Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Don't Forget - Wightman Road Closed for 5 months from Next Tuesday (29th March)
In case it's escaped your notice or slipped your mind, Wightman Road will be closed to through traffic for five months starting next Tuesday 29th March.
This will be a significant dislocation to North London traffic movement. So much so that warning notices have been placed as far away as Archway. No doubt it will also have a significant impact on Harringay's traffic.
However, there really is no alternative to at least partial road closure. The railway bridge between Alroy and Wightman roads is being replaced and there will simply be no road for a few months!
One option the Council could have taken would have been to simply reroute the traffic via the Ladder rung roads. It is to their credit, however, they recognised that with over 16,000 vehicles a day using Wightman Road, this would have placed an intolerable burden on our narrow residential roads, already beset by undue traffic volumes.
After consultation with residents, the solution decided upon is to place blocks at regular intervals along Wightman Road, in effect creating clusters of two or three rung roads. Whilst this will retain unfettered access for residents. it will render the whole Ladder, including Wightman, useless as a rat run. You can clearly see the details on the full size pdf map attached below.
Quite what it will mean for traffic in Harringay, Haringey and further afield remains to be seen. Those of us who have been working with the Council on this very much hope that traffic will quickly find other routes. It's fair to say, however, that at very best, we're going to experience some very heavy congestion on Green Lanes for a month or so.
At the same time, the Harringay traffic study will continue. The coincident timing of this piece of work with the bridge closure may be fortunate in that it will give the consultants an opportunity to study the outcome of diverting traffic away from Harringay.
A pdf copy of the Wightman Road closure is attached, along with some Council-produced documentation. You can stay up to date with what's happening on the Wightman Road closure on a dedicated page on the council website here.
Tags for Forum Posts: traffic, wightman bridge, wightman bridge closure
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JoeW on
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I think the North Circ would be first choice for "noise and bustle" though
:)
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Actually North of Harringay the North Circular is a mess. Part of our problem.
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Permalink Reply by Antoinette on
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When I'm in my car on my own, I'm the noise and bustle....it's the only time I get to play house music really, really loud....
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I just checked some of these route planners and yes they don't help. RAC seems to be aware of a road closure in the Endymion Road area but still plans the route along Wightman.
Not sure about the others but I found it is possible to report data problems on Google maps. What I did was got directions from my (ladder rung) house to somewhere, Google suggests a route along Wightman, then click "Send Feedback" (bottom right). Then "Report a problem," highlight the bit of the route along Wightman, and tell Google the road is closed.
Can I encourage everyone to do this I assume Google is more likely to change their data the more reports they get?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Most local authorities put roadworks data online and I would have assumed that the big organisation like Google and the RAC would do pretty regular downloads onto their navigation systems. Link below to the information for Wightman Road (and any other road you might fancy searching for)
https://roadworks.org
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And to expand, one of the map layers in roadworks.org shows an indication of traffic flow/delays. How real-time it is I don't know, but looking at it from time to time I'd say it's not totally unrealistic and a lot better than nothing.
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I think AA and RAC both use Google. They are both now saying Wightman "May be closed at certain times or on certain days" but still planning routes along it.
I think the data is starting to feed through though. When I looked at roadworks.org this morning the closures were all marked but I'm fairly sure the status said "Advanced Notice". This evening it says ""Work in progress".
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Permalink Reply by Justin Guest on
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In fairness, when this was raised by folks at the meeting about the Traffic Survey a few weeks ago and the Wightman Closure came up a question was raised as to whether Sat Nav type organisations would be made aware of the closure and the officers said they would/have been...
This may be as much the time to takes to filter through into these organisations as anything.
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This notion that car owners are incapable of making good judgement calls as to when to use their cars and when not is really irksome though. Like many people, I own a car which I very rarely use but all the same I wouldn't want to be without it. I have never used it to drive to work. I do my darndest to stay off the road at peak hours. I've never had cause to pay the congestion charge. But I like to visit friends and family out of town who I wouldn't get to see if I didn't have my own car. I take my elderly mother out and about now her arthritis makes mobility an issue for her. I do my fortnightly shop (used to be weekly but I've limited it to fortnightly now). Sometimes I want to put my son's bike in the boot to take him to the bike stunt park or velodrome of a weekend. These are the last remaining journeys that I feel are simply unachievable by public transport. I don't think that's unreasonable in the grand scheme of things.
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Brilliantly put, Antoinette. I too have been irked by the criticism that all car users are irresponsible and selfish and by the repeated use of the phrase "rat runners" to describe us all. We have a car and, until recently, we used it sparingly as well - to visit our families outside London, to transport sick cats to the vet, to occasionally make a big run to the supermarket. Right now, however, my husband is using it daily to drive to Essex where he's training to be a teacher at a school there. The location wasn't his choice - he was put with the school by the university through which he is completing his training. At some point he will get a job closer to home where he can use public transport or cycle or even walk. I just wish all those criticising the use of cars would appreciate that, like it or not, some people's livelihoods depend on them.
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Permalink Reply by JulieB on
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Well said Antoinette, this is very much my attitude to using my car. Although since Sept when my son started secondary school I have to take him to and from school (for reasons I've mentioned previously). These journeys won't be forever and I'm hopeful he will be able to manage a bus or train alone in a year or two. I do 90% of my grocery shopping online, and pick up the remaining 10% when I'm out doing other things, often without a car.
In terms of navigation I know a few people who used Waze last week and that seemed to help them navigate the jams. It does show road closures and heavy traffic.
Yes MLB constant use of the term 'rat-running' has been irking me too, but yesterday Hugh clarified this saying he was using this term to refer to out of borough traffic using Harringay as a cut through, not local within borough traffic.
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Thanks for the clarification about "rat run", I hadn't seen Hugh's earlier post when I wrote mine. I just find the whole "them vs us" tone of some posts rather tiresome. I love the fact our Ladder road is quiet and virtually traffic-free at the moment, but I would never criticise anyone who needed to use their car to travel a distance to work or to transport their children or elderly relatives.
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