Forum topic: Planters in Fox Lane area 'not reducing through traffic'

I'd hazard a guess that that several streets which saw an increase in volume following planter installation would realistically expect a further increase as alternate streets currently offering by-pass facility became harder to negotiate after a planter installation, eg OPP saw an increase post planters; were Grovelands to be planted then a fair assumption would see that as being harder to access and so detrimental to cars which in turn would go to an alternate route, most likely OPR. or so one logic stream might suggest.

Has anyone totalled the columns up?

I find it interesting that you say, "Residents vehicles doing a 3 point turn" does that mean only residents are allowed into the street. How do you travel around, do you just stay on the main road, or do you use other routes to reach your destination?
Having made the main road narrower, and impossible to pass a stationary bus, I don't know what you expect drivers to do.
Do the residents of the roads off Fox Lane etc immediately drive to the main road , or do they use what you call Rat runs too.
Just imagine the gridlock if every vehicle that uses those roads were forced on to Green Lanes.
By the way, only this week I witnessed a vehicle that could not turn into a Planter obstructed road, drive to a road without a planter and drive along it, so traffic does avoid these roads.

The thing is David, people who live in the Lakes Estate and surrounding roads drive on other peoples streets, please don't tell me that they immediately drive on to Green lanes etc,.
Were I still in my employment as a decorator, it would not be possible to use any other form of transport than my van.
Residential streets are for living you say, not driving along. Yet your streets are packed with cars, which I presume are put to use driving along other residential streets.
The cycle lanes have caused huge problems on the roads, and made it more difficult for drivers to actually use the main road.
It's fine to walk and cycle when it is feasible and possible, but not if you live a distance away from your place of employment.

With 'point no entry' anyone and everyone can use the street and anyone not in a vehicle can enter/exit at either end - but rat-runners won't be able to enter one end and leave the other (the north end of Broomfield Avenue is an example). As with most new residential developments, residents who choose to drive will of course use the road to get to the main roads. Where this has been done elsewhere in the country vehicle numbers/journeys have fallen - as those that can are encouraged to walk, cycle or use public transport. (a large % of car journeys in Enfield are less than one mile). It's a win/win - a healthier, more active population and a quieter, less polluted safer environment for residents. PS the figures in the table show that several roads with planters have experienced increased traffic - which is why they are being removed very soon

I don't think any of these issues would have happened if the council had used recognised methods of dealing with the traffic flows using chicanes. This is a link to a standard document which is quite old but is also effectively used in other parts of Enfield. https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20090511035913/http://www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/165240/244921/244924/TAL_12-971

The issue for the council however is one of cost. But it would have been less controversial and probably not even commented on in this forum.

I’d be very surprised indeed had such engineering not been considered but that the requirements of the emerging London Plan in particular make such “recognised methods” exactly those – the traffic management world we are now leaving, putting the needs of drivers at the bottom of the hierarchy rather than at the top. It’s going to take a while to sink in and then get used to but its happening.

Chicanes would certainly work to slow down cars, but would have taken away parking spaces, and residents in earlier consultations objected to anything that removed parking spaces.

The November 2017 proposals for the Fox Lane QN included road narrowing on some streets - which these were depended I think on earlier feedback from residents of individual streets.






However, the October 2018 Fox Lane consultation dropped the road narrowing because it would take away some parking spaces.


The report on the responses to the 2017 consultation is included in this document pack on the council website . As you'll see if you read it, there was absolutely no consultation about the Fox Lane scheme (just to be sure that this last bit isn't misunderstood, this is sarcasm, in response to complaints at yesterday's FLDRA meeting that the planters idea had come out of the blue with absolutely no consultation).