Jump to content

Recommended Posts

healey Wrote:

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


> Camberwell badly needs a tube link.


There is no money for existing communities in the transport budget under Johnson. Unless public money can be used to line the pockets of property developers it aint being invested in infrastructure.

They were known as Mugways. If you want to use one there are some just down the road below the flyover.


Ridgley Wrote:

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

> I pass there last week have they got rid of the

> subways , were you have to go underground to get

> to the other side?

rahrahrah Wrote:

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

> healey Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

>

> > Camberwell badly needs a tube link.

>

> There is no money for existing communities in the

> transport budget under Johnson. Unless public

> money can be used to line the pockets of property

> developers it aint being invested in

> infrastructure.



..

Indeed, looks like it, but simply not good enough.


What makes it worse is that Walworth Rd seems to have lower priority at the lights than Kennington Park Rd which appears to carry far fewer bus routes.


rahrahrah Wrote:

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

> healey Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

>

> > Camberwell badly needs a tube link.

>

> There is no money for existing communities in the

> transport budget under Johnson. Unless public

> money can be used to line the pockets of property

> developers it aint being invested in

> infrastructure.

It makes me grumpy grumpy sweary sweary. And I have been through it on a bus, in a car and my daily commute by bike. It is illogical, the phasing is awful, the queue from the South from the New Kent Road is extended, the new right turn onto St George's Road means a long wait for the lights and then you almost come back on yourself, and then you get onto St George's Road and there is no traffic (ie it is all stuck before then). It has yet to make a jot of difference (compared to before the roadworks started) on my bike.


The bus lane means that traffic turning left coming from London Road has to cut left at the junction causing more chaos. It is chucking awful. Who the chuff designed it - have they any skills about traffic management. It beats the pointless traffic lights at the Forest Hill Road junction, and Dunstans, and Mostyn/Akerman Road (Brixton) hands down.


The only comparable traffic nonsense is the unecessary lights on the Lambeth Bridge Southside.

Judging from recent comments on this thread, it seems that it's much more congested coming through the Elephant from Walworth Road in the morning rush hour than from the West End in the evening. Is this correct, and if this is so, might this have something to do with the phasing of the lights with the result that traffic coming from Walworth Rd has lower priority than traffic coming from Kennington Park Rd?
Going from Walworth, towards London Bridge in the mornings - once you're through E&C, traffic is much better than it used to be as all the congestion is before E&C. Going south on same route in the evenings, it does block a long way back for cars - buses get all the way down in the bus lane and then merge into the car lane, thus moving faster than non-bus traffic.
My journey home via Blackfriars/E&C has also been much quicker in the last few days. I don't think it's the road layout so much as the fact there's less people and less traffic than normal. Not everyone seems to be back after the New Year yet (quite a few people away in our office until next week, for example).

healey Wrote:

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

> Better today. Perhaps the phasing is being

> tweaked....



And also maybe people are getting used to it?


I haven't driven round there yet, I'm dreading it because everybody will be hooting at me because I won't know where I should be going :(

today -11am, not peak time- had to drive daughter to Euston as she had so much luggage.


Approached elephant from New Kent Road, huge queue, then at the actual Elephant it seemed there was only one tiny lane curving round to the right, the other fork seemed to be cut off.


Then once across the Elephant and round the one way system to Blackfriars/Waterloo it was ridiculous. Not that much traffic but all of it made to wait for about twenty minutes to get through lights. You cannot take left to Waterloo until you have crossed the lights for traffic to Blackfriars, as it is all bus lane up till then. About three cars could go through green at a time. It seemed to be deliberately artificially manufacturing a traffic jam. Once through to Waterloo, hardly any traffic.


I kept thinking why? is it pleasant for hotel residents to have all that traffic snarled up under their windows, or local residents? Bus lane completely empty which explains my lightening bus journeys from the other direction of late. And cyclists using the one way system? Back to your expensively laid out cycle superhighway please!!

  • 4 weeks later...

Blah Blah Wrote:

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

> http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/elephant-and

> -castle-crash-air-ambulance-lands-at-roundabout-af

> ter-lorry-hits-elderly-woman-in-south-a3174026.htm

> l

>

> So much for safety improvements. No pedestrian

> ever got hit by a vehicle in an underground

> crossing.


I agree. They should make all vehicles in London drive underneath in tunnels so the rest of us can enjoy ourselves.

I am not excusing poor or dangerous driving but do want to point out that congestion and works make for impatience and - sometimes - bad habits. It's now pretty normal for buses and other large vehicles to speed up to get through an amber, rather than slowing down. Plenty of vehicles go through on red, thinking that it's OK because they are travelling at slow speeds. Pedestrians crossing willy nilly** - sometimes pushing buggies and carrying children - don't help either.

**I have no idea whether this applies to Friday's poor accident victim.

I work between the Elephant and Waterloo and my commute (originally usefully straightforward for someone with chronic health problems) has been getting more and more tortuous. It used to be one bus ride, but that began to take an impossibly long time; so I began getting the bus to Peckham, then train to Elephant and Castle, then walking the rest of the way. I still recall my sense of disbelief the day I found the pedestrian subways blocked with no alternative crossing except some temporary lights way off in the opposite direction to where I wanted to go, with roadworks & dust & cables all around and crowds building up as the lights remained unchanged for ages. It's astonishing that more people haven't been killed yet.


That Evening Standard article that Blah Blah posted a link to has some interesting comments under it. One comment asking why the pedestrian underpasses were removed before the crossings were complete - recipe for disaster. Another comment led me on to this site: http://saveoursubways.org which I wish I'd discovered earlier! It sums up the works with this succinct phrase: "...a misguided piazzafication of a major transport hub." Damn right.

Yes I read the comments and found them interesting too, especially the one that suggested the new layout was designed to attract investment over any kind of sensible traffic/pedestrian management.


Even cyclists had an easier time before because they could use assigned pathways crossing the roundabout. Now they are forced to go with the rest of the traffic, trying to cross lanes to get to the right filter lane, amongst more densely packed vehicles.


The fact still remains, that if pedestrians are forced to cross traffic, there will always be the risk of accidents. When pedestrians can avoid traffic altogether, there are no accidents. The same is true for cyclists. How the designer of this new layout thought either of those two groups of users would be safer is mystifying.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Big recommendation for Stephen Viccary who has created a magnificent bathroom for us. Quality of work is absolutely top notch. We couldn't be happier - see pics.  Stephen is considerate and tidy meaning working from home during the work was fine (some noise - obviously, it is a demo and installation after all. He does not work on multiple jobs, does a full days work and does ALL the work himself - Tiling, plumbing, lighting (including lighting on a motion sensor under the vanity and in the shower niche - for night time visits 😉), he even changed the door architraves, sorted the badly cracked ceiling and did all the paint work. A full end to end service. Stephen's number - 07941 266 145
    • Highly recommend Dulwich Eco Gardening.  When he came to quote Saied said he’d give our garden back so we could decide what we do next.  Under two weeks of hard work from Saied and Mo and we have the garden back and can see paving I’d forgotten about. Not only did Saied remove our very overgrown greenery. Nature had taken over. He also took back to our fence line overgrown ivy, apple and pear trees and and dealt with a neighbours bamboo that had invaded our garden.  We are now going to get quotes for what we do next so those quoting will be able to see the space.  Saied has suggested someone to quote and will be coming back when he does in case he has any questions or they can work together.  I thought Saied would be a good choice and he was. Quotes from others didn’t leave me with confidence for the end result. That was never a concern with Saied.
    • Having a BBQ (fingers crossed) in 2 weeks and need a small BBQ for veggie bits and any spare benches or garden tables and chairs to borrow to add to mine. Any going? Thanks in advance...
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...