Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Cycling along Green Lanes
There is growing impatience and frustration about the Council’s lack of action on improving cycling and pedestrian safety on Green Lanes.* This mounting concern was covered in a recent piece in the Ham and High (see link below) about this and the growing discontent from cyclist about the safety of cycling along Green Lanes – either as a commuter, or just travelling to the local shops and services.
https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/25393803.cycling-campaigner-wants-pr...
As Trump would say…. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
*and elsewhere across the borough. All the cycle routes from surrounding boroughs stop abruptly at the Haringey border!
Cycling along Green Lanes has been described as 'hairy' (Image: Carla Francome) (Image: Carla Francome)
Tags for Forum Posts: cycling
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Melissa Proust on
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More people use the bus than cycle. Personally I'd rather more people took the bus than felt the need to drive. If we had better infrastructure for buses so that they weren't jammed up all the time then more people would use them and leave the car at home. This would enable business users ie vans to move around more freely. Cyclists make up only a small percentage of the total but are by far the most vocal and entitled. As usual when the weather is good then the illusion of a cycling heaven appears... come a cold wet mid winters day, when cycle lanes are completely abandoned apart from poor uber eats drivers, then we hear far less from this "interest" group... probably because they are sitting on a nice warm dry bus!
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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HARINGEY Council listens more carefully to the borough's car-owning minority than to the non-car-owning majority.
Next-door Boroughs are forging ahead with cycling infra while on present form, Haringey will be among the last handful of local authorities in London to properly accommodate cycling.
The council lag two decades behind Waltham Forest and are lagging possibly three decades behind Paris.
This sorry state of affairs is due to a combination of factors: lack of political support, lobbying by businesses and a leadership focussed on identity politics plus the entrenched opposition from the council's Highwaymen.
DELIVERY: meanwhile, the council is committed to delivering on publications and public relations.
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THE addiction of some car-owners is such that they are not always honest nor able to maintain a sense of perspective.
Disclosure: former car and motorcycle owner; current owner of two bicycles and two legs.
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CHARLIE, it's not just immediate physical dangers. i.e. the risks as a cyclist or pedestrian, of being broken, crushed or doored.
Because it's largely invisible, air pollution gets overlooked. It's caused by the continuous burning of fossil-fuel in a channel bounded by strip-development three stories high.
As any review of their literature over many years would attest, Haringey Council has long cared about air pollution.
The problem is that they don't care enough to do much about it. The council is more concerned with direct support from GL shopkeepers than with something as vague, esoteric and nebulous as public health.
The Council's Director of Public Health is unlikely to comment on air pollution in GL. I would not be surprised if he had been told to Stay in your lane.
‘I was told I had two weeks to live’ – why are so many young, fit, ...
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There's always a mighty windy breeze through Green Lanes! Try eating outside at one of these restaurants unless it's the odd two weeks of sun!
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I EXPECT most car-owners would not joke about children who suffer from respiratory ailments.
Though Haringey may have silenced their Director of Public Health—and which crew are not ready to take any meaningful action to reduce the toxic fumes that linger in the trough that is "Green" Lanes—Haringey Council would not be flippant about air-pollution that leads to hospital admissions:
https://haringeycommunitypress.co.uk/2025/08/13/north-mid-treating-...
Cyclists may breathe the worst of it, but the potential harm is not limited to cyclists.
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My instinct is that if pollution’s progressively worse on Green Lanes and other major routes such as West Green Road, it’s likely to be the impact of LTNs forcing more traffic onto them, but that may not be the case. Has anyone here got access to stats to show what’s happened to pollution on GL since the LTNs began?
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Dan...it's all about Haringey not wanting to upset the businesses along Green Lanes as they get good Business rates from all these successful restaurants, coffee shops, hardware, bakery and grocers... etc...
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Permalink Reply by George on
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I witnessed 2 cyclists get taken out by a single parked-up driver opening their car door into traffic just last week on Green Lanes in front of Gökyüzü, both riders crashed and hit the floor and were lucky to walk away with just scratches and bruises. The road is a gauntlet and the absence of decent cycle lanes in the area should shame those who manage the borough's infrastructure. The difference when you cross the borough's boundaries into Hackney, Walthamstow, Enfield and Islington is like night and day, cycle lanes disappear almost immediately once you're in Haringey.
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the absence of decent cycle lanes in the area should shame those who manage the borough's infrastructure.
True, but one cannot shame the shameless!
With the current crew, there is no prospect of improvement.
The car-owner minority in the Borough can sleep soundly, knowing that the Cabinet Member for Transport, alongside the Highwaymen, have their backs.
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What about a cycle lane down the centre of Green Lanes then Carla? Or... get rid of the business parking either side shown so clearly in your photo! I wouldn't advise dangerously cycling side by side like this on major bus routes we need. Cycling Proficiency testing needed for adults too.
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