TfL changes to A24 Balham High Road Post Reply

[Denwand]

Madness!
queues on Burntwood Lane stretch from Trinty Road all the way down to Battersea Ironsides (junction Openview) ...Lyminge Gardens, Tilehurst Road ,Multon Gardens and Ellerton Road have traffic backing along them as people can't get out onto Burntwood Road easily.

In Beechcroft Sainsburys vans are mounting the pavements to bypass the bollards, rubbish loorries mounting pavement to do 3 point turns(!) and parents with kids in pushchairs are very exposed as cars u-turn bumping onto pavements...saw an ambulance (not on a blue light) having to 3 point turn too....

Meanwhile I am told residents off of Beechcroft weren't informed and one pensioner having extream trouble trying to get his blue-badged car out and has no idea what's going on!

[KatherineHepburn]

Denwand - We are on Burntwood Lane directly opposite the roundabout and entrance to Beechcroft Road and the first we knew about it was the sign going up.
These changes seem to be made with absolutely no consultation or care for residents. My friend on Beechcroft Road had no idea either.
This alongside the crazy amounts of huge lorries coming up from that bloody housing estate is insane. There is nothing we can do about the lorries - the estate was pushed through by Wandsworth Council - so there is little point now telling us all we should be all on bikes while the cement mixers roar by. 
I am so hacked off with all of this right now. 

[FLH03]

For comments, feedback, suggestions - it is not one point of contact, you need to tell all of these as there are different schemes, 1) the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, 2) the A24 CS7 changes and 3) the Bedford Hill closure.

1) WBC new LTNs:
https://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/consultations

[It laughably says "We carry out consultations with our residents, businesses and others with a local interest to ensure we have fully taken into account their views before making decisions that affect them."]

Please also email your WBC ward councillors:
https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-councillors

And Councillors John Locker and Tim Addlesee have overall Transport responsibility:
cllr.j.locker@wandsworth.gov.uk
tim.addlesee @richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

2) A24 Balham-Tooting High Road CS7 changes (Colliers Wood to Elephant & Castle) are TfL's responsibility 
streetspacelondon@tfl.gov.uk

3) Effects of the Bedford Hill closure:
SocialDistancing@wandsworth.gov.uk


The local MP is Dr Rosena Allin-Khan
https://members.parliament.uk/member/4573/contact


I'm all for what they are trying to achieve with the intentions, but ........the combination of all these changes imposed all together without consultation and lack of communication is not acceptable.  There are LTNs popping up all over London and generally very positively received, if properly implemented.  But having 3 of these impact directly on the A24 changes and Bedford Hill closed seems crazy.  But hey look at the A level results debacle and the free school lunches and quarantine and testing measures - I think at times lunatics are running the asylum.

My road is now deluged with diverted traffic, the A24 has become a massive traffic corridor and Tooting and Balham are best avoided if possible.  Not only volume of traffic but the effect it has of reducing these areas as our local neighbourhoods and high streets.

Residents in the Heaver Estate had to manually move barriers the other night to allow an ambulance through.

Sorry for long post, bit of a rant.


 

[Vincent Farrow]

These changes have led to absolute chaos in Balham. The streets left open are clogged with traffic and has become impossible to drive anywhere without a huge delay. I cannot get to and from my own house in Fernlea Road without annoying detours. I cannot be alone. More importantly emergency vehicles, deliveries and taxis cannot get through the gridlock. The measures are a complete overreaction - again - to Covid-19 and need to be reversed. I am a law abiding middle aged Englishman but I have been extremely close to taking direct action for the first time in my life and taking these signs and road blocks out of out streets myself.

[Ratski]

According to the Telegraph today some councils have started to reverse these congestion causing and pollution increasing measures they rushed through under the guise of social distancing.

Hopefully Wandsworth’s council jobsworths take note and scrap all these measures they have implemented across the borough causing residents so much misery and Shapps get’s sent to the backbenchers where he belongs.

#YouAintNoToryBruv

[Harry Palmer]

Absolute chaos. TfL and the Council suddenly descended on the are and have created completer mayhem, and this is before schools return. Chestnut Grove, St Mary's, Holy Ghost, are just 3 schools affected by the no left turn into Chestnut Grove. Signage is obscured, dumped on side of road; whole areas are now no go even for residents because planters have just been dumped in the streets as we discovered on our return from holiday. Local businesses are already suffering, local families are now caught up in this mad campaign.

The whole cyclist, walking campaign has got completely out of hand. Where is our MP when this chaos is descending on local people. She has been absolutely silent - so much for representing your constituents.

Utterly shameful given the high incidence of young families and retired people that live in Balham. Not content with parading its green credentials our moronic council is now implementing disastrous unnecessary changes for the benfit of a few (who don't live locally) and the inconvenience of the many. My daughter was almost run over in the High Street by a cyclist who was careering along as if the road belonged to him - and thanks to our idiotic TfL and Council they have handed it over to them

If things don't change and quickly , a campaign of civil disobedience is inevitable. Well done LBW and Tfl for ruining our town.

[SouthLondonDaddy]

The problem with these policies is they tend to be driven by ideology, not by evidence.
How much additional congestion will result? What will be the impact on pollution? On journey times? On public transport?

Let's start from an analysis of the impact of existing cycle lanes; my impression is they are mostly empty outside of rush hour, but have caused havoc by bringing about more congestion, and therefore more pollution, at all times. Of course I could be wrong - but at least we should see some evidence to determine if that's the case, shouldn't we?

We were told that 20mph limits would make roads safer. Well, guess what, the study commissioned by the DfT concluded they don't. Yet more 20mph limits are being introduced all over London.
Page 64 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... report.pdf
this study has found no significant change in collisions and casualties, in the short term, in the majority of the case study areas (including the aggregated set of residential case studies). While some individual case study areas show a reduction in collisions / casualties when background trends are accounted for, these results are based on very small sample sizes and it is not possible to attach any confidence to their significance.

When bus lanes were removed around Vauxhall to make way for segregated cycle lanes, the Transport Watchdog warned it would result in more congestion for all and longer journey times for bus users. Guess what, they were ignored.

They have now added a segregated cycle lane on Park lane, northbound. Why not in Hyde Park?? The result is an empty cycle lane but a totally congested Park lane.

What evangelical tree huggers don't get is that more congestion means more pollution for all; it doesn't only penalise the evil motorists - it penalises all those who are forced to breathe the increased fumes resulting from the greater congestion.

I am all for penalising the unnecessary use of private cars. But

• these policies prioritise pushbikes and penalise public transport users; this is wrong, if it were only because way more people can use public transport than cycle
  
• not all motorists are evil villains who drive their diesel SUVs for the pleasure of polluting; many vehicles are delivery vans, trademen's vans etc which cannot be replaced by pushbikes or public transport. 
  

[Starr]

absolute stupidity!
pollution is worse than it ever was and this is August

I am writing all the emails and I am waiting for when the protest will be.

There are so many people to blame for this mess

[Denwand]

The problem with these policies is they tend to be driven by ideology, not by evidence.
How much additional congestion will result? What will be the impact on pollution? On journey times? On public transport?

Let's start from an analysis of the impact of existing cycle lanes; my impression is they are mostly empty outside of rush hour, but have caused havoc by bringing about more congestion, and therefore more pollution, at all times. Of course I could be wrong - but at least we should see some evidence to determine if that's the case, shouldn't we?

We were told that 20mph limits would make roads safer. Well, guess what, the study commissioned by the DfT concluded they don't. Yet more 20mph limits are being introduced all over London.
Page 64 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... report.pdfthis study has found no significant change in collisions and casualties, in the short term, in the majority of the case study areas (including the aggregated set of residential case studies). While some individual case study areas show a reduction in collisions / casualties when background trends are accounted for, these results are based on very small sample sizes and it is not possible to attach any confidence to their significance.

When bus lanes were removed around Vauxhall to make way for segregated cycle lanes, the Transport Watchdog warned it would result in more congestion for all and longer journey times for bus users. Guess what, they were ignored.

They have now added a segregated cycle lane on Park lane, northbound. Why not in Hyde Park?? The result is an empty cycle lane but a totally congested Park lane.

What evangelical tree huggers don't get is that more congestion means more pollution for all; it doesn't only penalise the evil motorists - it penalises all those who are forced to breathe the increased fumes resulting from the greater congestion.

I am all for penalising the unnecessary use of private cars. But

• these policies prioritise pushbikes and penalise public transport users; this is wrong, if it were only because way more people can use public transport than cycle
  
• not all motorists are evil villains who drive their diesel SUVs for the pleasure of polluting; many vehicles are delivery vans, trademen's vans etc which cannot be replaced by pushbikes or public transport. 
  

 

I copied your post because it makes some excellent points.... Ideologically driven instead of evidence driven... some people don't care if everybody is worse of as long as the evil drivers are worse off!

[juliantenniscoach]

For what it's worth, I'm a cyclist (and car owner) and I find the traffic schemes for cycling ridiculous in many places and actually more dangerous than the main road.  They seem to be designed by someone who doesn't commute by cycle or has this kind of "Sound of Music" idyll vision.  Lunacy.  The web is full of images of cycle lanes designed by Stevie Wonder.

[susieQ123]

Anyone wishing to know more about the new blocked roads ... two schemes concurrently causing problems:
Sadiq Khan's TFL Scheme - cycle superhighway and pavement widening
meets ... local council's LTN scheme - low traffic neighbourhood - aka car control on residential streets.

What happens:
cars can't drive round the residential streets in swathes of tooting
meaning cars forced onto main road
meaning road blocks and delays
meaning a polluted cycle superhighway (an emissions tunnel, enjoy, cyclists)
meaning terrible delays for everyone including ambulances, careworkers, working mums with childcare drives and so on.
and the final nail in the coffin for local retailers as people choose to shop online ...

Two schemes - join One Wandsworth on Facebook to lobby and get this madness stopped.

btw - there is NO consultation - consultation amongst local residents is pointless as the LTN scheme has pushed through under the 2020 Coronavirus Act - meaning the councils are under NO obligation to listen to resident views.

[Mylton Lue]

Dear All

Please if you are struggling with these traffic changes sign this petition to get things changed!

it's on Change website

[SWlondonMarie]

Mitcham Rd is now a nightmare - more pollution will surely be caused by so much waiting traffic?

[Denwand]

Paramedics concern and Fire Engine stuck in barrier - Elmbourne Road

[Denwand]

Also Ambulance on Emergency stuck on A24 at Tooting Bec - cars cannot move out of the way because of cyclist lane bollards!

Please note - Cyclist lane completely EMPTY!