Forum topic: Public meeting to discuss the proposed Fox Lane Low Traffic Neighbourhood plans

I plan to attend the meeting on Friday, but my approach will have nothing to do with historic speed limits and actual speed which has been experienced in the past. What I'm interested is the future nature of the QN.

Roughly I would describe my priorities as: no rat-running, very low traffic speeds and such modifications as the Council can afford which could encourage a social ambience between neighbours, and more freedoms for children. I may be dreaming, but I'm sure that the nature of local traffic in big towns and cities will change in the not too distant future.

Well, if Richard M refers to my post – rather than Adran D’s - there is no underlying regarding what he may or may not think – that’s a personal choice, so feel free to think whatever. What I personally believe is that data is now essentially a stale concept: key stakeholders and organisations such as the council, Met Police, councillors, the FLDRA session I mentioned in the previous post and numerous residents have concluded, over many years, that the current traffic position on many of our streets is inappropriate for residential areas. How correcting that position balances with the strongly felt views of those who wish little or no effect of rectification measures on their current driving patterns is the heart of the current matter.
That said, I think there is a real risk of mixing the message in RM’s post in using spot peak traffic volume data to highlight a traffic speed case. One corollary of maximum volume – such as the post's identified 8am in Old Park Road, - is that a stream of vehicles passing every 20 or so seconds tends to slow the overall pattern. Volume may then be at a peak but velocity is not. Accurate data is fine but it also needs to be employed accurately.
Worth adding that the council give heavy weight to perception alongside quantitative data, hence the reality of many 60mph comments from many residents, which is important in an individual’s outlook and has been the subject of at least two surveys by LBE that I’m aware of and one by a FLDRA subcommittee. (Traffic speed was far and away the top issue in that.)
Personally I find that 100 vehicles per day heading towards Aldermans Hill on one of our residential streets (not uniquely) while topping 35mph (ACPO guideline) is simply scandalous.

I too hope the meeting is objective and all views are given an airing - however people should be aware Paul is behind the anti ltn campaign and the rash of red posters around the estate. Hopefully he will be even-handed and neutral in his Chairmanship on Friday.

Richard makes a valid point, all the closure campaigners have always been very keen to use outliers to underline their points.Thanks for calling them out on this!

Have a look at the recently posted dashboard of stats. Are the the recorded volumes and velocity of traffic on residential streets acceptable to you?.

I wonder what steps the organiser of this meeting has taken to publicise it, other than rallying his fellow anti-LTN campaigners? As a resident in the proposed LTN area I've only found out about it myself through browsing this forum.

I'd love to believe that "the key aim is to solicit residents’ views on the best way forward" but in the light of Mr Mandel's well known campaigning history, and the fact that this meeting is listed on Facebook under the "Keep Our Neighbourhood Open" slogan, I can't help but suspect that the only residents' views that Paul is interested in are those which match his own opinions.

Whatever "broad consensus" may come out of this meeting , I hope the council won't assume that it's necessarily representative of the views of the whole neighbourhood.

The common beef seems to be the absence of council consultation but I wonder it may be more an absence of effective change management, for I have inkling that the FLDRA area can’t be far off being the most analysed and consulted space regarding traffic in London: numerous council road data sets, data sets from the MPS and Speed/ Road watch; perception surveys a plenty, petitions, campaigns, other informal soft data, public meetings, council meetings, forums, workshops, you name it and the last two decades have seen it. It might well have required someone to forcibly break out of that never ending roundabout to move things forward at long last.
To me at least, the P Mandel meeting seemed to project a general consensus from those living with in the area of a need to build a consensus to solve an acknowledged problem. Then it’s the-what?
ANPR camera’s received a high profile. A different traffic practitioner now tells me they are indeed possible but purchase would lie with residents; on top of which I guess would come admin, control / management, replacement, dealing with new / exiting residents, enforcement, enforcement disputes, and doubtless several other costs. Is anyone really going to come forward to set such up, either as a business or voluntarily? That’s going to be a tough call across all streets and across all LTN’s expected in the borough.
One other solution suggested spot closures on Meadway, Oakfield and perhaps Selbourne. That might be workable for Meadway and Oakwood but I’m struggling to see it impacting on Fox Lane, the Amberley / Mall through route, or the Green Lanes by-pass variously of Old Park / Grovelands / Caversham / Burford.
Far from straightforward to resolve as many have known for an awfully long time.