Street works on The Cut and Waterloo Road

I agree that we have to expect today to be bad - I'm glad I am able to walk to work.

However, I believe all this narrowing of the streets limits the capability of the city to handle traffic, so even on a good day we are at, or near, full capacity. So on a bad day, everything grinds to a real halt, not just a slow down.

As I walked up Lambeth Road this morning I was struck by the empty bus lane, all the buses were stuck behind the narrow bit under the train tracks - they could not get past the regular traffic to use the bus lane, so an empty lane and all the cars, including buses, in 1 lane - seems like something isn't quite working.

I find it sad about the Cut as well, I seem to recall the planners calling it a rat run when they proposed the bumps, chicanes and general narrowing. Not sure what other roads people are supposed to use to cross town (including bicycles).

It surely isn't helped by the water main replacement happening simultaneously on Westminster Bridge Road, meaning that both the possible bus lane routes out of Elephant are clogged up.

But agreed that generally the situation has worsened considerably and the sooner someone can figure it out the better - buses from SE to WC are a nightmare at the moment.

I see they are now doing the same on the East/Cut side. The old three lane system is down to two. Madness. All it is producing is lines of polluting vehicles. Is that good for pedestrians?

Apparently it's all about 'desire lines' for Pedestrians or to put it another way making it so that it doesn't occur to them to cross elsewhere.

I agree that many of the recent traffic schemes seems to lack anything other than a 'theoretical' benefit. The Aldgate one way system is another perfect example, the traffic now regularly tails back all the way to Tower Bridge.

Still the owners of the Aldgate Tower got the pedestrian plaza they paid for so I guess they're happy.

The worst part with all these schemes is that they seem to frequently re-align the junction only and yet neglect the roads feeding it, the net result being that no one knows which lane to be in!

theedy wrote:

I see they are now doing the same on the East/Cut side. The old three lane system is down to two. Madness. All it is producing is lines of polluting vehicles. Is that good for pedestrians?

No it isn't, nor for traffic levels, but you are probably labouring under the not unreasonable assumption that the faceless cretins who sanction these schemes care for the people who have to endure the chaos that ensues, (a), while they are being carried out, and (b), when they are completed.
Had the possible results of implementing some of the idiotic traffic schemes that have been foisted on Londoners over the last few years, (Trafalgar Sq., The Strand, the narrowing of Fleet St. etc.) been properly researched, a team of five year olds could have predicted the gridlock that has inevitably ensued.

The queue of buses at around 8 in the morning has been all the way back to St George's Circus again this week. Has anyone actually seen a masterplan for why this work is a good idea? I can't see the benefit in adding delays to the 9 bus routes heading north through that junction.

I did notice on my walk to Waterloo station from the bus stop at St George's Circus, that there is a shiny new sign on the pavement outside the Ambulance HQ which says "Welcome to Lambeth"

So that's all right then.....

It's still like that at 9, and probably all day!

It's an almost unbelievable piece of "traffic management" and I'm pretty sure it's not going to get any better even when they evenutally finish the work. It's as if some deranged person who had clearly never visited the junction designed it.

Did anyone go to the Waterloo meeting last night which focused on traffic? Did this come up? Or James, do you have a report?

[quote La Martinet]It's still like that at 9, and probably all day!

It's an almost unbelievable piece of "traffic management" and I'm pretty sure it's not going to get any better even when they evenutally finish the work. It's as if some deranged person who had clearly never visited the junction designed it.



Amen to that L.M.
It has taken some time, but people are finally recognising the absolute "dog's breakfast" that Livingstone started and then the tree hugging bureaucrats of some of the inner boroughs continued to make of London's roads, and are still doing with more hare brained schemes by the minute.
You mention the chaos that has ensued at Waterloo Road because probably this affects you as it is close to home, but I can assure you that it is just a microcosm of what takes place all over London not just in the a.m. but all day, and it cannot all be blamed on the water main replacement work that in a civilised country would probably have been carried out 24/7.
This Wednesday I and four others travelled by taxi from the City to Cavendish Sq. for a meeting, I asked the driver if we could avoid High Holborn as the road works there have gridlocked the area. Certainly he replied, but I have to advise you that the logical alternative, through Bloomsbury and cutting diagonally across Tottenham Court Road will be almost as bad as most cab drivers are using it to avoid High Holborn.
He was right, he did his best but it still took 48 minutes, for a trip that normally does not exceed 20-25.

I don't think this is Livingstone or tree huggers, it appears it's being done to create a wide pavement around The Old Vic, and to improve the look of the area.

However, it's a ridiculous change and Lambeth need to do something.

Zoe wrote:

I don't think this is Livingstone or tree huggers, it appears it's being done to create a wide pavement around The Old Vic, and to improve the look of the area.
However, it's a ridiculous change and Lambeth need to do something.

Will anyone gain from a wide pavement around the Old Vic?
An aesthetically improved area perhaps, but at the cost of screwing up the traffic and pi55ing off commuters who will just have to suffer the traffic planners stupidity.
Lambeth need to do something? It appears that they have, they have acquiesced to this monumental cock up.