Traffic Lights @ Forest Hill Road

[Mrs Y]

Had any one received a consultation letter, prior to the new traffic lights being installed at the junction of Forest Hill Road with Colyton Road. As I think this has be badly thought out. Even before the schools have gone back the traffic is already starting to tail back it is also casuing a hazard to pedestrians as well as motorists joining Forest Hill Road either side of the junction. I understand it has been installed to enable to Water Board works to be carried out. I wonder if there was another alternative.

[kford]

Like most traffic lights, there is no need for them. Has anyone ever noticed that traffic runs more smoothly and motorists drive more carefully, using eye contact, when traffic lights are broken?

[citizenED]

Yes I was down that way the other day and saw to my horror that they are replacing yet another zebra crossing with a set of lights - zebra crossings are all about co-operation, controlled crossings are about competitiion, ie the pedestrian versus the motorist.

[Marmora Man]

Mrs Y - you beat me to it.

I was intending to post on this subject. The lights have already created larger tailbacks on Forest Hill Road than before. Whiel, occasionally, getting out of Colyton Road could be difficult - it did work when drivers co-operated (cf CitezenED's point).

Somehwre in London I believe tere is an experiement where all traffic signs, road markings, rails and bollards have been emoved. Impact - everyone has to proceed at a pace that allows them to assess the situation without any presumption of right of way - with the result of improving safety and traffic flow.

Who do we petition for their removal?

[Asset]

I think that experiment is on Exhibition Road or thereabouts, (could be wrong). Also this article I just found is on that subject.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/04/ntraffic04.xml

[Mrs Y]

Morning all,

I understand that works need to be done to the water main, but I wonder if Southwark Council could have looked into an alernative to installing traffic lights at this junction. It will be interesting to see what happens over the nexts few weeks when we all return to work and the children return to school after the Summer break. We need assurances from Southwark that the junction will be restored to its original layout. Given the lack of communication in its construction I assume Southwark intend to leave it there permanently hoping no one will complain. Hopefully one of the local councillors will pick this up as a local issue. We shall see.

Mrs Y

[*Bob*]

Am I right in saying this is a small junction in suburban London and not the Elephant and Castle?

Maybe someone has some stats which show it to be a dangerous junction, but I use it pretty regularly and haven't seen any evidence of that. In fact, I'd bet it's statistically more dangerous to go into the shops on Forest Hill Road than it is to cross it.

Now it's one of THOSE junctions where the car driver at the front of the queue gets beeped at by the people 12 cars back because nothing seems to be happening in front but nothing's moving. And if you're a pedestrian, it's one of those crossings where the red man stays lit FOREVER even though there are no cars going past.

Total overkill.

[Marmora Man]

I have just sent the following e-mail to Southwark Council - they can be contacted at:

[email protected]

"Sir / Madam,

Traffic lights have recently been installed at the junction of Colyton Road and Forest Hill Road in East Dulwich.

The lights have been operative for less than a week but have already had a negative impact on traffic flows along Forest Hill Road and Peckham Rye. Traffic now backs up regularly as far as the Forest Hill Tavern to the south and almost to East Dulwich Road / Peckham Rye junction to the north. This never happened before and is creating delays for all users but, most importantly, public transport is slowed dramatically and cyclists are obliged to cycle on the dangerous offside of vehicles if they are to pass the stationary queuing traffic. The minor extra convenience for cars turning onto Forest Hill Road / Peckham Rye from Colyton Road / Dunstans Road cannot, surely, outweigh these facts.

To the best of my knowledge there was no consultation about installing these lights; there appears to be no overriding need for lights at that junction so the rationale for their installation is not clear.

I would be grateful for more information on the decision to install traffic lights at this junction."

Suggest we all bombard Southwark Council with similar letters / e-mails and see if we can reverse, or at least learn more about, this ridiculous decision.

[SimonM]

The new traffic lights have made the junction worse for both the driver and the pedestrian. I used the crossing fairly regularly and, it being a zebra crussing with an island at the centre, rarely had to wait long before crossing all or half the road. Now, as the road traffic has three separate phases (not just two), you can wait ages for the green light.

SimonM

[Nero]

I have just sent off a quick email. Others please do the same, asking for a prompt reply. Nero

[Mrs Y]

Thank you for your support on this issue.

I have also penned an email to environment@southwark and will let you know the outcome.

Mrs Y

[kford]

Some fine comments here. The no-road markings/traffic lights/signage experiment hails from the Netherlands, of course, where they've had great success with similar schemes. Everyone: motorist, pedestrian, cyclist, stays on the move, albeit with a bit of consideration for one another. There is no more of the cork-from-a-champagne-bottle dashes from traffic lights brought on by unecessary red signals, as noted by *bob*. Get emailing!

[Nero]

I agree, KFord. Nowadays the amber light means 'put your foot down and speed through' rather than 'slow down ready for the red'. Nero

[kford]

Traffic lights used to be positioned for safety reasons; more and more, they seem to be placed purely for traffic control. It's no wonder drivers see them as an obstacle rather than a driving aid and avoid stopping.

[Big Jim]

I live on Dunstans Road and had nothing from the council about this. The traffic is really light at the mo' and they're already causing massive holdups so I hate to think what's going to happen when the brats are back at school.

[Mark]

I've just sent an email (well I copied Marmora Man's) to [email protected] too. From experience it's always best to put your address on emails to the council so they know you're a local.

[*Bob*]

I'd be happy to drop them a line too.. but is there anyone out there at all who can speak up for the new system?

It's bizarre.. usually it's the residents who have to twist the arm of their local council to get crossings etc put-in. But here it seems they've decided to blow the cash without anyone asking (or wanting, it seems). Unless anyone knows otherwise..?

[Nero]

Perhaps our friend Tom the Hack might be able to look into it? Nero

[LostThePlot]

Asset Wrote:

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

> Also this article

> I just found is on that subject.

> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne

> ws/2006/11/04/ntraffic04.xml

That's interesting, but two things to note. Firstly

"But it shifts the emphasis away from the Government taking the risk, to the driver being responsible for his or her own risk." - Does anyone think this government woudl let us take responsibility for ourselves? - I'd love to but it is difficult.

Secondy, law in Holland states that if a car collides with a cyclist, then irrespective of who actually caused the accident, the car driver is automatically deemed to be at fault. Maybe something this country should consider....

[kford]

"Secondy, law in Holland states that if a car collides with a cyclist, then irrespective of who actually caused the accident, the car driver is automatically deemed to be at fault. Maybe something this country should consider...."

I assume you're joking. Cue an influx of hit-and-runs; fake, staged 'accidents' and red lights ignored.

[everyman]

What all the postings seem to have forgotten so far is just how blooming dangerous Forest Hill Road is. Let's not pretend the zebra crossing was exactly safe as cars/bikes/buses came accelerating out of the speed camera that is pointlessly placed one hundred or so metres prior to where the hazard is - where people need to cross from the doctors surgery to the pharmacy or from the bus stop to the shops or from their homes to the park, en famille.

I drive along the road frequently, walk along the road frequently and I have to cross the road frequently and I believe the lights have made this dangerous piece of road safer not more dangerous.

Now we have a situation where a families can cross safely knowing that a red light is stopping the traffic. Do we have to wait a bit for the lights to turn red? Maybe. Does that mean that the traffic has definitely stopped - yes. So therefore families and older people have been protected. Do people in cars have to wait a couple of minutes to progress up to the dismally phased lights up at ED crossroads or the nearly always congested stretch of road up by Honor Oak? Yes - well in the name of safety I think those are a couple of minutes worth waiting

[LuvPeckham]

A good posting Everyman, however the fumes caused by the cars queueing for ages may now kill off the family and older people who didn't have breathing problems before !!

I think the problem isn't necessarily the lights but the timing between greens... far too long and what is the point of sitting there spewing out CO2 when no one is either waiting to come out of the side road or cross the road... Lights like these make a lot of drivers want to behave like cyclists and jump them !!! (Not that I am suggesting anyone - even cyclists - does by the way)

[kford]

LuvPeckham is right. And everyman, call me a cynic, but that speed camera is placed where it will trap the most motorists, rather than curtail the speed of vehicles approaching the shops and junction at Colyton Rd. (

[*Bob*]

Either it's dangerous, and has the injury/fatality count to prove it so, or it isn't, in which case it was fine like it was.

If you go round sticking-up three-way traffic light systems 'just in case' someone might get injured, you'll have to put one up on every 500 yards.

[macroban]

Probably advance works for the Harris Academy.