Though I'll have to go to the consultation tomorrow to check, it does look as though they've addressed the concerns I voiced at the last consultation. They're still using a map without the Ha'penny hatch but they've put a cycle contraflow in along Norman Road, so that my principal objection has disappeared.
Clearly, you couldn't get 2 lanes of traffic around that corner.
And what have they done? They've made the junction single lane (single black arrow in the diagram, they use two black arrows when it's 2 lane) and widened the pavement for the cyclepath. So they couldn't do it because it was my suggestion, but once they'd made it their own suggestion, hey presto, they can do it! Mind you, they've put the cyclepath on the wrong side of the road, but I suppose they have to come up with some of their own ideas, sensible or not. I'll have to ask them why tomorrow.
Please ask why they want traffic flowing more smoothly. If traffic flows better it will just attract more traffic. Smooth flowing traffic on nelson road will just make it more dangerous for tourists trying to get from the riverside to the park and those tourists are what makes Greenwich valuable - not the cars which aren't even stopping.
ReplyDeleteMy proposal - divert the railway tunnel south of the maritime museum and use the existing rail tunnel for cars to tunnel under Greenwich then make Nelson Road bus only and ban lorries altogether.
Can you find out where I can post this consultation comment?
Joe R
Joe R, there's a link in the opening sentence which should take you to the online consultation docs.
ReplyDeleteAnd also look here: http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/YourCouncil/HaveYourSay/
ReplyDelete@ Joe R: 'divert the railway tunnel south of the maritime museum' - just like that? Sounds expensive, not to mention rather difficult from a technical point of view.
ReplyDelete@ marmoset : this is an improvement on the previous proposal, but the cycle path should definitely stay on the same side of Norman Road throughout, with a crossing incorporated for cyclists needing to access Hapenny Hatch (and please not one of those crossings that takes so long to change that by the time you get the green light there are no cars on the road!).
Deptford Dame, I agree, but I'll ask why they've done it this way. The cycle contraflow is on the normal side of the road from Creek Road up to where there's a blue bit marking a pedestrian crossing by the end of the (invisible) Ha'penny Hatch. So any cyclist going south on Norman Road will have to cross over at the lights (presumably a toucan crossing) and continue on the wrong side. I think it would make more sense for cyclists coming from the Ha'penny Hatch to cross Norman Road at those lights and join the contraflow on the normal side of the road. The only reason I can think of for having done this is because of an access road to new developments on the site of the old industrial zone. (But there again, I'd also heard that the development was on ice, recession oblige...)
ReplyDeleteI love the photos of Greenwich in the pdf - the Cutty Sark, bustling shops, Burger King...have the council walked around the centre of late?!
ReplyDeleteThis was Greenwich many years ago - get out of your nice Council offices and take some more recent photos.
Mind you a poorly managed burnt ship, crumbling pier, boarded up shops and drunks spilling out onto the streets from the Wetherspoons pub don't quite have the same cachet. Maybe better sticking with the 1990's!