aren't..
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Itsjono, I’d explain it like this.
In a recent and very expensive traffic survey of Harringay, the Council was able to assess the high volumes of traffic using Harringay's roads. They saw that some action is required and settled on what’s probably the cheapest option. The change involves traffic calming measures on Wightman that would involve changing the parking arrangements. This would reduce the amount of parking available on Wightman.
The Council say this won’t create any issues since there is no 'parking stress' on the Ladder. Whilst supporting any action to deal with traffic levels and driving behaviour, some people disagree with the Councils’s assessment of the knock-on effect of the changes on parking on the Ladder roads. When it was discovered that the council used what amounts to a finger in the air method to assess parking Ievels on the Ladder, a group of us decided to conduct our own survey. The aim is to enable any decisions taken to be taken whilst in full possession of the facts so that the best possible outcomes can be achieved.
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