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?

Yep, you can book through an app or online. General taxi services as well as deliveries. Their Twitter feed is very amusing! They've transported just about everything by bike.

twitter.com/pedalmeapp?s=09

@Macncheeseballs inner cities are - our here - not so much. Of course lots of people get on fine without a car - but if you’re picturing somewhere where everyone hops on the tube - this isn’t it.

As an example - for secondary school (a long time ago) I used to get three buses and it took about an hour and a quarter. The bus services aren’t any better now.

Yes I was talking about inner cities. As for school, plenty of people go to ones near so they can walk, I'm not sure I'd choose one that requires 3 buses to get to, but I do appreciate that kind of choice isn't always available

@RomanyBlood

What I am saying is that these schemes are there to drive behavioural change - specifically to get us to get out of our cars and chose a different form of travel

That’s the theory. The reality is that people spend longer sitting in traffic jams and taking longer routes, creating more pollution on surrounding main roads. Plumbers , electricians, care workers etc cannot manage without transport. Women (typically) managing a f/t job and a family cannot usually shop every day (and to do so adds COVID risk) so will need a car, an Uber or a delivery van to manage a weekly family shop.

It is a load of ideological bollocks driven by the v powerful cycling lobby.

I am all for cycling, I cycle too, but this is ‘make life impossible for bastard drivers’ rather than an effective measure.

v powerful cycling lobby lol!

not sure what well oiled cycle lobbying machine you have where you live but where I am it's half a dozen blokes who meet in a cafe once a month and occasionally persuade the council to put in a bike rack somewhere near the shops

put that up against the motoring and fossil fuel lobbies and see who really has the power here

Last time I looked cars were still the major form of transport in the world and have been for the last 100 years

v powerful cycling lobby lol!

not sure what well oiled cycle lobbying machine you have where you live but where I am it's half a dozen blokes who meet in a cafe once a month and occasionally persuade the council to put in a bike rack somewhere near the shops (sorry not sure how I make bold)

Much more powerful in our neck of the woods. At least two thirds of the councillors are pro cycling lobbyists who coincidentally also live within the LTN and are also governors at the schools within the LTN...

Where I am the new LTN benefits a group of streets full of lovely big Victorian family houses (several occupied by MPs) each worth 7 figures. The traffic is forced onto main roads lined with social housing estates.

Go figure.....

@Londonmummy66 that’s the issue here too.

I live just off Shooters Hill Road OP and its a nightmare with these bollards. I don't drive but the traffic by bus is horrific.

@TeachesOfPeaches it’s absolutely horrendous. If anything goes wrong with the tunnel as well it’s literally full gridlock. The barrier on South Row is an absolute joke and I don’t even know what it’s supposed to be doing... Greenwich is no go and all of Lee and Hither Green are blocked off.

@Gobelinoisawitchescat cyclists are still using the bloody pavements even though half the road is cordoned off for them!!

@Gobelinoisawitchescat - just to add insult to injury the local estate agents say that being in the LTN will add a decent chunk to the value of the houses in it (not that they needed it). No doubt why the local Council's "Environment Lead, and Deputy Council Leader with responsibility for Sustainable Transport, Environment and Clean Air" approved it - oops did I forget to mention said Councillor lives in the LTN and will therefore be one of the ones who benefits from the house price increases?

You seriously can't make this stuff up...

lewisham.gov.uk/-/media/files/imported/lewishammembercodeofconduct.ashx

Code of conduct for elected Counsellors. I think some of their actions in respect to LTN’s could be reasonably challenged.

Where we are there was a 2 lane road that was busy but the traffic flowed (it’s a main artery). They took a lane and blocked it off, out in bike traffic lights and added another lane (so again narrowing the road) through the park even though there was already a bike lane.

It is rare to see a bike using any of these - they still prefer to hare along the pavements and ignore the traffic lights anyway.

Sooner they licence bikes the better. Plus the park is full of piles of bloody Boris bikes as the ‘young people’ use them to get to get together in the park (boozing).

@Londonmummy66 ha - while in theory it would - but who wants to live somewhere that, when you get to the end you’re in total gridlock. My direct area is never going to have reams of traffic - but the fact that trying to get out of the gate if you needed to get out during rush hour is impossible is still making me consider moving further out!

Londonmummy- plenty of social housing estates have been closed off to through traffic for years

Trying to get out during rush hour is not impossible for bus users and cyclists

@Macncheeseballs hahahahaha busses - are you joking? Read some of the comments fro people who don’t have cars and are attempting to use the busses. When the roads are a carp park a bus is of no use to anyone.

@Macncheeseballs - yes but it doesn't sit quite right with me that the naice roads get to benefit from an LTN whilst the blocks of social housing on the adjacent roads are going to suffer from the high pollution of the traffic jams outside their windows as all the traffic from the 7 nice streets that have been closed off to non residents is forced onto the two roads lined with social housing on either side.

Yes but some 'naice' houses are also affected, and some housing estates also benefit. Its not black and white.

Gobelino, yes buses aren't always reliable either, but more implementation of 24hr bus lanes should help

@TooManyDogsandChildren

Ditto

I set off on my usual short cut - not rat run! - to to get to the A12 bypassing the main roads to find myself lost in a never end maze of blocked streets & dead ends. Fortunately I know or rather knew the neighbourhood so avoid the CCTV’d virtual traps, but I wasted a half hour I’ll never get back.

Have no doubt that CCTV is automatically notching up fines for unsuspecting or uniformed car drivers who crash virtual blocks.

At no time have the local Council put route maps through residents doors to help them navigate their own streets without incurring penalties. Kerchingggg!

If the traffic is so bad would you not consider another mode of transport

I went out today to collect a unit for Ds’s bedroom.

What other mode of transport would you suggest I use.

InTheNorth
Lambeth is ruled by the London Cycling Campaign. The leader of the council is an anti car zealot.

You haven’t noticed the powerful cycling lobby influencing City Hall??

And in Balham this week the main post office has stopped accepting parcels and mail to post because a new in-consulted cycle lane outside has meant that the vans cannot collect from the Post Office.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/parcels-and-letters-are-stuck-in-limbo/ar-BB19lWup