beatnic

And I'm sorry you felt the need to be sarcastic.

SimonM Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Errr....how about a zebra crossing with an island > in the middle? Seemed to work fine before... > > And I have used this junction for years and years > both as a driver and as a pedestrian People drive too fast up and down Forest Hill Road. I don't have any statistical evidence, but I'd imagine a child stands a better chance of crossing the road safely when there's a red light for traffic and a green man for pedestrians, than chancing it at a zebra crossing. I've witnessed countless drivers ignoring people waiting to cross. And many of the pedestrians include families with children.

Whilst I agree that the lights could do with improved phasing I'm interested to know... Of those people on the forum against the lights, how many of you have to cross Forest Hill Road to take children to the park? And what alternatives do you suggest for those people who do have children, or are considering letting older children go to the park on their own?

Here's a map

We went yesterday for an early evening meal with the children and it was a great success. I can recommend the fetuccine al salmone - we snacked on some bread and olives beforehand with a glass of montepulciano d'abruzzo. The childrens portions are slightly smaller versions of the non-childrens versions and cost ?1 less. The service was very friendly - especially as our youngest decorated the white tablecloth on the table behind him a beautiful tomato red! Large espressos with toffee/pecan, tiramisu rounded it off perfectly. We left at about 7, by which time it was starting to fill up big time. Definitely recommended. Good luck to them.

ah

boosboss, thanks for the info, that's really good news about the traffic lights. It'll do wonders for my nerves! Is there any further detail available on this? I'm looking forward to many a large espresso in Lorenzos :-)

Kevin, great to see you on the forum :-) The live jazz will definitely tempt me in. Good luck with it all.

So much has been written on the subject of online communities. I was lucky enough to briefly meet with Howard Rheingold when he came to talk to us at the BBC back in 2002. Way back in 1993 he wrote the book "The Virtual Community" based on his experiences of The Well, a San Francisco Bay area based online community. Reminded of it by this conversation, I've been looking back through it. The following is from the introduction: Chapter 2, Daily Life in Cyberspace is well worth a read

And something to lock bicycles to (apart from the trolleys outside the Coop) would be handy

Good call on the bakery - maybe as part of a small deli/caf?... And agreed, Anatolia is good.

Nero, it would be good to hear how you get on with that, and whether we can do anything collectively via the forum or otherwise. For me the biggest bugbear is the traffic situation - the junction with Dunstans Road is plain dangerous, especially with the speed people drive up and down Forest Hill Road. Also there are a couple of unused retail/eatery spaces on the strip - I wonder what would work best for local residents if we could have a say in what might go there?

There's rules and there's guidelines... :-) All good - I do agree that the searching before posting suggestion is problematic though. If someone comes along and asks a question that's been answered before, does it really matter? Surely it's quicker to answer the question again and/or point to where the question has been most recently and "accurately" answered, rather than try to enforce a rule that plays against human nature.

Different Klaus... brilliant :-D

How about Last FM? I've created an East Dulwich Forum group in case anyone else is signed up. I haven't been scrobbling but will start v soon...

@James - are you sure those cameras are working? I've seen people go hurtling down the hill towards Peckham and the camera pointing up the hill flasing twice a moment later with no vehicles going in the opposite direction! I wonder if this info is available via Freedom of Information. I don't want to drain precious resources, but it would be good to know.

I was the lead "singer in a band called "Suck it 'n see" or SINS for short. I'll get my coat...

Eynella Road - backslang for Alleyne apparently.

good grief

Not sure if this has been talked about before - a quick search for "settings" and "preferences" didn't bring anything back so guessing not. What do people think about being able to put more info on our profile pages e.g. a photo if we wanted, link to blog or other sites we have and so on. Also I've seen on other discussion boards you can also see the last x number of posts form that person on their profile page, which I find another quite handy way of navigating around.

Divide it in to 4 ;-)

I have a bell and use it all the time. It's definitely helped avoid a few collisions with pedestrians. Then again so has my voice :-) If it's a two minute red light and it's worth it, I'll hop off and wheel across and hop back on again. As a driver when I've seen cyclists do this it doesn't wind me up. Agreed about the camaraderie of the two-wheelers. Just as there are loads more cyclists on the roads these days, and therefore loads more bad cyclists as well as good, the congestion charge definitely brought a surge in scooters/mopeds and some of them are driven pretty badly too. The only two accidents I've had in the last 5 years have both been caused by moped drivers. As for the advanced stop line area, what about splitting the box in two and having cyclists on the left and two-wheelers with engines on the right?

People are moving here to start families from Islington and Chelsea. People who've lived here since just after the second world war are either dying or selling up and moving out to live with and be looked after by family, usually elsewhere. House prices are such that those lucky enough to have stepped on to the ladder and want to get a bigger place in East Dulwich will find it increasingly hard to do so. Quite a few people with growing numbers of children will either need to build up (if East Dulwich was a house it would be having its loft converted) or move out, in turn making way for more folk to move in from Islington and Chelsea. So local trade will have to adapt to serve this new wave, otherwise the new folk are likely to stick with what they know (i.e. White Stuff et al). I agree with SeanMacGabhann. The model can work. Wimbledon Village is a good example of where the model hasn't worked.

Dannyboy I think you've hit the nail on the head with Contract over Charter definitely. In the end it's got to be about showing respect and sharing the road. And that includes pedestrians too. My closest shave this week was with a dopey guy who stepped out without looking as I was doing 20mph or so down Rye Lane. I screeched to a halt and ended up about an inch behind him. He had absolutely no idea how close he'd come to landing us both in King's A&E so was rather taken aback when my adrenaline kicked in and I had a bit of a rant at him. Why only bus drivers and HGV drivers? Surely it should be for all drivers. As for bus lanes - the New Kent Road is particularly bad, it's either motorbikes who brush past on your right or cabs, buses etc. thinking it's ok to drive half a metre behind you. They would never drive that closely behind a vehicle *with* brake lights! And without wanting to come over holier-than-thou (I used to edge through the occasional red, but don't any more), but as cyclists we've got to get people on our side. It really winds me up when I'm waiting at the advanced stop line at a red light (that's when the moped and motorbike riders have left enough room!) and a cyclist comes shooting through. All it does is stir up the drivers immediately behind the advanced stop line who then take it out on the cyclists immediately in front of them when the lights go green.

As I blogged last night, this may not be new but it was new to me, the Evening Standard have a Charter for improving cycling in London... Evening Standard?s 12-point charter A real cycle network across London Better cycle lanes with proper segregation Enforcement of special advanced stop lines for cyclists HGVs to be fitted with special cyclist safety mirrors Compulsory cyclist awareness training for all bus drivers and new HGV drivers Make safe the Thames bridges: some of the most dangerous places for cyclists Cycle-friendly streets: fewer one-way systems which funnel cyclists into the middle of traffic More cycle parking across London A police crackdown on bike theft Campaign to urge the selfemployed to claim a 20p a mile cycling allowance against tax Better cycle-bus-rail coordination: adequate parking at all railway stations Cycle training for all schoolchildren and any adult who wants it What do fellow cyclists think?