Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Cyclists and Wightman Road
Hi all,
Is it just me or has Wightman Road now become an absolute death trap for us cyclists with the jutty out bits that enrage car drivers who swerve into us to avoid oncoming cars...?
Thinking a cycle track on part of pavement could be an answer... We don't take up as much space as a car parking half way across the pavement as it used to be...
Nemone
Tags for Forum Posts: cycling, cycling safety, harringay traffic study, traffic, wightman road improvements
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Haringey Cycling Campaign on
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To be clear, Haringey will not secure this funding if they are not able to come up with credible plans that meet the quality criteria required by TfL. Also to be clear, if the bid for Crouch End fails there will be no more money forthcoming for the foreseeable future for any other liveable neighbourhood schemes anywhere else in this borough. The Deputy Mayor has made it clear that TfL/the Mayor are willing to work only with boroughs who have a proven track record of delivering the Mayor's priorities for transport.
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Permalink Reply by Itsjono on
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Yes, it's a ridiculous, embarrassing, un-bike friendly detour. Imagine how much more useless it will be once Hackney has their bike paths built on Green Lanes, leaving a big old gap between Enfield and Manor House.
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Making Uplands Road, the steepest of the set of north-south roads east of Ferme Park Road, a Quietway makes little sense. The top section of the road feels steeper than 13%, and the whole road is used by the W5 bus northbound, a wide vehicle. As a former cyclist, I could cycle up it but, at the top, very little quicker than getting off and wheeling the bike, and I was reasonably fit then.
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Bloody hell...
Funnily enough, occasionally my route takes me from the top gate at Finsbury Park to Wood Green common via Mayes Road... If you offered me the above versus Wightman Road **EVEN AS IT IS NOW** I'd STILL take the latter.
And if the work north of the park just includes painting "Q10" and a bike on the road then I'm even less into it - Oakfield Road is an absolute horror of an incline (before we even talk about the Hors Categorie over Uplands!!!) and car speeds along that stretch are appalling. And the W5 pulls up often and without much warning.
"Quietway" my rear.
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The strategic cycling route through Crouch End from Wood Green to Kentish Town is a result of detailed data analysis by TfL, resulting in their Strategic Cycling Analysis (pdf here). Broadly the strategic routes identified therein are as a result of analysing public transport accessibility, demographics, workplace destinations, etc.
The other route, currently called Quietway 10 on openstreetmap is probably incorrectly marked on that map. We've had some constructive discussions with a Haringey engineer and TfL about a (slightly more) sensible route, albeit in a similar area. Worth saying though, for the most part this route is a simple rehash of what is currently known as London Cycle Network Route 7 and, (notwithstanding the changes which may come as as a result of the Crouch End scheme) is not likely to be much more popular than LCN7 in its current form.
The bigger question for Haringey in general is, how are they going to meet the aim of the Mayor's Transport Strategy for seventy per cent of Londoners to live within 400m of the London-wide strategic cycle network? Quite obviously on those terms a route through Crouch End will not serve the needs of people in Harringay. There's a yawning gap in the middle of this borough with no safe or high capacity north-south cycle routes. So Haringey need to start planning now where they are going to put a route that delivers on the Mayor's aims and meets the quality criteria required for a strategic route of this nature (e.g massively reducing traffic volumes and speed or providing dedicated space for cycling with cycle tracks).
Ps. Apologies if some pertinent info is missed due to the amount of replies and detail in this thread. Happy to be addressed directly in the replies if that helps.
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Ye, I agree. I have not been cycling since the new layout, but can see how risky it is for cyclists now. I will NOT be allowing my children to cycle on it, even though they did before the roadworks.
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I'm sure many people have mentioned it, but sorry this thread is enormous: why are the jutting things there in the first place? Was it hoped they would slow traffic? Also, they will surely become damaged sooner or later by careless drivers?
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Pretty much.
The concept does work, usually on slower residential (i.e. not B roads like Wightman). Giving drivers a perception of a cluttered and difficult to navigate street does slow them down.
But on Wightman, the volume of traffic is too high and the type of drivers using it are those who don't care.
I maintain it does actually make more sense with the lines painted - but it's still not good.
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Permalink Reply by kotkas on
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Having been away for nearly 3 weeks, and as a regular user of Wightman in a pedestrian capacity, I must say that it is a hell of a lot quieter than I remember it being. It may be due to the holiday season, but there is a lot less traffic, and the queues at the endymion road roundabout and the traffic lights are significantly - c. 30-50% shorter. I also note that drivers have to slow down a lot more and take a lot of care not to cause an accident - which is a real positive. Undoubtedly there will be a subset of idiots who become more dangerous as a result of the changes, but on balance, from a pedestrian's point of view it appears to be positive.
A couple things that might improve it further are maybe some pedestrian crossings, which will hopefully slow down the traffic even further and discourage motorists from taking the road. Overall it's a blunt tool, but it seems to be working well.
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I agree. Now that the initial fuss has calmed and the work is mostly finished it actually seems broadly OK. Are they going to do anything with finishing the jutting out bits? At the moment, they are just massive weed beds.
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the only solution is dedicated cycle lanes. Bikes must be kept away from cars. As a driver and cyclist, I find Wightman Road a disaster. Traffic is slowed and queues created without positive result for cyclists. It is probably more dangerous for cyclists than before. And yes the roads are very quiet right now due to holidays etc. The problem has not been solved.
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