Driving nightmare

[speedbird773]

Heya,

I am new to this and hope everyone is all well.

What is going on around the Dulwich area..? Today driving was an absolute nightmare for me. Who's idea was this?!

[natty01295]

What happened ???

[tiddles]

I suspect It is the new road closures - Carlton avenue and court land are now dead ends so massive rerouting of cars away from the normal direct routes. Have a look at the ?our healthy streets? thread

[Ruskin]

Yep, best avoid driving near the Village for the foreseeable:

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/emergency-transport-measures-in-dulwich-village-in-response-to-coronavirus/

[tiddles]

trouble is - it is part of a route for alot of people (including the people who live there)

[Abe_froeman]

Those people who live there are now just rat runners. They should be forced to bicycle

[ed26]

The whole area is becoming a nightmare. I am all for some residential streets to be blocked off at one end or made one-way, as long as there are sensible through routes without making long detours. But it's the piecemeal way in which these measures have been implemented, without a cohesive strategy to improve the streets for everyone, including drivers, cyclists, public transport and residents.

It's impossible to follow your nose anywhere, and sat navs are always a few months behind, so I'm sure that the current layout leaves drivers aimlessly driving around residential streets.

I tried to drive across to Denmark Hill last week, coming out of my area at the Champion Hill lights. Then, there's no access via Champion Hill to Denmark Hill, so you can't go straight on. And it's a no right turn, so I had to turn left, head into Sainsburys, around the roundabout and back out in the direction I wanted to head. I guess there's a rat run through to Camberwell somewhere but I don't know it.

If you want to get from DKH way down to Crystal Palace Road, you can't turn right from East Dulwich Road into CPR, so you have to either do a u-turn in the garage / Tescos, or a big detour around The Gardens and streets around there. Or, if you're in the know, head down Ondine Road or the narrow bit of East Dulwich Road by the church, so you can go straight on into CPR.

Just adding layer upon layer of complexity doesn't improve the streets for anyone. The council should go back to the drawing board for the whole area and think about what they really want to achieve post Covid-19 rather than adding to the maze.

[sandyman]

i don't have (too much of) a problem with these closures but they do need to be signposted more clearly. I was almost all the way down Calton Ave before there was a T junction sign - and by then I was so close I could see that the road was blocked off anyway.

This was last night, hopefully more signs will go up or there will be lots of people trying to do three point turns outside the bookshop.

tiddles Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I suspect It is the new road closures - Carlton

> avenue and court land are now dead ends so massive

> rerouting of cars away from the normal direct

> routes. Have a look at the ?our healthy streets?

> thread

[Nicholas]

That junction at most time?s by the village it?s pretty dangerous.I remember when it was being done caused months traffic chaos, to be honest it hasn?t really improved much. With the gov trying to encourage us off public transport and more into our cars due to the pandemic I don?t think it?s that smart blocking or shutting roads right now. All it does is cause more traffic and pushes the problem onto other roads, consequently they become rat runs. Once all the local schools are back I dread to think what it will be like!

[wulfhound]

Kind of agree ed26, I'm a big fan of blocking off side roads where possible, but the banned turns on main roads (and especially BETWEEN main roads) need to be reinstated. I don't know why they didn't reinstate the Grove Hill Road right at the time they blocked off Champion Hill - can only guess that it would have allowed too much traffic to cut through from Avondale Rise.

[ed26]

@wulfhound, more likely they never gave it a thought. It seems that every decision is taken in isolation and no thought is ever given to whether a previous restriction is still necessary or appropriate. Probably a "not my department" thing. One day, someone's going to introduce a restriction that puts all traffic into a loop that it can't get out of.

[speedbird773]

@tiddles yeap, that is exactly it, and by far the court Lane/village side is the worst of all.. Will check it out now. Thanks

[Nicholas]

I?m all for sensible traffic calming and certain closers, traffic pollution etc. When they close a road with no advanced warning consequently your getting lots vehicles having to do 3point turns galore extra revving of the engines etc and then the problem moves to another part of the area. As I said in this pandemic a lot more people will be using there cars as public transport not safe. You?ve only got to go past some local schools during drop off and pick up just to see the chaos and not to mention the huge 4+4?s etc it?s a shame that so many aren?t that local if they need use vehicles to take kids to school!

[JaeFaulkner]

Hi bro , i am newbie to

what exactly happened? I recently passed there and everything was fine

[slarti b]

JaeFaulkner Wrote:

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> Hi bro , i am newbie to what exactly happened? I recently passed there and

> everything was fine

Jae, I cycled through DV junction just after 10.00 and and it was fine, hardly any traffic on Dulwich Village or Turney. However, if you have a look at 9.00 am or 4.00-5.00 pm you will find total chaos. This is because the problem of high traffic volumes is very much limited to peak times.

[Nicholas]

Certain times of the day it will be okay plus not all schools are back. On a cycle it?s not really a problem we are talking more about traffic cars and road closure inconvenience with poor signage. Wait when all schools are back and 8.30am and 3.30 pm onwards expecting bad jams.

[mockingbird]

Please add your comments also to the Our Healthy Streets Dulwich thread as they are so relevant to the debate and should not be overlooked.

[tallulah71]

This was rolled out in Croydon weeks ago and is causing absolute traffic mayhem - all under the guise of Covid/healthy streets etc. All it is doing is forcing ALL traffic onto the main roads with the addition of the smaller bus routes needing re-routing. The people who speed and use quieter streets as rat runs ignore one-way signs and will always do what they want anyway. This is not been thought out at all. Not good for ambulances or delivery drivers either

[James_C]

This is the entire point of these plans. Stop driving in such a built up city ! If you want to drive your car around then move somewhere car friendly otherwise you're going to have to deal with traffic. The vast majority of us do not drive so why should such large amounts of our public space (roads are public space) to geared towards those who do ?

[Spartacus]

Great idea James_c

If people don't like it they should move, despite their background in the area, where they work and what contribution they make to the community

What a sensible idea. I'll just flog the place I've spent most of my life in during a house price lull just so that you can cycle in safety

Strewth !

[JohnL]

Spartacus Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Great idea James_c

>

> If people don't like it they should move, despite

> their background in the area, where they work and

> what contribution they make to the community

>

> What a sensible idea. I'll just flog the place

> I've spent most of my life in during a house price

> lull just so that you can cycle in safety

>

> Strewth !

House price lulls shouldn't stop people moving (only first time buying)I'd have thought.

Mind you the cross the board 8-10% staff reductions that are happening make you think - but might even push people away from London (back to family)

So many people are off once they get the ESW1 certificate it's scary.

[Spartacus]

There's been a lot of suggestions on here and elsewhere that if car owners / drivers don't like the changes then they should move.

Can you imagine the outcry if drivers told cyclists that if they don't like breathing in the fumes then they should move ?

Possibly best neither side goes down that antagonistic route as it won't win either side friends or the argument.

[JohnL]

Brexit you see - we were told as Remainers if we didn't like Brexit to move to the EU

It's the new politics unfortunately. If you get a 52-48 split the 52 get everything they want and the 48 get nothing.

[JohnL]

Just to clarify

1 - my argument above is for a compromise

2 - no-one should move unless they want to

:)

[tiddles]

What an astonishing remark - if you don?t like it move? Are you assuming that the many people who work around here should move closer to work? (Have you checked out teachers salaries and how much property is) most people have to travel in some way as they don?t have the luxury of living nearby. Which brings me onto my next rant - commuters travelling from peckham rye to work now have an added obstacle in that they cannot get a bus to the station? This is nuts. All those people travelling to a ?value for money? shopping centre who normally use the bus now have a massive hike up the lane? Lots of mums with buggies and a lot of older folk with their shopping trolleys. I really would love to be a fly on the wall during one of these?what can we bugger up now? meetings