malumbu

Why are you buying the car industry's propaganda? There are plenty of lighter weight EVs with reasonable ranges. 200 miles plus. I wager that many drive longer distances than this only a few times a year. The manufacturers make far more money on large vehicles. The market is saturated, there are too many factories across the world, cars last twice as long as they did a few decades ago so demand for new has fallen. Therefore they market the dream of larger vehicles, ICE and electric . Leasing appears unsustainable and may collapse like a pack of carrs. Sooner or later the market will readjust; The UK went through this many years ago with much of the mass production ending. For some reason nations cling onto manufacturing for national pride. Germany can't continue like this. Trump will protect his industry with ludicrous tariff that could backfire. China may continue to flood the market. Bit of a mess.

Go on the South Circular in West Dulwich during school start and end and you will see a disproportionate number of large SUV type vehicles - I expect that this is to do with wealth, but maybe also a feeling of greater safety. Ford stopping production of the Fiesta three years ago is a good indication of how the car industry works, persuading owners to go bigger brings in more profit. Their reason, despite the popularity, was they needed space in Cologne to produce a new EV. Yes, you've guessed it, a SUV style EV (Ford Explorer). It's brutalist design says a lot to me. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/ford-fiesta-production-ends-after-47-years

Euro NCAP is a voluntary scheme, it is useful, but doesn't guarantee that you will not hurt a pedestrian, your own occupants, or other road users, in a collision. Ultimately it is speed and weight that are the main determinants. 20mph zones is generally a good thing in urban areas. Driver training, particularly refresher training, would be valuable. I feel that there is enough general information about the hazards of speeding, but more could be done to encourage smoother driving, and better anticipation of the road ahead and awareness of other road users. Traffic calming is a mixed blessing, it doesn't always encourage smoother driving and hence less congestio, and there is danger that the frustration that some feel may manifest itself in the foot on the throttle where there are uncalmed roads, particularly where there are no speed cameras, An odd bit of road is along Crystal Palace Parade, being in Bromley who generally hasn't adopted 20mph, speed limit goes up to 30, but you are surrounded by 3 boroughs with 20mph throughout. I've got an article on the safest vehicles from Autotrader but I will post this once I have the typical kerbside weights. Ultimately it is us, as responsible citizens, that can do more to reduce pollution, reduce congestion, improve road safety through smarter choices. The vehicle we drive, including shared ownership, when, how and where we drive (if we drive at all on a particular journey). I've said this so many times! Central government could put out a stronger message, but following the nonsense of Sunak's manufactured culture wars, and with Reform breathing down everyone's necks, Starmer doesn't want to put across the message above for fear of losing votes. Shame, up to Johnson recent PMs have been generally going the right way. I suspect that the data on the vehicles most involved in collisions reflects some demographics - Prius's Uber drivers (although my limited experience is that they are generally better drivers), Corsas and Astras can be hot hatches. I've not looked a the evidence,

Guardian article is fairly balanced and quotes other points of view on 20mph, although none of the major parties are against it in principle. I'm not sure why you saw some sort of agenda. I do like the concluding line - There is, perhaps, a lesson here for politicians, although not an easy one: sometimes it can be best to ignore the noisiest voices, and take the evidence-based course. In this situation the evidence is compelling. Slow vehicles down and there will be less harm where there is a collision, even if there is no other road user involved such as driving into a lamppost.

I'm not sure that motorbikes and scooters are the issue. It's generally cars that speed down Underhill having commuted on it for best part of 20 years. I've never been worried walking on UR at night, but... That is probably because I am familiar and comfortable with the area. It's as much about perception on urban roads. I'd not feel so relaxed about an area I was unfamiliar with.

So @Rockets, is this good news or not? Not sure why you have to go beyond this. Edited to add, as you were aware of the BBC report perhaps you could have put this up on the EDF.

Ultimately it's the weight, modern cars should all have high levels of protection for the occupants.

20 mph in Wales has been shown to save many lives, with around 100 fewer killed or seriously injured per year. It's great to report positive news about the road network and I hope there is a wider role out https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/22/wales-20mph-speed-limit-cut-road-deaths-why-debate Reading the article I came across the term motonormativity; essentially the belief that many accept that KSIs are part and package of motoring More info https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motonormativity Shame I couldn't 'like' my previous post, I'm very impressed 👍

We are on the Heathrow flight path, I had a meeting there many years ago and saw their noise maps. Noise here depends on wind direction, approach and which runway. Very occasionally you see a small low flying jet from, our bound for, City. Could be worse as friend in North Kent often hears single engine small prop planes. I think they are called Spitfires, Hurricanes and the like.

I'm on a roll. This lot may be able to do a better job than TfL, local authorities, Thames Water and other utilities

In collisions between vehicles the lighter one always comes off worse. That doesn't feature in marketing, "buy our 2.5 tonne car, and live whilst the other driver and their occupants die"

5 pm, made everyone look. Financially a disaster as America effectively black balled it causing a collapse in orders. American protectionism eh? But very polluting.

There's a thread on Heathrow noise. It depends on how sensitive you are, sleeping patterns and the like. It doesn't wake me up now but many years ago when I was stressed at work I'd listen to the red eye flights coming into land from the Atlantic from around 5.30.

Hope wood pigeons are better nest builders than their rat cousins. We had a feral pigeon nest on a window ledge in a central London office; just a pile of sticks. I've left some hair out in a feeder I got from the hairdressers for the birds as nest material. Last year I got wool from the horniman sheep that all went.

Not helpful. The area is by the cemetery where it is a little narrower but the issue here is that it is on a hill, which encourages some to speed down the hill.

Never had any issues walking (,and cycling) around there over many years. Expect no better or worse than most of the area. The odd speeding car but generally as road is not wide, particularly with parked cars, that helps moderate speed.

If you haven't got anything to contribute then please clear off. Ironic that the T word has been used regularly against me, but now three posts in a row that you could apply this comment to. If you have no interest in this discussion then don't read it, rather than snide/puerile comments. I was hoping that someone who actually used the roads may have a view. But lets face it there are about twenty people who post on roads issues and most of you just do this as you have enormous bees in your bonnet, rather want a constructive debate. So in summary a right turn into Underhill could be reintroduced from the South Circular without too much bother. The right turn from Underhill would probably be more useful but more problematic as this would entail some major road changes, maybe traffic lights, filters and the like, although this could be easily meshed with the Harvester junction. I doubt if there would be more traffic using this route, but more spread out, with some convenience both to those on local roads and some a bit further a field and particular benefits to Honor Oak Road. A few times a years there are road works in Forest Hill and this buggers up the whole of the 'Horniman' area which becomes grid locked as Honor Oak Road, Melford Road, Devonshire Road, Honor Oak and any alternatives to get onto the A205 are solid, A right turn from Underhill may alleviate some of this, but I expect as this would only have modest capacity the same would happen. Such congestion is just part and package of living in London. Unless you have something to say on the above conversation over, until I get the expected "no can do" from TfL.

Thanks George. The sub post office sold penny sweets - a blast from the past. They were happy to let the post office go as they told me there had been some serious robberies - with menace. But it didn't last much longer Roy operated from very old coach house building from the adjacent hotel, he sold these and built a brand new facility, he had to use yellow brick, but then some personal stuff meant that he had to let it go, and there was no reason to keep a garage there so were turned into apartments. There were some very shacky and old buildings on the other side (to the left as you look from the street) and a mobile mechanic used to work from there, but they went I think after Covid. The coal sheds from the branch line would have been behind as well. I phoned Robert Elms up on his programme when he was asking about a London pub which had doubled up as an undertakers. It may have been the Moore Park Hotel but I was more interested in Elm's views as he doesn't recognise that SE London exists, Well, begrudgingly Peckham, as one of his kids lives there. We did a local pub crawl many years ago starting with the hotel, which had been turned into flats by then, but we had some home made stout and made our own pub sign for a bit of fun. Of course this side of the road is Lewisham, so we shouldn't be discussing it here, but I wont tell anyone.

It was EDT probably even before then, we did the comedy, and this had been there already for a number of years. It was the East Dulwich Comedy then, the wiki entry says 1988, but before then I think the comedy went as "Off the Tube" "or South of the River at this time of night mate" (cabbies apparently said this) or names along those lines.

Park Langley club in Beckenham on. Tuesday night. Hardly local.

Nothing wrong with a bit of humour Here's another one

As a number of you are so interested in road works thought you'd appreciate this:

Don't be daft. They are through roads with right turn restrictions. Please stick to other threads unless you have a view on whether the junctions should be changed. I raised these issues in earlier threads but you did not engage. Similarly on Brenchley Gardens. There are 100s of roads with similar restrictions across London

I was surprised to find that many places had gone, the Moore Park Hotel and Moore Park Garage had been turned into residential, and similarly the sub post office and hairdressers. Why did these go? Wood Vale supermarket and Libretto butchers still flying the flag. Friends in Forest Hill have discussed the garage going: https://www.se23.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=11858

I like Rye Lane, it's more real than Lordship Lane with far more interesting shops. The massive changes in night life should be generally welcome but I've always had an issue that the daytime and nighttime demographics are so different. Thanks for the interesting reflections on the building.