Peckham Rye Gyratory reappears for 2 week consultation: little change, more disruption

[IainJ]

Southwark Council yesterday released the revised scheme for traffic movements around Peckham Rye/East Dulwich Road which was heavily criticised when it first appeared.  The consultation is open for less than 2 weeks, closing on 16 February so you need to be quick with your responses.  It hasn't yet appeared on the 'Southwark Platform' so the Council is obviously hoping that it will go unnoticed so that the scheme can be forced through. 

The major areas of concern, i.e., the closure of the eastern branch of Peckham Rye to the junction with East Dulwich Road and the consequential rerouting of most traffic to the western branch remain. This will cause substantial tailbacks in all directions, in particular slowing the buses. The current scheme was designed to improve the buses through the western junction so this seems a retrograde step. The scheme pays lip service to improving cycling but in practice offers little benefit - with all traffic forced to use the western arm of Peckham Rye there will be more potential conflicts. The Nigel Road bus stop  is to be moved to Rye Lane to secure the much criticised 'floating bus stop'. All of this is said to be costing £2m and will take another year to implement. Yet more contra flows, temporary traffic lights and massive disruption just when we have recovered from the delays caused by the gas works last year. And with more restrictions it will be a huge cash cow for the Council. Not that this is an objective of the scheme.... 

The link to the consultation is here: https://engage.southwark.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/peckham-rye-gyratory-bus-improvements

The Council need to be mindful of the High Court judgement in 2025 which quashed the West Dulwich low traffic zone, where the consultation outcome was described as a 'masterclass in selective reporting'.  

Edited 6 hours ago by IainJ

[alice]

Sounds like they’re just getting rid of an important bus stop at Nigel Road. There’s already another bus stop outside the old Asda around the corner. 

[march46]

Suggest properly reading the detailed documents. My take is they’ve listened very well to concerns raised in the consultation - and made sensible revisions in response. There was a lot of support from residents. 

47 minutes ago, IainJ said:

 It hasn't yet appeared on the 'Southwark Platform' so the Council is obviously hoping that it will go unnoticed so that the scheme can be forced through. 

How did you find out about it?

[malumbu]

48 minutes ago, IainJ said:

The Council need to be mindful of the High Court judgement in 2025 which quashed the West Dulwich low traffic zone, where the consultation outcome was described as a 'masterclass in selective reporting'.  

Nope as some of us discussed for some reason the judge was swayed by a load of bolloxs from some NIMBY's with money and time on their hands.

[Rockets]

1 hour ago, malumbu said:

Nope as some of us discussed for some reason the judge was swayed by a load of bolloxs from some NIMBY's with money and time on their hands.

Are you now questioning whether judges uphold the rule of law and are actually being swayed by "NIMBYs with money and time on their hands?"

@malumbu was it not the judge that summed up by saying it was a "masterclass in selective partial reporting" or is that just spin from biased folks with an agenda.....;-)

 

[first mate]

What with 'fake summaries' and 'nimby judges' it is all beginning to feel a bit Trumpesque.

[James Barber]

This scheme seems fundamentally flawed and likely to lead to crash concentration and worse crash outcomes. 

 If Peckham Rye east is closed to motor vehicles, and the various side road closures, then a lot of extra traffic will be forced onto Peckham Rye west which will slow down the bus routes and cyclists following that route to and from East Dulwich. It is also likely to raise the pressure for motor vehicle drivers at the western Peckham Rye / East Dulwich Road junction. A young girl died at this junction in the past while temporary lights were in place. Stressed motorists are a greater danger and risk for more serious crashes. 

 Looking at Crashmap.co.uk for the area the western junction vs the eastern one, for the last five years public data is available for, shows 8 vs 7 Slight crashes and 1 vs. 0 for Serious crashes on these two junctions. Placing further traffic onto the western junction would likely exacerbate this. 

 BUT if the whole western Peckham rye from East Dulwich Road to Scylla Road junction is compared to the eastern side it becomes 2 serious and 17 slight on the west side vs. 0 serious and 11 slight crashes on the east side.

I can’t see how the scheme would make this better. But intuitively it would seem a real risk to make it much worse. 

[CPR Dave]

Thanks James. A very sensible contribution.

 

Are you planning to stand for election next time round? I hope so. I will vote for you if you do. 

Edited 1 hour ago by CPR Dave