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?

It's an absolute fucking joke. I live in SE London and it's pissed so many people off. Like a pp said, I rarely use my car because the majority of the time it's quicker and easier to walk or use public transport. But I do need my car occasionally.

IMO it's massively disadvantaged women - the public transport where I live is crap east-west but much better north-south for commuting into Central London. And it's women who are making the majority of those east-west journeys who are really affected (this is cribbed from Caroline Criado-Perez to be fair). I have 3 DC and didn't drive for various reasons until DC3 came along. And it was a fucking revelation how much more I could get done when I wasn't relying on walking and public transport.

And no, getting around SE London with 3 small DC isn't actually possible on a bike - it's fucking hilly in places for a start.

Add to this the fact that the train services have been cut in half at the moment - as have buses for school traffic. If they wanted to make changes they should have been introduced gradually and gained support incrementally (with a close eye on knock on effects) instead of being introduced without consultation in one fell swoop and antagonising 80% of the local population.

I dread when the silver town tunnel opens, what a stupid idea. Move it down further to Thamesmead or Erith!

@LaurieFairyCake gosh, yes, Greenwich is a no go now. My dentist is there, I had an appointment for my DC straight after school, I had to abandon the car half way and run to get there (and was still 15 mins late). A complete joke and what for? The people with multi million pound houses on Crooms Hill? surely there could have been a better solution? Greenwich town centre will be really hit financially.

Plus this is with most people still working from home.

There’s a lot of anger about it

www.change.org/p/london-borough-of-lewisham-stop-road-closures-in-lewisham

I work in the community visiting older people at home. We also take out equipment. We’re spending hours in traffic and are unable to access closed roads even if those we are visiting live there. Many visits have had to be cancelled There was no consultation. I’m appalled at the way key workers are now being treated after working throughout the pandemic; carers, delivery drivers, taxi drivers, district nurses. If these people walk away since they have had enough then London will be in crisis. Those who are pro these road blocks are incredibly blinked and selfish in the fact that they can’t see what impact it is having on the wider community. We all want to reduce pollution. Apart from work I rarely use my car besides taking kids to football matches, one after another often several miles away. However I would happily agree to permits with one car per household. There are many other options which treat people equally and don’t benefit a few whilst adversely affecting the majority.

Have those that are in favour of this given up their cars completely?

Yes @SE3mum - I'm not in your area, but it hasn't gone unnoticed that the main beneficiaries of the LTN's seem to be the multi-million pound neighbourhoods.

@Swooningmonkey

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%.

They’ve tried to do this in Leeds too. Basically making a large area into 3 big cul-de-sacs. For some reason it was pulled at the 11th hour.

A friend lives there and it would push all tragic from the areas onto a designated road. Totally disregarding if you wanted to be on that road at all. Plus they’re all busy roads anyway so would make them busier.

Reasons given are social distancing - people in cars aren’t known for coughing on pedestrians, and climate change - I’m not sure people adding 30 minutes to their journeys multiple times per day has the desired affect there.

You have my sympathies.

Yep, I know some people on Crooms Hill - they're really hoping and pressuring that they can go traffic free

I'm SE London and it's been nothing short of hideous trying to do the basics, school run, supporting family members and friends, shopping etc. I've actually witnessed some pretty horrific accidents in the last week too and believe the two are perhaps connected?!
The blatant profiteering and opportunism of local councils on this issue is blindingly obvious. And it's got feck all to do with Covid. Pollution ironically is the worst I've ever seen it and I grew up here. Complete joke and just where are all these cyclists this allegedly benefits????

to be fair - I live in erm... the private estate in this area and there’s plenty who are pissed off that cars are using the estate as a cut through - so not sure L I’d it’s driven by money.

SE19 here. It's such a nightmare. I am a non driver so take the bus and oh god every journey seems to take ages. I got the bus from Croydon today. The only bit of the journey that the bus wasn't on snail pace was the road that's been blocked off and only the bus allowed through. If the road was open as usual then the traffic would have been spread out over several roads - not all stuck in one big long tedious traffic jam on one road.

Yes this has just happened in Hackney too. All the alternative routes have ben blocked off even Richmond Road, so everything is funnelled onto Graham Road and Mare Street - except those roads could not cope before this and now they are completely failing. Took me an hour and a half to do a 20 minute journey earlier this week.

I don't even want to go through bloody Hackney but have no choice if I want to get to the A12 - the route to Essex, Suffolk and Stansted Airport. People are not going to stop needing to get to those destinations just because some emit in Hackney decides hey hate cars.

Oh I hadn’t realised that! I’m in SE London too

@Gobelinoisawitchescat

to be fair - I live in erm... the private estate in this area and there’s plenty who are pissed off that cars are using the estate as a cut through - so not sure L I’d it’s driven by money.

Maybe just a coincidence but I understand the councillor for the ward who pushed this forward lives within the LTN area...

I live near one of those LTNs and it's beyond shit. The council have also decided to close two of three major roads to traffic, and there's roadworks along the third. Traffic backs up about half a mile. It's a joke!

@Brockleygirl46 which one? There’s a few.

Is this Hither Green and Lee at all??

[quote Gobelinoisawitchescat]@Brockleygirl46 which one? There’s a few.[/quote]
Not sure I should say but most extensive LTN in Lewisham. He’s very vocal about it in Twitter.

Wandsworth took theirs out because Tooting High Street became a car park .

Moped robbers love them though . All they need to do is a snatch on the main road , and then dive down a side road , and they’re away, even if police are close enough to get behind them . I’ve heard from ambulance crews trying to get to someone in cardiac arrest , abandoning their vehicle at the barriers and running the length of the street to get to their patient with all their kit , because they couldn’t even get to the house because of the traffic.

@plominoagain not to mention pics going viral of ambulances literally wedged in the barricades!
I live in SW/SE borders and work in Wandsworth and have no choice but to drive as part of my job, it's an absolute shambles.

I’m just next to a new LTN elsewhere. On the upside it’s now such a faff to drive to Tesco that I’m not doing it anymore. On the downside I’m getting an Ocado delivery instead. I am occasionally waking to Lidl though.

They have just cancelled all the low traffic schemes in south west London, was a nightmare

@Brockleygirl46 yes, it is!

OP I agree it's a nightmare, a couple of friends live on lee high road and their child asthma is much worse. All they are doing is pushing the traffic down particular streets, I cant understand how its green or fights climate.

I'm not in London and was quite pro the concept of low traffic schemes: I have plenty of friends who won't walk or cycle even two miles whereas in other cities cycling is much more normalised.

But the pop up cycle lanes they've put in as hideous. One forces you round the roundabout in the left hand lane instead of facilitating sensible lane choice based on where you're going! That makes you more likely to get knocked off if e.g you're turning right. Another is down a steep hill, segregating a cycle lane that already existed: except the road is really poor quality there so you used to need to sit on the outside of the lane so you weren't risking your wheels coming out from under you. Now you can't do that or you'd hit a metal pole. So instead I cycle in the roadway... Not sure that was the goal.

They have just started the LTNs by me too.
Absolutely ludicrous.

They aren't 'rat runs' they are roads that people have to use to travel from A to B. That is what roads are designed for. People talk about pollution, but all my journey now take longer, as all the cars get forced onto fewer roads. Traffic jams abound, even though at least 60% of usual journeys aren't even happening at the moment - which is why I guess they are rushing them through now, in the hope that people either don't notice as they aren't traveling, or people say 'it's not as bad as I was expecting'.

How long is it before someone realises that blocking off these roads will also stop emergency vehicles getting to people in time too ?

@Bringonspring can you point me in the direction of any news story or report on the cancellation please?
I'd love to have something to back up my opinion in the one local FB group where I am in the Country (where they are just being introduced at the moment).