100K funding for Wightman Road

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on June 30, 2009 at 23:16

AT A MEETING of the Stroud Green Residents Association three or four years ago, Cllr Haley promised to review the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) extension on the road bridge over the North London railway line, on the lower part of Oakfield Road.

There was little or no parking there before the CPZ extension and even less now. The bridge is a natural divide and bufffer between a CPZ and a non-CPZed area, usefully accomodating some of the CPZ knock-on/displacement effect that the council understands well.

Brian Haley even admitted that the extension of the CPZ over the bridge was – and I quote verbatim –

"Silly".

Everyone agreed with Brian's perceptive analysis.

Brian, you rightly said it was silly about three for four years ago. It's no less silly now.

Please review this sillyness Brian, as you said you would.

Please don't say "there's no money in the budget for reviews". You're obliged to do this and I think you know that Brian.

What's the problem?!

.

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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on June 30, 2009 at 14:26

Exactly, Matt. My favourite radical solution - though I cannot see some of my driving/parking neighbours being greatly enamoured of it. As old Polonius meant to say: Neither a driver nor a parker be. Internal combustion should have been nipped in the bud just when Wightman Road was being built up.

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Permalink Reply by WightmanPaul on June 30, 2009 at 16:33

Are you suggesting a horse-drawn W1? Be good for the Gardens - no pun intended!

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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on June 30, 2009 at 23:16

I may settle for solar-generated electric W1. But those horse-drawn trams had style. In Killarney the jarveys have taken to putting equine nappies on their charges to keep the American tourists happy and Killarney's streets pristine.

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Permalink Reply by Liz on July 2, 2009 at 21:57

I'm hoping that Highways has read this briefing from CABE on civilised streets and takes particular notice of the table on page 2 that characterises the new heirarchy on street design.

Also of interest is that disability legislation means that the needs of disabled people be considered before any other road user. I would suggest that a disabled person would have good grounds to challenge the council on whether their management of Wightman rd takes this legislation on board.

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Permalink Reply by TTTH on July 3, 2009 at 10:32

Hi Karen, would this extend to Alroy Road - the little forgotten residential road at the end of Wightman (with Endemyion)? I have alerted the council about the safety hazard of crossing the road everyday, but have been told that I need to be knocked down twice before it a pedestrian crossing would be considered. I am still working on that! But seriously, cars deliberately accelerate into Alroy Road in both directions, over the bridge and entering from Endemyion Road.
I also applied to the Council for Alroy Road to be considered as part of improved "urban walks", but this fell flat as the funding was cut.
What i am requesting is a small traffic island like the one further down from the hump bridge (opp. Turkish video store before Umfreville Road). This would have the effect of slowing traffic and allowing people to cross more safely.
I hope that you can help.
Many thanks.

Col

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Permalink Reply by Karen Alexander on July 5, 2009 at 21:25

Thanks for your comments Colin. I don't know whether this money will extend to Alroy Road - this is something I will be discussing with Highways at the meeting.

Karen

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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on July 3, 2009 at 13:46

Dear Councillor,
I’ve known Wightman Road for 30 years. The road is quite clearly a potential north-south route and, unless through traffic can actually be prevented in some way, we can only consider ways of moderating the flow and density.
I have often thought that the best (and possibly accidental) feature of Wightman Road is that there are no large buses and very few large lorries. This is probably because Wightman Road is useless as a route for heavy lorries and long vehicles because of the weak railway bridge and the poor access at Endymion Road. Except for the few trucks that go to and from Jewsons, removal vans and light delivery vans the only big vehicles we see have lost their way which they usually regret.
I would say that the number 1 principle is not to do anything at all that might make it easier for heavy vehicles to use Wightman Road for any purpose other than access to local addresses. In particular, cement delivery lorries should never use either Wightman Road or the ladder roads as a through route to anywhere. If there are things that can be done to discourage or prohibit heavy vehicles these things too should be done. Having said that, I do want the fire-engines to get through easily.
My second observation is that during the 30 years car parking came to be permitted on the footways. This does help the traffic flow but it also speeds it up and allows wider vehicles to pass without hesitation. Car owners then fear for their wing mirrors and park too far on to the footway making it difficult for pedestrians – especially where residents do not keep their hedges under control or leave bins out.
I would say that number 2 principle is to ask the council to mark clearly the limit of parking on the footway and ask the parking wardens to enforce this. Also, organise an action to get unruly hedges cut back to the fence line.
The third subject is speed which is only a real problem outside the rush-hours. Wightman Road is nearly a mile from end to end, that is 2 minutes at a steady 30mph and 3 minutes at a steady 20mph. I believe that the key to reducing overall speed (without shaking our houses to bits with irritating humps) is to create a clear impression that there is no point in rushing because the through-journey cannot be completed in less than (say) 5 minutes. This could perhaps be achieved with signage (maybe saying it is a shared cycle and light vehicle route), reduced speed limits, more crossing lights and maybe a choke point or two. It could also be achieved by banning parking on the footways but allowing it on the road but I doubt that this would be popular enough. Speed cameras might help but they won’t stop the white vans speeding away from the cameras.
As for cycles, I am not a user but my daughter is and I am entirely sympathetic to their needs which should I think, like those of pedestrians, take priority over those of drivers.
I hope this is helpful.
Kind regards, Dick Harris
201 Wightman Road

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Permalink Reply by Alison P on July 22, 2009 at 12:33

I read in my beloved Haringey People yesterday that there is going to be a traffic survey of the whole Green Lanes area - is this right? Isn't this what we've been asking for ages - surely very good news, though not clear how it should/would fit in with the proposed changes being discussed here for Wightman Road ... ?

Does anyone know any more about this?

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Permalink Reply by matthew cuthbert on April 29, 2010 at 0:36

I am an urban designer, I met a local unemployed architectural technician and an architectural graduate looking for work experience, could we have a design workshop with local residents to fox out local ideas, much in the same way our parks design framework was formed.

A statutory consultation will provide the obvious, we need dialogue with residents and interrogate the real issues, a comprehensive design study is needed, all we need now is a highways engineer and we have a full local team.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Dunkley on May 9, 2010 at 21:51

i think it would be best spent on a pedstrian crossing

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