A letter just dropped through y door asking for feedback. Here is mine:
"I hope the council considers the permanent closure of Wightman Road. Gradually commuters and long-distance drivers are realising they need to either use alternative main roads, or switch to public transport or cycling. The study shows that residents overwhelmingly do not own a car (61%), and prefer public transport, walking or cycling for their commute (82%)."
Tags for Forum Posts: harringay traffic study, traffic
Yes. Filtering Wightman Road could not be done without other measures to improve traffic flow and pollution levels on Green Lanes. But the key point is why should Wightman Road/the Ladder be a sacrifice zone to 100's of thousands of commuting through traffic? Historic closures are being revisited as part of the Transport Consultant's Review which is for the FIRST time taking a holistic approach rather than the piecemeal change that has happened to date.
I apologise Esat, I misread your initial post this morning and assumed your were complaining about your drive/commute from Southgate to Wightman.
Btw I've met several Living Wightman campaigners and your characterisation of them as new-to-the-area yuppies who don't themselves drive is way off mark. Most have lived in the area for some time, and their days of upward mobility a distant memory. Most if not all of them drive. Most if not all have experienced the sometimes extreme inconvenience of longer journeys at certain times of day in both cars and buses, and are keen to see improvements to traffic flow in the surrounding area. But they are also experiencing a healthier, safer, cleaner and quieter place to live and believe that is worth the inconvenience. Many are also walking and/or cycling more, and trying to find different times of day to travel, and finding the inconvenience is often not so bad after all.
It sounds like you have weighed up the current peace and quiet of your Wightman office versus the inconvenience of your longer journeys to make property inspections, and come to the opposite conclusion. Fair enough, but it doesn't make the Living Wightman campaigners wrong.
Apologies again Esat I am not trying to manipulate your points, just trying to see exactly where we agree and disagree. I think we both agree that the level of traffic on Wightman is unacceptable for a residential area - that is why you moved to Southgate. But you also think - and I think this view is not uncommon - that any attempt to reduce traffic on Wightman has an unacceptable consequence - "dumping the traffic elsewhere".
I don't believe that is an inevitable consequence, as there are plenty of measures which, if the political will is there, can be put in place both to reduce overall traffic and to improve the flow of the traffic that remains.
OK. There seems to be a bit of a chunk missing here, so I'll have to put forward my perspective.
I grew up on Endymion Road, have lived here since the age of ten months, when my family moved here in 1980. In that time, I've seen a lot of changes, and I've seen Endymion Road get busier and more polluted. I really do want to support the Living Wightman campaign. Anything that makes peoples' lives better is obviously worthwhile.
But I can't; at least, not yet. Whether people on here want to acknowledge it or not, Endymion Road is getting worse for all its residents. I've read some of the proposals to compensate for the extra burden it'll have to take on if Wightman Road is permanently closed, and, quite frankly, there aren't really any that seem adequate. I'd like to see more ideas, because I'd rather Living Wightman got what they wanted if there is a real way to take the resultant pressure off Endymion Road.
I'm not particularly enthused by the (albeit few) snide responses to people expressing genuine concerns about how this closure will affect them, nor the rather holier-than-thou attitude towards people using cars. I am a big advocate of public transport, walking and cycling, and I make full use of them, always making sure the car is a last resort. However, I and my family DO need to use the car locally rather frequently; my parents are experiencing all the usual problems, and some not-so-usual ones, that come with advanced age. There are six of us living in a big house, which means the local shopping is quite hefty, and is done at various locations around Harringay. We have also had to do extensive repairs on our house, which requires that we transport a number of large and/or heavy items, frequently, to and from DIY outlets and the recycling centre near Alexandra Palace. None of this can be done via bicycle or walking.
Like I say, I'd like to see Living Wightman succeed, but only if there's a genuine effort to address the concerns of everyone living in Harringay, whom this site was set up to represent, and not if such success comes at the cost of people living on Endymion Road and Harringay Green Lanes, and certainly not if the only reactions people living in those areas are going to get from people involved with LW are non-committal at best, and smug and snotty at worst.
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