SE22_2020er

@alice - All modes of transport cost money - don't forget that the taxes you pay subsidise the buses and the tube 🙂

We use Lime bikes quite a bit for 3 main reasons: 1. Able to get into town as you can leave the bike at the end of the journey and not worry about having to lock up your own bike / find a car place / quicker than the train or bus. Also helps with getting over DKH as their electric motors make even that hill a cinch for unfit people like me! 2. Use them to get to Brixton to get on the tube network. 3. Quick way to get home from work at the end of the day On the downside, they're not cheap if you use them a lot.

I'm sorry to hear that you've not had a good experience with Balfe's. I've only ever had fantastic service from them - so much so it seems odd to hear that you've not had a good experience.

Yes - I'm still grumpy about being fined for parking over my own driveway once! :-)

My parents are both in their late 80s as are my partners and they all use internet banking and haven't stepped into a branch in years according to them. Whether we like it or not, banks are profit making organisations and not charities. If they don't think in order to be successful they need bricks and mortar establishments then that's a pretty good indication of whether they are well used by the general population. If they were then it would not be in their interest to close. I'm interested to understand why people actually go into banks. I can understand you need them to pay in large volumes of coins, but you can pay in notes / cheques into ATMs (or in the rare occasion I get a cheque I send it via post to the bank). You can open new accounts on line and move money electronically. Unfortunately, for people who don't like using the internet then banking has moved to being an on-line business now. Must be very frustrating for people who can't use a computer but I doubt that holds much sway with a big business.

Is Rockets a taxi driver? Or do they work for a car manufacturer? 🤣🤣🤣

I voted Labour for the first time in my life (I've always voted for the Conservatives) because I support the LTNs. Had the Conservatives supported the LTNs, I would have voted for them.

Well I'm certainly not voting for a Tory candidate who lives in a proper gated community in Woodyard Lane in Dulwich Village. The hypocrisy is breathtaking!

1. Controlled parking zones throughout East Dulwich balanced with an increase in Blue Badge zones for disabled drivers who have no alternative but driving 2. Remove parking on East Dulwich Grove and replace with a proper cycle lane 3. Double yellow lines around JAGs and Alleyns to stop ability of people to drop off children 4. Multiple Signage along East Dulwich grove to show impact of pollution on residents 5. Remove parking spaces along Lordship Lane - 15 min unloading and blue badge parking only

Excellent post Zardvark. Somewhat of a ruby in the dust that are the usual posts on these forum chats!

Rockets - you really are a very funny person (and if you don?t mind me saying, a little odd :-) ). I assume you see the irony in what you write. Now that this thread really has just become a parody of itself, fingers crossed it will collapse under the weight of its own self importance. Happy Christmas everyone

James James James - what on earth do you think you're doing - are you mad?! Just because schools have broken up and you've got a few free minutes on your hands - don't get involved!!! There are several different people (I resist the urge to write "oddballs") who have posted over 1000 times on this thread alone. They have somehow managed to keep this "conversation" going for 283 pages and I fear that they're just getting going! They will ensnare you, twist your words and their tenacity knows no bounds. Honestly - for your own mental health stay away and let the madness continue unabated. Escape whilst you still have the chance - or at least ask to meet them face-to-face and watch as they drift into the shadows! :-)

Readers, I woke up this morning, excited like a small child on Christmas Morn. You won't even be able to imagine my disappointment when I saw my inbox was empty. Not a jot from Rockets. I feel so let down, my hopes for a relationship have been dashed. I'm sorry Rockets that you've chosen a life of being a keyboard warrior over a relationship with me. Oh well, I'm off for a long bike ride to try and mend my broken heart. I'll pop back in the New Year to read through the next 50 odd pages of pointless hyperbole, but until then, goodbye Rockets. I will miss you. Yours, Spurned of East Dulwich Grove

@Rockets - I am being serious - drop me a PM.

@Rockets - not particularly keen to get into a back and forth conversation that will go nowhere (as you and I both know, and 279 pages of this thread clearly prove). Drop me a PM and let's go for a drink or a walk and talk it through face-to-face. I suspect that may give a more positive outcome rather than typing out yet another post that won't actually get anyone anywhere. Looking forward to meeting up with you.

@abn - I completely agree with you. The problem is the number of car journeys. I'd completely support increased road tax. I think Congestion Charging is a good way of doing this taxing as it taxes the actual problem. I do also like the idea of electronic toll gates: "Sure you can drive along EDG at 08:00 in the morning, but we'll charge you ?5 for the pleasure of ruining the air quality for the people who live on EDG" If I was being charged ?5 each way to drop my kids to school then they'd be getting the bus on day 2!

@Rockets - I cycle down EDG every day - 7 days a week. Please don't refer to my view as 'blinkered'. Every day I count the number of vehicles that are sitting in traffic at 8am in the morning and whether they are cars or vans. The overwhelming majority are cars - i.e. more than 80%. Happy to provide you the numbers that I write down every day - just send me a PM and I'll respond. Please hold back on your disingenuous comments, unhelpful.

How many pages of hyperbolic drivel will it take until people actually understand that the root cause of the problem is the number of journeys that are being made by car and the number of cars that we've allowed to take over our streets and absolutely not the LTNs. The LTNs are a first step in redressing the awful balance that has been set in allowing cars to take over this city over the last 50 years. If you think that East Dulwich Grove was a car free panacea before the LTNs then go and get your head tested. There were regularly tail backs from the JAGs lights all the way back to Melbourne Grove - and yes, even on a Saturday. I used to marvel at how stupid people were to waste their weekends in cars when I cycled back to Lordship Lane from Herne Hill on a Saturday morning. Are you guys not fed up with the fact that every street is lined with cars on both sides - have you become immune to their presence or do you see them all as some sort of contemporary street art? I hope that each of you have written a strongly worded letter to each of the local schools in Dulwich (private and state) to insist that they STRONGLY discourage any child being driven to school and that they need to put in rules to stop parents driving their children to school I hope that each of you are campaigning for the congestion charge in our area - hopefully not long now after the ULEZ has been implemented. I hope that each of you are campaigning for an increased number of cycle lanes - especially one from Lordship Lane to Herne Hill. I don't buy the 'public transport is not good enough' line. I've lived in 15 countries around the world over the last 50 years and the public transport we have here in London is amongst the best. Here alone in Dulwich we have buses to each of the main rail terminals, buses to tube stations, a train line directly into one of the major UK train terminals. If my 80 year old parents can cycle here in London then a damn sight more of the rest of you can and should. The problem is pure and simply that there are too many cars and now is the time to redress the balance in favour of other means of transport - be that walking, cycling, scooters, taxis, Ubers and buses. ps @Alice - Pink is persuasive

@Spartacus - yes, but the effect of the bad ones is shockingly disproportionate. Just because everyone loves a good hyperbolic statistic: Globally: 1. There are 1.35 million road deaths every year 2. Road deaths are the eighth highest cause of death for people of all ages 3. Road deaths are the number one killer of those between the ages of 5-29. 4. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists make up more than half of all road deaths (these road users are collectively known as vulnerable road users). (https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/global-road-safety)

@CPR Dave - are you taking the p**s or actually being serious?! "Cyclists are most often the biggest menace". I can assure the reason I don't let my young children play in front of our house is the likely threat of being killed by a driver... ...not a cyclist. So, I guess, if you ignore: 1. The pollution that cars cause (I think there is another thread about 250 pages long about this - so best not go into detail here), 2. The fact that they kill c2000 people in the UK per year 3. The fact that they injure c150,000 people in the UK per year 4. The fact that every single road is given over them to park along on both sides - when did you last see a road without cars? 5. The traffic queues that they cause. Apart from that I guess bikes are the biggest menace!!! Bangs head repeatedly on desk :-)

@Heartblock - I'm all over this too (your bike lane suggestion). It's a great idea - why don't you start an on-line petition - I'm sure you'll get a lot of support and I'll certainly sign it straight away. A dedicated cycle lane (without parked cars) from Lordship lane, along EDG (all the way to Herne Hill) and also along the short stretch of Townley onto Calton Avenue and into the village is something that I'm sure will attract huge support. I think it should certainly need to be both ways to make it fully effective. Do you know who is the right councillor for these streets? I think also a letter to our MP would also be a good idea. I wrote to her, the traffic department and also James McAsh about 12 months ago for this, but you're right - it needs a really concerted effort from multiple people. I've never had any response back on the bike locker I requested for our road - a good prompt to chase up on it.

Hey Heartblock, I think you?ve misjudged my note. My point is that I believe we need to do something about the volume of polluting traffic on EDG and an effective way to do this (and certainly more than posting here) is if we come together collectively and protest directly to the drivers who are causing the pollution so that they think about whether their journey is indeed necessary and more important than our children lungs. Are you in? Of course if work precludes doing this at 8am in the morning then let?s work out a time which is better for us both.

Heartblock. The problem that you are highlighting on EDG is an increase in pollution. As someone who cycles along EDG from Lordship Lane at least twice a day I concur that the pollution from diesel cars and vans is unpleasant so I hope you are looking forward to the ULEZ in October as much as I am. I would prefer you to please focus on the root cause of the pollution which is the traffic caused by the car and van drivers rather than the LTNs which actually serve to reduce the volume of traffic and hence the pollution. I can only speak from my perspective which is that the LTNs have encouraged my family and I to stop driving and cycle instead. I no longer drive my children anywhere as it is now safe for them to cycle. I am sure that you share my anger that it has taken this long for the powers-that-be to redress the balance of the increase in traffic over the last 20 years in favour of non-polluting traffic. We need to focus on stopping people driving so much. I have offered before, but if you would like to we could team up and start protesting along EDG each week about the unnecessary car journeys. Perhaps every week morning when the school run is on? We could also club together to buy a banner and ask Alleyns if we could put it up outside their school on the railings? Thoughts?

Erm - what about the 176 bus, quick walk/scoot along Greendale to Charter (or even the 37 bus) and there are some lovely cafes to sit in nearby and wait rather than have your kids sit in a car? You may have seen a couple of other threads about reducing traffic in East Dulwich :-) :-)

Agreed @Northernmonkey - the cycling routes in East Dulwich, whilst not perfect, have improved amazingly since the LTNs. My children can now cycle safely along Melbourne Grove (North and South) through to Oglander and then onto Rye Lane and along the old canal into Waterloo - it's a great quiet route in case anyone doesn't know it. And going the other way, they can now cycle safely along Melbourne Grove Hillsborough, Townley, Calton, through the village, Turney, Burbage and then to Herne Hill. Like Heartblock, I would love to see a proper cycle lane throughout the length of EDG from Lordship Lane to Herne Hill. It would mean taking out quite a chunk of space for car parking which I suspect could meet quite some opposition from those who live on EDG and nearby streets which would have to accommodate the displaced parking. But clearly there is the demand for this as per Heartblock's observations of people being forced to cycle on the pavements and middle of the road. Does anyone know how to support the EDG Cycle lane proposal/investigation?