Forum topic: Fox Lane low-traffic neighbourhood

Hello Guy, we don't know each other but we both live on Conway Road. I have been commuting to work in Enfield Town by car since March, going via the back roads such as Broad Walk. I estimated that the LTN would add 90 seconds to my journey as I now go via Aldermans Hill and the Green Lanes. But I don't think it has made much difference. The journey takes 16-20 minutes, including queuing on Aldermans Hill and London Road by the Dugdale. I recognise that some of us are more inconvenienced than others, but when some local people make wild exaggerations on social media about constant gridlock on the roads, they do not add anything positive to the debate. BTW, are you on the Conway Road WhatsApp group yet? They are planning socially distanced Halloween doorstep drinks on 30th October.

My wife was called for her flu jab at the surgery near the Tesco service station in Winchmore Hill. So yesterday we walked the slightly longer, but quieter, Woodland Way route and made the journey from Old Park Road in 19 minutes. That looks good vs an apparent 23 minutes by car. I suggested to her that on bike it was probably about 5 minutes, but there were no takers. Coffee followed at the cannibalised parking spaces on Winchmore Hill Green on the way back – a splendid use of space for people, lots of them, every time I’ve been there.

No offence intended, but the above makes absolutely no rational sense to me. How could such a diversion have been 'estimated' to add '90 seconds' to that journey? It would simply not be possible. It takes you - literally! - miles out of your way, and puts you onto roads where you are moving further away from your final destination before you can get back on track, it puts you onto roads where you simply do not need to be, and at pinch points (EG The Triangle and Palmers Green high street) where your presence is adding to congestion, pollution and danger.

But more to the point, the people who support these schemes don't want you to be using your car to commute from Conway Road to Enfield! They want you to walk, cycle, take public transport or any combination thereof. Perhaps it is worth considering how long *that* diversion will add to your journeys, and what its impact on your free movement will be? Fox Lane LTN is the thin end of the wedge.

Colin seems to have dug out data which gets to the heart of a matter frequently promoted by David Hughes many years back - getting more bodies in public spaces should (does) reduce ASB / crime. In Fox Lane LTN terms that becomes is that position better met by thousands of passing vehicles moving at circa 30mph or a growth in active travellers otherwise discouraged by that same traffic? Now we have such a petri dish trail to help answer it, although the likes of the Leigh Hunt Drive estate area may already provide powerful guidance. Obviously the hundreds of daily crimes of speeding have already been heavily mitigated by the LTN trial. I would also expect serious impact on the dial-a-drug trade where it’s long been evident that drugs (or at least small packages) were being delivered by passing vehicles, either to another vehicle or to a pedestrian on our streets. On the other hand any reduction or even loss of the recycling / reuse “white van trade” in collecting unwanted items from front drive areas on a drive past would be a negative. In 30+ years I’ve yet to experience or hear of a local scooter based theft and long may that continue. Certainly this last four weeks or so is far and away the longest period on our comprehensive street whats app that’s been in situ for a lot of years when there has been no mention of a crime or otherwise suspicious behaviour on the street. I’m less concerned about planters being a ASB bench or store for drugs / weapons here in Fox Lane as the many nearby low walls and extensive gardens already provide such opportunity were it sought. Planters and prostitution? I’ll leave that to a specialist. All this real life data is going to be fascinating and appears to go well beyond the simple traffic question.

Colin asks a good question - and one that is ripe for a 'before and after' study of the crime figures (although I gather burglaries have been down since April due to lockdown, then more people working from home). Speeding, careless and dangerous driving visibly down on all streets in the LTN of course. It's often pointed out fear of crime is more pernicious than than the actual crime - personally I feel my street is safer as there's more people walking, cycling and using mobility aids - and it's much easier to hear anything untoward in the street. It'll be interesting to see the figures in a few months.

Julia Mountain wrote: "I have been commuting to work in Enfield Town by car since March, going via the back roads such as Broad Walk. I estimated that the LTN would add 90 seconds to my journey as I now go via Aldermans Hill and the Green Lanes. But I don't think it has made much difference."

Alan Thomas wrote: "It takes you - literally! - miles out of your way, and puts you onto roads where you are moving further away from your final destination before you can get back on track, it puts you onto roads where you simply do not need to be, and at pinch points (EG The Triangle and Palmers Green high street) where your presence is adding to congestion, pollution and danger....Fox Lane LTN is the thin end of the wedge."

I might have thought this and I don't know where Julia lives, obviously, but taking the midpoint of Conway Rd as a starting point, her new commute is 0.51km or 0.32 miles longer (Ordnance Survey online). If she lives at the Ulleswater Rd end, it is shorter. Her old commute would also have involved pinch points (Winchmore Hill Green etc.) which are uncontrolled by traffic lights and probably more dangerous for drivers and pedestrians alike.

In terms of wedges, Alan is correct in that it is the stated policy of national, regional and local governments to reduce car mileage (largely as a public health measure) and, over the coming years, there will be increasing regulatory and financial disincentives to drive for short journeys and at particular times of the day. One of the reasons for that is that we are at the thick end of this wedge:

and another two years will see the traffic on unclassified roads in London at the same volume as "A" roads. All this has happened in the last 10 years, partly due to satnav, partly because the cost of driving has been static (ish). The increased mileage is also greater than the increase in either number of cars or population, so we have all been driving more.
If we do nothing, then this will eventually self-limit due to congestion and traffic volume and people will be forced to find other methods of transport in any case. It just seems more sensible for us all to consider ways we could drive less now and thus avoid the attendant (well-known) problems of more years of increasing traffic.

These days I often think it's a shame that I'm getting old, not because my end of life is getting closer, but because I don't have the energy/ability to source information and present it as logically an swiftly as I used to.

Furthermore I'm a little bewildered by the fact that as a society very, very much younger people continue to reach destinations, perhaps especially work destination, in driver-only vehicles when in London there are usually perfectly good alternatives like buses and trains, backed by walking or cycling. Cars are wonderfully adaptable, but given that even now they emit dangerous emissions which are especially hard on children, you would think everyone would think twice about whether they really need to use a car when there are alternatives.

Perhaps someone who does reach work be car, but could walk, cycle or use public transport, would like to make a case.