Southwark Council plans to reduce the amount of road traffic going through East Dulwich

[EDOldie]

The whole agenda is getting crazier and crazier. They are going to put in double (yes double) yellow lines at the Village end of Calton Avenue for instance. This is despite there being several small traders, including a book shop, that will be particularly adversely affected especially at the weekends. It seems that all the 'traffic control' methods and controlled parking the council employ simply speed up the cars. Look at East Dulwich Grove, it's like a racetrack at times. The traffic in Lordship Lane is generally much slower mainly because of the excellent crossings between Whately Road and Goose Green. If the council really wanted to slow down traffic they need to put more pedestrian crossings in and more roundabouts. Not more yellow lines. What on earth is their agenda??

[first mate]

They have more or less said the agenda is to drastically reduce car ownership and thereby cars on the roads. They want us all to cycle and walk. They are clearly prepared to pursue that agenda ruthlessly. It seems local reps, even outside Swark Labour, also support this agenda. Fanaticism trumps pragmatism.

[JohnL]

Sue Wrote:

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> JohnL Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> >

> > Us singletons don't really care about noise too

> > much - except the revving motorbikes - stop

> that

> > :)

>

> Speak for yourself!!!

With my area the argument is the flats were built after the clubs etc. so we knew when we purchased there will be noise - there's a huge new lot about to be sold opposite me too so I'd expect arguments over the next 6 months.

I know for a fact some people complain.

[Bic Basher]

Sally Eva Wrote:

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> You're sure it wasn't just pushing up the cost of

> the journey?

>

> The charge is raised for the morning peak I think.

> Is there an increase for length of journey and

> time it takes?

The prices were normal until around 0830 when I needed the cab. I could see the GPS screen which was giving him directions to take those roads. He also was directed along back streets in Tulse Hill, Streatham and Balham to get me to the tube station on Balham High Road. Fare was I think ?16 for what should have been a ?10 fare which had taken 25 mins from the Melford Road end of Lordship Lane.

A second journey using Uber to West Norwood sensibly used Dulwich Common and Thurlow Park Road, only diverting to avoid the Tulse Hill junction.

[Robert Poste's Child]

Monkey Wrote:

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> The day I feel I can trust Southern again, I might

> just stop paying ?125 a month in parking charges

> in Brixton and driving through Dulwich to get

> there.

You could cycle to Brixton in 10-15 minutes and save the parking charges.

[rendelharris]

first mate Wrote:

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> They have more or less said the agenda is to

> drastically reduce car ownership and thereby cars

> on the roads. They want us all to cycle and walk.

> They are clearly prepared to pursue that agenda

> ruthlessly. It seems local reps, even outside

> Swark Labour, also support this agenda. Fanaticism

> trumps pragmatism.

Good. London is literally choking to death on vehicle fumes, the vast majority of which are generated by unnecessary journeys (65% of car journeys in London are under than three miles, and 33% less than a mile and a half). Health and clean air trump the "right" to drive a motor vehicle. Allowing 10,000 premature deaths a year from pollution, two thousand a year killed or seriously injured in accidents (and 28,000 more less seriously injured) and countless children growing up with reduced lung function for life and chronic respiratory diseases is not pragmatism, it's insanity.

[first mate]

Rendel,

Clearly, cycling walking and relyng on public transport works for you. Jolly good for you. Not everyone is so fortunate or has only regular daily work journeys of between one and a half and three miles. Equally, for a fair few, there will be a need to ferry tools and equipment to and from jobs- more than will fit into a couple of panniers or a rucksack. There are myriad reasons why your chosen forms of travel will not work for everyone. Add to that the parlous state of local rail services and these measures to force through change at top speed look almost bonkers.

[Nigello]

I think that First Mate and Rendel both have valid points.

The best anyone can do is honestly take a look at their habits and needs and wants, and see whether a realistic and reasonable alternative to motor transport can be found, even for a small proportion of those needs/wants/habits. Eg. if you hate being on a crowded bus, walk - even if it is just for the length of a few stops.

Ultimately it boils down to individuals, so it starts with you, not the person you are arguing with on the EDF.

[first mate]

Nigello,

I do agree and I actually walk a lot and sometimes cycle too, but currently would find it near impossible to work without a car. My beef is not with the issues driving change but the manner in which change is being forced through at top speed by various impositions. Single factor issues With simplistic solutions are politically attractive and appeal to the idealist in all of us but I think current efforts to clear streets of traffic before we've even properly addressed and fixed a train service, may create more problems than it solves.

[Nigello]

Agreed: if we wait for the powers that be to change things, we'll be waiting a long time, hence my belief that only individuals working alongside each other can change traffic levels. Sometimes you have to drive or be driven but not always. Changing habits and thoughts about what is one's "right" can have an immediate and positive effect: i.e. just walk to the Picture House tonight instead of driving the 1.5 miles.

[rendelharris]

I agree with both of you Nigello and FM - I do recognise that there are people who need to use the car sometimes, including me, I wouldn't fancy cycling to Croydon with the ma-in-law's weekly shop! It's the continuous use of cars for the school run by people who could walk if they got up twenty minutes earlier, for shopping in a supermarket fifteen minutes' walk away etc that gets to me. I just think that, as Nigello sensibly suggests, people need to look at their usage and see where it can be trimmed - for example, a mate of mine, a builder/decorator, was driving everywhere as he had too much kit for anything else. His missus suggested he ask his clients if he could lock his tools up somewhere on site - cupboard under the stairs, garden shed, garage, whatever - and they've always been amenable, now from driving every day he drives twice to each job, once at the start and once at the end, and cycles the rest of the time.

[Lebanums]

Have walk to school days. Also there's no reason to take the main roads anymore since the speed limit is 20mph borough wide & doesn't save any time.

[rollflick]

Southwark is consulting until 24 January on the Dulwich Traffic Study. Background info here:

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy-and-transport-policy/consultation-and-updates/transport-policy

And an interactive map where you can support/oppose measures (rather than propose anything new) is here: https://dulwich-study.co.uk/

Generally appears to be an exercise showing something is being done. The study has come up with ideas as simple as: improve wayfinding signage, add cycle parking, new Controlled Parking Zone, monitor traffic etc. E.g. for Lordship Lane the main recommendation is to consider renewing the pavement.

Wouldn't it have been more productive to consult on objectives then trying to work out backwards how to achieve those that were supported. Top-of-the-head examples could be: create safe routes for every school, reduce bus delays by 10%, reduce private motor traffic in the area by 10% by 2025.

Southwark has real problems with air quality, congestion and child obesity: population growth is likely to increase these pressures. So this study should have come up with a wide range of ideas from simple to radical, short to long-term, to help encourage thinking outside the box. There are some great initiatives elsewhere in London and beyond - that could have provided inspiration. Feels like Southwark is increasingly falling behind other London boroughs when it comes to healthy streets.

[uncleglen]

Unfortunately, whilst the Council rubber stamps the conversion of average sized family homes into 2 or 3 flats and every bit of spare ground is allowed to sprout a block of flats then of course the amount of traffic will increase- population increase = vehicle increase....simples...but then...

[first mate]

Okay, so how many (fit/ healthy) parents on this forum would commit to never using their car for school drop offs and pick ups, or for shopping/ entertainment? That includes cold, dark rainy mornings when using a car is so tempting?

[first mate]

Not to mention the very considerable pollution caused by non-stop building work, much of it vanity projects.