Forum

The regular traffic jam on Durnsford Road between 3 and 7 pm (with the possible exception of school holidays) has been a nightmare for some time. Measures that would deal with this would be so welcome!

I experienced it every Wednesday evening for a year, from early summer 2023 to summer 2024, when I left at 6.30pm for a class at 7pm at Bounds Green Bowls and Tennis Courts. In principle the 184 bus could have taken me door to door, but in practice I always walked there in less time than it took the bus (the classes stopped in the school holidays, when it might have been different). Who is going to catch a bus if a half-hour's walk gets you there faster?

This is a particular problem for buses, because they have to stick to their route - cars can try a different route. So I do think that buses need more priority than cars, and then more people might also use them.

Also, they can scoop up more people than can cars - 60 at a go! 

So, how does the Council's new plan seek to deal with this - intended to provde bus lanes between 4 and 7pm. The plans they have offered are complicated (sorry, I haven't got round to adding bus lanes to the map above). Starting in the middle of OR Tambo Rec, opposite Clifton road, there is a bus lane more or less all the way to the Bounds Green traffic lights - with the exception of

1. bus stops 
2. signalised pedestrian crossings 
3. a section that I don't understand between Wroxham Gardens and Woodfield Way (maybe the road is wider here - will have to check).

Where there is a bus lane, the parking on the other side of the road is to be removed. There has been no reduction in the number of disabled parking bays.

The upgrade for existing pedestrian crossings - or even new ones that weren't there before - to signalised crossings is welcome, and necessary with bus lanes - 5 in all. Perhaps this will deal with the complaints about the crossing near the Garden Centre. We just have to note whether the time offered for people to wait and then cross is adequate. Plus 3 zebra crossings where there aren't bus lanes. 

Then there is another bus lane at the other end of the B106, from St. Andrew's Church/Curzon road to almost Colney Hatch Lane. This is on the left side of the road, going uphill - so not the same side as the one to Bounds Green. I do not have experience of this section of the road - perhaps somebody could clarify why this is needed? 

There is a long section of road between St. Andrew's Church and the middle of OR Tambo Rec (Clifton Road) where there are no changes to bus priority nor removal of parking spaces. So the claim on the large flyer that has been circulating the area that 

1. '[the bus lane] will remove parking at local shops, cafe and church and destroy the local community'

is wrong - there is no bus lane anywhere near local shops or local cafes. 

There are clearly questions to be answered, but I think in general it would be worth trying out this scheme - and letting the Council know which works, and which don't.