Forum topic: Fox Lane quieter neighbourhood: More details

Believe me,Devonshire Road is no better!

As already reported, at the recent Winchmore Hill ward forum Clare Rogers gave a presentation about the plans for the Fox Lane quieter neighbourhood on behalf of Better Streets for Enfield. Clare has now produced a written version of her presentation and uploaded it to the Better Streets website.

Clare writes that Better Streets for Enfield welcomes Enfield Council's goal of "creat[ing] an environment where walking and cycling are facilitated and seen as the preferred method of travel" and reducing car traffic through the area. Evidence that drivers are using this purely residential area as a cut-through or "rat run" was provided by an "origin-destination" survey carried out by the council in 2016. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology was used to identify the number of vehicles that were entering the area and then leaving it within a set number of seconds and to find the routes they were taking. The four routes through the area with the highest number of cars are shown on this map.



1: The Mall and Amberley Road, 2: Meadway and Greenway, 3: Meadway and Bourne Avenue, 4: Fox Lane and Old Park Road

More recently Better Streets have been doing some data collection themselves, this time using a good old-fashioned method - standing by the side of the road with a clipboard (backed up with video footage) noting down vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. This doesn't show what routes through the area drivers are using, but it does provide a snapshot of levels of traffic along particular roads. Once the quieter neighbourhood measures are in place (the council say before Christmas) it will be possible to count traffic along the same roads at the same time of day and judge how effective the measures have proved.

Clare says that some of the vehicle counts were "shocking":

Such heavy traffic creates noise, pollution and danger, deterring people from walking or cycling. Families who would prefer their children to walk to school instead drive, meaning that there is even more traffic - a vicious circle.



So why have we reached this situation where children no longer walk to school by themselves or play in the street?

Clare says that the quieter neighbourhood measures might do the trick, but if it turns out that they don't make enough difference, Better Streets will be lobbying the council to trial a "low-traffic neighbourhood". By creating barriers to cars at selected junctions (but allowing people on foot or on bike through),

The trial low-traffic neighbourhood could be created by putting two planters across the selected junctions. If there are problems, the trial could be reconfigured simply by moving the planters.

Clare points out how successful low-traffic neighbourhoods have proved in Walthamstow:

You can read Clare's full article at http://betterstreets.co.uk/could-the-fox-lane-area-be-a-low-traffic-neighbourhood.

Didn't some wazzock cut the cables last time they tried speed/traffic surveys on the Lakes?

Is there any significance behind, "To further improve road safety for pedestrians near the school we are
proposing to install sinusoidal speed humps on Fox Lane."
This stopped being a school half a lifetime since and it makes me wonder about the safety of pedestrians other than near the school, on Fox Lane as well as elsewhere in the area under consideration.
i ask, because I recall a previous exercise -which ended up not being delivered - which included a LBE plan for a zebra crossing across Fox Lane where the footpath (ref # 207) emerges from the garages to the south of the old school building. And that highlighted the risk of sitting behind a desk far away and trying to draw up a scheme. It would almost certainly have been the UK's least used zebra crossing.

Planters on Eversley Gardens? That is on the W9 bus route. Why on earth would you do that?

Just saw the raised beds at either end of Selborne Road, blocking half the road off,and wondered...

Come Tuesday, how on earth will the dustbin lorry get past to collect the rubbish ?