Travel habits are changing. More people working from home, yet more cars on the roads; less use of public transport, more children driven to school.
Could our streets be made more people-friendly - healthier, safer, quieter and more accessible for children, the disabled and the elderly? Or do the disadvantages of change outweigh the benefits?
Join other residents to explore the issues in Alexandra and part of Bounds Green wards on Saturday 17th October at 3-5pm via Zoom. Free tickets are available from Eventbrite. All Welcome!
Speakers:
Jack Maizels - Transport for London
Cat Kenyon - Haringey Living Streets
There will be lots of opportunity to have your voice heard in small group discussions.
Organised by local residents and the Palace Gates Residents Association. Queries: alexandrawardcommunity@gmail.com
This meeting follows on from one held in July entitled Our Community beyond Covid: where do we go from here? and from another held in February in Sweet Tree Cafe on traffic issues in the Palace Gates neighbourhood.
Replies
We now have a report of the above meeting - available here. If you have any queries about it, please post them on this website, or email alexandrawardcommunity@gmail.com . Thanks to everyone who attended - those who registered on Eventbrite have been emailed (we do not have email addresses for anyone else).
I attended the meeting. Thank you for giving us the opportunity. It was well organised and interesting. Having now had more time to consider the situation, and knowing that attendees represented a very small percentage of the residents potentially affected by LTNs, I think it is imperative that we give local people as many ways as possible of learning about the plans and sharing their views.
There were converations about previous gatehrings and consultations in the area. I knew nothing of these and so there must be others who have not been informed of plans or realised there is a debate happening.
Whilst I favour some measures, I am not in favour of plans that cut off routes indiscriminately (i.e., for residents as well as those cutting through), and which are in force all day. There are better, more nuanced ways of achieving the objectives that do not penalise residents so harshly, many of whom rely on a vehicle for work, for seeing elderly parents, for shopping and for maintaining a healthy social life.
I look forward to engaging further and with more residents
Hi Betty,
Glad you could come along on Saturday! The previous survey and consequent traffic meeting earlier this year were focused on the Palace Gates neighbourhood, and I see you live in Bounds Green. It was, however, evident from this meeting that the traffic issues of residents in both neighbourhoods are very similar.
We then had a 'Our Community beyond Covid' meeting in Albert Road Rec in July which was not specifically about traffic - more about our experiences of lockdown and what we could learn from them. For this, we had posters around the two neighbourhoods and beyond, but it is difficult reaching people! A desire to return to the quieter streets of that time was expressed by some of the attendees, and they requested a meeting on this topic.
I absolutely agree that more discussions are needed. Do you have ideas about how this could be achieved? As was mentioned at the meeting, Haringey have proposed having a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in the Winton Av/Blake Road/Woodfield Way area, but have not received a decision from the DfT as to whether funding will be made available. It is quite likely that it will not, so everything is up in the air at the moment. But a discussion would definitely be a good idea anyway.
In case it is useful, here is a description of a possible layout for a low traffic neighbourhood in the Winton Av etc neighbourhood mentioned above.
Best wishes Annabel
Dear Betty - could you outline the 'better more nuanced ways'? It would be interesting to know what other ways there are to reduce through traffic and speeding. LTNS do not descriminate against residents but against through traffic. Quieter roads with no through traffic, as well as reducing pollution, also make roads safer for older residents, children and residents with disability.
Timed traffic closures during problematic times, as is achieved around schools, i.e., not all day. Number plate recognition so local people and their families can still get to their homes are two methods I know of, but I'm sure experts have other tools.
Also, a ''neighbourhood" is often more than a few adjoinging streets because we shop beyond just our few roads and so the impact of changes in aneighbouring area can be felt by those nearby.
My shopping habits have changed since the Warwick Road and Alderman's HIll closures because I cannot get on to the North Circ going East without adding a further 2 miles to my return journey and I don't want to add those miles. LTN objectives achieved, but I no longer shop at the local shops there either, so there is a potential economic impact on places as well. In other words, there are impacts beyond just traffic, which should be evaluated and can sometimes be avoided if a broader view is taken.
The way Enfield have implemented the LTN in Bowes Park is controversial, but if it doesn't work, it can be changed. I also couldn't understand why they had done it that way, but after talking to someone who knows a lot about it, I can see that the situation is very complex.
Enfield Council are adaptable - residents told them that their strategy in the Fox Lane neighbourhood had not worked - of installing large planters at the ends of roads to narrow them. Now these have been replaced with filters, creating a Low Traffic Neighbourhood, and as I understand it, this seems to be settling down well. But that neighbourhood is very much simpler to filter than the Bowes Park one.
One of the points of defining these schemes as 'emergency' schemes is that they are not permanent, and so can be changed easily. And that is the point of running a consultation at the same time. If they work, they can be made permanent, but not necessarily. They are intended to address the current emergency in public transport, which I trust will not be permanent!
It occurs to me that the Haringey Bowes neighbourhood - which must be very much impacted by the Enfield scheme - could have its own Neighbourhood meeting like ours, focusing on the immediate concerns of that neighbourhood? Perhaps in association with the Bowes Park Community Association? It would require a couple of trained facilitators to run it, probably using the same structure as we did in our meeting.
I thought I'd attend this meeting because I'd been getting increasingly worried about the growth of traffic on local streets since the summer. On my road (which is quite wide), speeding has become a real issue.
The event was well facilitated, and after each presentation we were put into small groups to talk things over. Everyone had a chance to share their views, and not surprisingly, there was a range of opinion. For me, the highlight was Cat Kenyon's presentation. The key fact I will not forget is that a massive 40% of all car journeys are under 2 miles. If we can reduce this figure by making it much easier, pleasanter and safer to walk and cycle for short journeys, there will be more road space for those who really do need to use their cars. Also air quality will improve, which will help us all. As someone without a car, I would certainly ride my bike more if there was less through-traffic (and if road surfaces had fewer potholes).
During last Saturday's discussions, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods came out as the favoured way forward for our neighbourhood. Participants asked for the traffic situation of the wider area to be taken into consideration when deciding where LTNs should be set up, to avoid merely shifting traffic problems from one location to another.
Over 40 local residents took part in last Saturday's meeting, which was lively and productive.I will give a proper update shortly ...
If anyone has already tried to register for this event, and found it was 'Sold Out', this was a mistake and has been corrected! Sorry about this - we would like as many people from Alexandra Ward to take part as possible, so please do try again. The event is of course free.