Consultation on Proposal to Close Silverdale/Bishopsthorpe Road to traffic

[Parker1970]

For all those complaining about the additional traffic on Sydenham Road and Mayow Road - the whole point is to encourage people to walk or cycle rather than drive. If you don't like being stuck in your car, think of the alternatives.

My alternative would be...
Train to Clapham Junction
wait for connecting train
Train to Willesden Junciton
wait for connecting train
Bakerloo Line to Stonebridge park
20 min walk to office.
(Around 2 hours in total)

That's not much of an alternative sadly, nor could I cycle from South East to North West London.
The alternative is for me to move home, which I really don't want to do as my family are all in South London.

Your journey will far improve with fewer cars on the road as more people who can walk or cycle.

Have you considered, for days you may not wish to drive (everyone needs a day without a car occasionally!) going through central London? You can get toStonebridge Park From sydenham station in an hour and 10, even quicker if you cycled to penge east and got the train from there! And the simplest option would be bike/walk to lower sydenham and go straight into Waterloo and pick up the bakerloo there. Admittedly you have one of the longer commutes across london but hopefully these are some good alternatives to moving house if you decide to try and reduce car use sometime.

I thought that bikes weren't permitted on public transport before 930am... did I miss a change or did you mean for me to leave the bike at Penge East..

Will be less of an issue if they do extend the bakerloo line to lower sydenham.. walk to lower sydenham and get the bakerloo line all the way to work... sadly many years away. I'll have likely retired by then

[MET]

For all those complaining about the additional traffic on Sydenham Road and Mayow Road - the whole point is to encourage people to walk or cycle rather than drive. If you don't like being stuck in your car, think of the alternatives.

My alternative would be...
Train to Clapham Junction
wait for connecting train
Train to Willesden Junciton
wait for connecting train
Bakerloo Line to Stonebridge park
20 min walk to office.
(Around 2 hours in total)

That's not much of an alternative sadly, nor could I cycle from South East to North West London.
The alternative is for me to move home, which I really don't want to do as my family are all in South London.

Sydenham > Canada Water > Baker Street/Swiss Cottage > Stonebridge Park is 60-70 mins. Is it really quicker to drive at rush hour?

Even if you must drive, which of course some people do have to, the roads will be a lot better with fewer cars. Cities have been planned around cars for the last 50-60 years (look at the amount of space given over to car parks, or walk around catford!), this is just about tipping the balance slightly back in favour of pedestrians and cyclists. Cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and now Paris (https://time.com/5864707/paris-green-city-2/) are great examples of how much a city can be improved by this.

[MET]

For all those complaining about the additional traffic on Sydenham Road and Mayow Road - the whole point is to encourage people to walk or cycle rather than drive. If you don't like being stuck in your car, think of the alternatives.

My alternative would be...
Train to Clapham Junction
wait for connecting train
Train to Willesden Junciton
wait for connecting train
Bakerloo Line to Stonebridge park
20 min walk to office.
(Around 2 hours in total)

That's not much of an alternative sadly, nor could I cycle from South East to North West London.
The alternative is for me to move home, which I really don't want to do as my family are all in South London.

Sydenham > Canada Water > Baker Street/Swiss Cottage > Stonebridge Park is 60-70 mins. Is it really quicker to drive at rush hour?

Even if you must drive, which of course some people do have to, the roads will be a lot better with fewer cars. Cities have been planned around cars for the last 50-60 years (look at the amount of space given over to car parks, or walk around catford!), this is just about tipping the balance slightly back in favour of pedestrians and cyclists. Cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and now Paris (https://time.com/5864707/paris-green-city-2/) are great examples of how much a city can be improved by this.

I didn't mean this to sound like telling you how to travel, it's obviously none of my business - I just feel like these measures are not the attack on drivers that some people think and are just about making our neighbourhoods more pleasant residents (also I want to know your shortcut through London!).

[MET]

Also there is a lot of evidence that building more roads only leads to more traffic, not quieter roads. Hopefully reducing through routes has the same effect! And if it fails, it can always change back.

[Parker1970]

I didn't mean this to sound like telling you how to travel, it's obviously none of my business - I just feel like these measures are not the attack on drivers that some people think and are just about making our neighbourhoods more pleasant residents (also I want to know your shortcut through London!).

Don't worry, I didn't take it that way

Driving is 1 hour on a good day, 1.5 hours on a bad day, but with no stopping, waiting for next train, standing on crowded trains etc. I do also take a colleague with me who lives in Beckenham and drive him home at the end of the day. The reason when we do use a train that we go the route we do, is it avoids Zone 1 so works out a ton cheapear than going via Central London on Public transport.

As for the shortcut.. some have been hampered by the same traffic calming measures we have here, which I discovered when I had to go into the office for the first time last week. I use a lot of back roads, my Dad was a Taxi driver so shortcuts were a plenty

[Ravendrone]

Im not a car driver and until my bike got stolen today at Sainsbury’s Bell Green I was a cyclist. My own view is that those 2 small diversions are not improving cycle routes but are more likely a land grab by owner occupiers in the Thorpes. As a cyclist i cant see any benefit- if the intention was to get people cycling to work then close main artery roads in and out of the centre leaving them usable by buses, cabs and cycles. As for closing one teeny bit of silverdale and then a right turn on the thorpes.. well frankly if I was going up silverdale and wanted to get through to mayow road then if take the much nicer route, the route through the park, right next door!

[simon]

Apparently there is a petition to make Mayo Road safer.
Its detailed here, if you can stand all the pop ups.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-lo ... y-18773140

I feel its a bit sensationalist, but three deaths in 10 years sounds high. I dare say there were other not fatal accidents.

[Sydenham Syd]

This may have come up in another post somewhere, but I was driving home from other side of town on Friday, and it took me 47mins to get from the top of Westwood Hill to the bottom of the high st. Extraordinary.

There is no question that I could have hopped quicker. (Before someone says I could walk, I had a boot full of kit).

I can’t believe this is down to the closure of the Thorpes or down to the increase in traffic as people aren’t travelling by public transport, but no doubt they are contributing to it. The buses were jammed up too.

I wonder what can be done to try and solve the traffic issues around the junction at the top? Take away the lights before the railway bridge would be a help? Replace the roundabout with traffic lights?

I applaud the action to try and get people walking or cycling just for the record, but I see Wandsworth council changed their closures as they were actually creating such a foul up. Seems this needs a speedy rethink.

Either way, it’s pretty nuts at the moment.

[mikej]

Syd, as someone who used to drive home from work via that route for many years, it was often like that on a Friday. Slightly faster through Penge, but only a bit faster. So nothing new.

[Sydenham Syd]

Really? Wow.
I mean I’ve been stuck coming down there before, but never nearly for so long.
I was there the other night on a Thursday having dropped one of my kids in Dulwich and had the same issue. Not quite as long, but a pretty tedious journey.
Wasn’t aware it was isolated to Fridays or that it took quite so long.

[gillyjp]

I heard on the local news that Lewisham are abandoning these road closures as they are 'not working'. Common sense has prevailed!! I do hope this isn't fake news but it was on local BBC news so I guess it's true....

[mosy]

Scrapping many road closures might be true, although I suspect Silverdale's closure might not be scrapped immediately. As mentioned elsewhere, they're demolishing Silverdale Hall to make way for building flats, which will no doubt involve more heavy machinery and concrete mixer lorries standing for hours churning, as happened when building the flats on Syd Rd just west of Newlands Park.

[Tadpole]

I heard on the local news that Lewisham are abandoning these road closures as they are 'not working'. Common sense has prevailed!! I do hope this isn't fake news but it was on local BBC news so I guess it's true....

Doesn't apply to the whole borough.........

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/1880 ... green-ltn/

[clembot]

The traffic is insane on the high street. Air quality must be awful. Clearly this isn’t working.

[Parker1970]

The traffic is insane on the high street. Air quality must be awful. Clearly this isn’t working.

There are roadworks with temporary traffic lights at Newlands Park Rd junction with the high street. It's been nose to tail ALL day with much car horn blowing all day today.

[coll]

I wanted to bump this up.
I have noticed that the man whom, several years ago, was running his automobile repair business on Bishopsthopre road is back. His operation was shut down, but now he has seized on the opportunity of the blocked road to open up shop on the street again. There are no less than 7 cars in various states of repair (or disrepair) left on the road - along with a camper van cluttering up the road.

[danmarwil]

You could always report the vehicles to the DVLA if they are untaxed and left on the public highway.

[JGD]

Long gone are the days of tax discs.

You would need to do an online check using the index number.

Additional benefit would be not only would it confirm whether the vehicles are taxed - but whether MoT's are up-to-date.

Some smart phone apps will report on the status of vehicle insurance - but not sure if that part of the service is FoC.

We have recently observed a vehicle close to us being clamped by the authorities - so someone obviously does the rounds.

[danmarwil]

Whoever is clamping the cars in Sydenham seems to be very proactive, I haven’t noticed it anywhere else that I have lived!

[JGD]

Maybe the area is being subject to particular attention.

It may be a little like TV licencing - it is easy to see where a car once had up-to-date road fund licence - and now it doesn't - so let us compile a list of such vehicles in similar locations and go see if they are still on the road. And clamp the ones we find that are still on the road and haven't logged a SORN?

Don't know if that's how it works - but could be.

Alternatively, perhaps they are subject of reports being made to DVLA.