To think that the current traffic restrictions are fucking ridiculous

[Gobelinoisawitchescat]

I live in SE London - and since these sodding barriers have gone up all over the place the roads are just completely blocked with traffic.

While I know someone is going to come on talking about climate change etc - am not sure how directing all the traffic to one location makes a damn bit of difference - the cars are still on the roads, they’re just concentrated in certain ones.

Am I missing something?

Are the barriers there for the traffic or to allow extra space on the pavement for social distancing?

The roads here are a complete nightmare at the moment. The council has part blocked one of the main rat runs near us for social distancing. The road is rarely used by pedestrians, as it doesn’t even have footpaths. As a result traffic is backed up on one of the few roads in and out of town. A school run which normally takes 20 minutes now takes 45. The majority of the senior school kids who were getting the bus to school are now dropped off by their parents because they’ve restricted numbers on school buses by 50%.

Oh god, is it an Active Neighbourhoods thing? There has been great drama about the attempted imposition of such a scheme in Levenshulme in Manchester and since it has been paused due to a large number of local residents having real concerns about the scheme as is, the reaction of those who were leading it has been vile. Such nastiness, untruthfulness and anger, it's left me quite shocked. I see the thinking behind these schemes but they have to work for all affected, not just a lucky few, and they don't work unless the infrastructure is in place around them to make alternatives to driving genuinely workable.

Extra space on pavements for social distancing, never heard anything so stupid in all my life. For a virus we’ve been told doesn’t spread by just walking past someone anyway.

A quick search suggests they are Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, designed for drive traffic away from certain areas like schools.

I hear you OP, these seems to have come out of nowhere and just diverts traffic to other seas. OH was talking to someone today who said it normally takes them 1/2 hour to get home, but recently, had been taking an hour, because they are unable to get onto the road they live due to the diversions.

@Swooningmonkey here they have blocked off basically ALL rat runs - forcing every single bit of traffic onto single main roads.

No chance is it to do with SD - the roads that are closed are quiet - it’s the ones with lots of pedestrians which are now bumper to bumper all day every day.

I'm south London. We have roads cordoned off for Covid - mainly ones that don't have many people walking up them anyway.

Then just this week they have implemented local traffic areas and school streets. All it appears to be doing is moving the traffic onto other roads and causing more issues as everyone has to keep turning round. Or just driving onto pavement round barrier as one person was filmed doing.

One LTA is already about to removed as it has just caused gridlock. Plus on the school streets they appear to have left the temporary barriers in place even though it's the weekend!

Facebook is very active at the moment as you can imagine!

From what I can make out the deputy council leader is a member of XR so is suspected of having his own interests at heart!

Do you live in hither green @Gobelinoisawitchescat?

@Toomanycats99 sounds very similar - I’m South East London and it’s all been rushed through with no consultation.

@ShirleyPhallus very very close

I'm in NE London and we have loads here too, seemingly without consultation or notification. You should read the posts on our local NextDoor forum - it's all kicking off on there! Lots of Wokey McWokefaces going "Ooh, but climate Change" and people replying with "Yeah, but I'm elderly/disabled/a delivery driver/live on one of the unrestricted, now clogged, roads"

@Gobelinoisawitchescat

Someone posted an interesting letter to the council asking them if they had done assessment of the roads not being closed before they implemented the scheme ther wise how could they say it had met their stated aims of reducing traffic etc if they hadn't measured it before. A while ago there also seemed to be a pro cycling Facebook group which unfortunately made public some of its conversations / documents regarding how to increase cycling and reduce car use in the borough. It wasn't overly complimentary to the car drivers.

We have had roads blocked off 'coz Covid'. KCC say its to encourage cyclists . What it has actually done is blocked off routes where you can actually see past parked cars to make safe turns and has turned my side road into a rat run. The HGVs that get sent down here by their SATNAV will not be able to back out without guidance (the police have been called on previous occasions). Fire engines and dustbin lorries cannot make turns. Parking at the nearby school will be chaotic.

No cyclists in sight. Ever.

The wooden barriers (massive planters filled with soil) were removed by residents. They are due to be put back by tomorrow.

Oh and the council council actually posted an ad asking for volunteers to man the barriers!

Apparently the plan for 2 schools has had to be removed as they cannot get the volunteers!

FFS at least employ people properly to do it!

@ChristinaRussell to be fair our local FB groups and Nextdoor are a bit of a war zone on this too.. the reason i tried for the relative sanity of MN

@EatDessertFirst I think a couple of ours now have cameras trained on them to stop people removing them! (A great allocation of funds when we can’t even get our bins properly picked up).

Our county highways dept have bought in 3 road closures and 12 sets of temporary traffic lights in a 10 mile radius. The lanes around here have been signposted for 2 diversions and are used as a route to avoid 3 sets of lights. it's fucking madness at the moment. We might not have the barriers her in the countryside but we sure as hell have the congestion.

her??? here.

I think they’re great - traffic is supposed to be on the main roads, drivers rat running and blindly following Waze down residential streets are a menace. I know quite a few people who’ve started driving in London since Covid because they don’t want to get public transport, who’re now complaining that the roads are too busy and there’s nowhere to park because everyone else is driving .

The street I live on is getting a planter at one end, so it won’t be a through route for cars anymore, and I can’t wait. In terms of consultation, nobody consulted me about whether I wanted a stream of satnav-directed traffic down my previously quiet street in the first place.

We have school streets here, it makes a huge positive difference at pick up, no dangerous parking, no cars sat idling, no parents driving on the pavements.

There are a few LTAs in my part of North London, they generally work well, once they’re installed the change has been passed by the council so is reflected on google maps etc when planning routes. So no reason for motorists to get ‘stuck’ in a closed area.

It's a nightmare - where I am they've made 6 consecutive side roads no left turn off a main road, made a road parallel to the main road one way only and that's before the bridge closure traffic.....

Surely traffic jams make global warming worse? We should be aiming for delay free quick moving traffic

Where I live the council have made all the crossings automatic so that pedestrians don’t have to touch the button for the green man. So every set of traffic lights in town turns to red every 2 minutes regardless of whether or not there is someone waiting to Cross the road,even during the night. It is a nightmare and causes huge tailbacks and it now takes twice a long to get anywhere, oh and they’ve also made the entire city centre 20 miles an hour so the traffic is just crawling through town when it’s not a standstill.

It Is horrendous and does nothing to reduce pollution. I have taken to leaving for work at silly o clock which does help a bit.

My OH was volunteering for the food bank deliveries but has had to give it up because of the traffic.

South london is very bad, most of my short cuts are blocked off. Can’t we just all get together and remove the plant boxes!!

Also what happens if an emergency vehicle needs to get to such a road?

Stopping traffic going down certain roads isn't going to stop people using their cars, it just means they're going to be sitting on one clogged up road for longer.

Surely that means they're all sending out more emissions and increasing their contributions to climate change.