Forum topic: Plans for Fox Lane low-traffic neighbourhood published

A few other readers have picked up on the probable unintended consequences of this scheme.

Traffic is not reduced. It simply gets displaced.

Overall carbon emissions rise in the area as people drive further.

I also think that the council needs some help with this. This is the same council that spent >£30m on cycle lanes that are intersected by bus stops.

Traffic is not reduced. It simply gets displaced.

I would have to defer to Adrian Day and David Eden who understand the phenomenon much better than I, but the displaced traffic evaporates. I can’t recall exactly which similar scheme I read about unfortunately - although I believe it was also in London - but the extra traffic disappears. Presumably the scheme prompts others to take different means of transport?

How about this as a solution.
ANPR at the end of a couple of roads onto Aldermans Hill. Each address on the lakes estate can register 2 cars to use the exit/entrances, you can buy more if you want to.

This can be easily done.

Problem still seems to be those favoring closures not running with any compromise and a council just wanting to implement a cheap scheme to the detriment of a majority of the residents here and in surrounding areas.I think the Labour council might regret this when the local elections come around again .

We have lived in Lakeside Road for 29 years. The first 20 years were OK but the road is now blighted by rat-runners causing noise, fumes and danger. And it’s getting steadily worse.

We are delighted that the roads will be blocked off. Slight detours are a small price to pay to be able to sleep in our front bedroom and open our windows again.

However the Council’s scheme is flawed and we fear it will ultimately fail as being unacceptable to too many drivers.

A much more light touch scheme, such as that proposed by Better Streets for Enfield, still prevents through traffic but is far less restrictive on the people who actually live here. It seems much more popular with our neighbours. Local drivers must be won over if the plan is to be an ultimate success.

Better Street’s plan can be seen here: https://maphub.net/oflimap/fox-lane-area-modal-filters

Broomfield Ave and Seafield Road were both blocked against rat-runners years ago and don't seem to have problems with emergency services, waste lorries, 3 point turns etc. And I don't think any residents there would want to go back to the old days.

I would like John to be able to enjoy living on his road again.

His very valid point is that drivers need to be on side.The newer plan on better streets just reverses the direction of congestion as everyone on the Aldermans Hill side must route via southgate circus to Winchmore etc. as Fox Lane is blocked.It is no better. It creates the monster of all rat runs as to avoid Bourne Hill queues you go down Caversham ,up fox lane ,along oakfield road to join Bourne Ave .Fox lane would be like a motorway and everyone will be speeding out of frustration like they did when the boxes were in force.

Access points for residents only onto and from Aldermans Hill, if only via a couple of roads as a'bolt 'on' to the original plan would help to win me over and I'm one of those drivers who is vehemently opposed to this current scheme as it stands.

This proposal has certainly caused a stir. But then any attempt to curtail or mitigate the dominance of cars always does regardless of the fact that they can cause problems as well as well as being very adaptable and useful in many contexts. In fact that very adaptability can be part of the problem: people fall in love with their car, and expect to use them even in contexts where other solutions, like walking, cycling, using public transport would be the better choice.

Which may be why there is so much angst about the Council’s current proposals for the Lakes Estate: perhaps people are wondering whether the next step will mean a greater chance of having to take one of those choices. Personally I think that a shift in policy is inevitable sooner or later as air quality becomes a bigger issue, and international concern about the progress of climate change takes hold.

And make no mistake, that will happen.

This thread like most others connected mainly with car traffic, and especially where there is to be any limitations on car use, has dwelt on what drivers want. However, there is a category of person which has lost most in the car-age: children. They have been swept off streets like those in the Fox Lane area like leaves on a tree. When I was young all those 70/75 years ago children in my residential street played on the street most days, sometimes after dark on autumn evenings. We had freedoms children now could only dream about. And this matters; more than one scientist has spent much of their working life thinking about it, 20mph or lower is important for that reason alone.

Great post, David

Living on Oakfield Road I do not want to be the unintended consequence of a scheme that sends all vehicles into and out of the Meadway Estate through my road. Cars, lorries, delivery vans, scaffolders and skips would pass through Oakfield Road onto anywhere on the Meadway Estate. It does not take a trial to see this would happen. It does not need evidence, just a look at the map.
Surely it is not progressive to turn a pleasant, relatively quiet street with many young families into a congested, polluted thoroughfare.
Candy Newman 77 Oakfield Road N14