Shape Better Streets Upper Norwood

CP-LTN – Come On You Spurs!

By Angus Hewlett

The removal of the scaffolding at the Church Road / Westow Street corner – and with it the long tailbacks on Church Road – contains within it both good and bad news for the future of active travel in and around the Crystal Palace area.

The good news is, of course, that the LTN interventions were not the primary driver of the long traffic delays that the area was experiencing. This further shows that additional LTN interventions are likely to be OK from a network-level perspective in those streets where people are calling for them.

A vision for LTNs

Lets’ see what life offers when we get out of our metal boxes. What can we in Croydon learn from the Walworth & Dulwich experience? Yes, this was imposed on them too!

Photographs thanks to Crispin Hughes (his website is well worth a visit!)

Transition to what?

One of the concerns at the heart of the transition movement is climate destruction, so we should expect that our over dependency on fossil fuels to be a key subject for debate. There are many issues that need to be tackled on a global scale, such as flying or energy production. But since Transition is “a movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world” lets reimagine one major factor that can be tackled locally – car usage.

So how are we ‘transitioning’ in Crystal Palace?

It’s not democratic!

We hear this a lot about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. So let’s examine this issue.

Though most people in Croydon North didn’t vote for this government, we have to concede it won the election. So it must be quite hard to argue that one of the governments’ key projects it has delivered is not democratic.

Walk to School Week – a small step to a better life for all

By our active travel correspondent Katie Crowe

As we enter Walk to School Week, and look ahead to Clean Air Day on Thursday 8^th October, I thought it would be good to assess where we are now and what the next steps might be for our local area.

Following lockdown, it’s widely acknowledged that we, as a community, cannot allow life to return to how it was. We all got to experience cleaner air and a new way of moving around. Even pre-Covid we faced an environmental catastrophe, there were critical levels of localised pollution¹, and we were already in a serious health crisis (obesity)².

Department for Transport graphic – click to enlarge

Gear Change: A bold vision for cycling and walking

The Department for Transport has recently (27 July 2020) published a document that “sets out a vision for a travel revolution in England’s streets, towns and communities”. It is well worth reading in its entirety but for busy people, here’s a synopsis mainly using the graphics from the document.

Walk to school

I wrote this article two years ago, but think it is really relevant today. I have spent the last five years promoting active travel (walking, cycling and scooting) to families in Southwark where I teach. I have learned a great deal in my role as a Healthy Schools Champion, not least about why we do – or don’t – see as many families making healthy travel choices as we would hope for.

Since then, I have founded the Croydon Living Streets Group and during last year’s Walk to School Week we worked with our neighbours at Love Lane Green in South Norwood to celebrate our pocket parks as green walking and cycling routes. This year’s W alk to School Week is coming up on October 5th and we will be celebrating how Croydon’s StreetSpace project is helping families make healthy travel choices. Please follow us on Twitter @CroydonLiving and join us in celebrating our new healthy streets.

Amy Foster

View from Cypress School

My name is Jolyon Roberts and along with my colleague, Lynne Sampson, I am one of the two Executive Headteachers of the Pegasus Academy Trust which runs six local schools, including Cypress Primary in Upper Norwood. I have been asked to contribute to this blog in order to describe both the benefits and the repercussions of recent traffic changes on our school, the families who attend and the staff that work there.

I have thought careful about what to write here, or indeed whether I should write anything at all, given that opinions are so sharply divided. However, as the scheme has now been in place for some weeks we can now see more clearly how it is working and I will concentrate on that rather than whether the scheme was right or wrong in the first place. There is still scope for change, which I understand is the purpose of this website and I would hope that many residents and people who work in the area would engage constructively in order to make this work well for all of us. As I see it the two main consequences of the measures taken so far are:

Impact of Crystal Palace LTN on adjacent streets in Bromley

Volunteer evidence-gathering

In stages between May and August 2020, Croydon Council has implemented a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) in parts of South Norwood and Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood wards. The boundaries of the LTN are: Church Road, South Norwood Hill, South Norwood High Street, the Crystal Palace-Norwood Junction railway line, and the boundary with Bromley Council, which runs along an ancient parish boundary (corresponding to no particular geographic features) between Church Road and the railway. This leaves a group of Bromley streets on the south west side of Anerley Hill affected, for better or worse, by the Croydon scheme, but not part of it.

When are Main Roads, not Main Roads?

Where philosophy meets cartography

Musings by Robbie Griffiths

The glorious thing about defending the concept of a Low Traffic Neighbourhood, is that it forces supporters to consider ever more aspects of human life in the city. So it was inevitable that philosophy should raise its head at some stage. So we have to thank Helen on our Facebook platform for pointing out the dangers of dogma, though I’m not sure she meant the dogma that cars and the city are somehow inevitably entwined.

Tests for a successful Low Traffic Neighbourhood around Auckland, Hamlet and Lancaster Roads

By Angus Hewlett

We’re publishing these key tests as discussions around an amended design to the Crystal Palace LTN begin to emerge.

Other suggestions for key requirements are welcome – please leave them in the comments section below. Any scheme that can meet these tests while minimising disruption for residents and essential services is one that should be given serious consideration.

1) Remove 100% of “through”-traffic cutting between Church Road, Anerley Hill, South Norwood Hill and Goat House Bridge via the LB Croydon-controlled back streets. This is fundamental to the operation of a low traffic neighbourhood.

2) Don’t push Croydon’s problems onto Bromley – keep Croydon traffic on Croydon’s roads wherever possible.

3) Bromley given free democratic rein and accountability to solve anything specific to its own roads (e.g. Cintra Park / Milestone Road cut-through), without prejudicing Croydon’s solution – and vice versa.

4) Minimise traffic speed/volume on all sections of Lancaster Road, Southern Avenue, Auckland Road, and Belvedere Road (Bromley) to meet the London Cycle Design Standards for a fully shared road. This means 2000 vehicle movements per day or less on any given segment of road. In some cases this means increasing, not reducing, residents’ access to and from the nearest main road.

5) Maintain doorstep access to Auckland Surgery to in-zone and out-of-zone residents from all sides of the network, in order to provide convenient and equitable access for people suffering from illness and those with disabilities.

6) Maintain satisfactory access for emergency services.

7) Maintain satisfactory access for the 410 bus.

Traffic surveys

One measure of the effectiveness of traffic alterations relies on surveys of traffic, before and after the change. If one looks at the major study (S. Cairns, S. Atkins and P. Goodwin) into ‘traffic evaporation’, we find that traffic is analysed both on the road itself, but also the boundary roads where one might expect traffic to divert to. The effectiveness of traffic evaporation is calculated from the ‘before’ and ‘after’ results of these combined figures.

Bus gate: why not let local residents through?

There are now over 2,100 signatures to the petition which, while being supportive of the LTN, calls for the bus gate to be opened for access to local residents only.

Our proposal for a better way of controlling traffic within the LTN makes it clear that the bus gate is essential to defending a safe route for walkers and cyclists, but we haven’t addressed why residents shouldn’t be allowed through or whether certain categories of people/vehicles should be given an exemption.

Bromley & Croydon residents: join together to help design a Low Traffic Neighbourhood that works for all of us

Life must be intolerable for some of the Bromley residents in ‘Auckland Island’ who are now experiencing high levels of traffic driving through their area. There are a number of factors at play:

the constriction at the end of Church Road due to the collapsed building
an increase in local residential traffic seeking a way out to Church Road
satellite navigation software directing traffic through to save a minute over driving up Anerley Hill.

This appeal seeks to address the last 2 issues, though perhaps Croydon Council should be petitioned to take a more active role in finding a solution to the collapsed building.

Crystal Palace Low Traffic Neighbourhood – theory & practice

Purpose

In their Croydon’s Streetspace Improvements Programme (CSIP) Frequently Asked Questions, Croydon Council state:

“The purpose of this initiative is two-fold:

To allow residents safer access to their streets enabling safe socially distanced travel, exercise and other activities.
To keep traffic on the classified road network and by doing so reduce the volume of traffic travelling through our neighbourhoods.

Local support for LTN

Here’s the view of local resident Martin Wheatley posted on Facebook

There’s been a lot on here [Facebook ] recently about Croydon Council’s existing and planned changes to Auckland Road and nearby streets – of which I am a resident. With no disrespect to the views which have been expressed, and for the sake of balance, let me offer a different take.

Thought of commuting by cycle?

Why not give it a go. The chances are you will get to your destination far faster than by car. Just don’t take the main roads – too much pollution for your lungs, less safe and often slower.

Latest – A fifth of Brits say they’re considering cycling to work

Benefits

it makes you fitter
it makes you healthier – better respiratory fitness (important in these times)
less likely to catch germs/virus than on public transport
it makes you richer
it saves you time
there is no frustration sitting in traffic jams
it evaporates stress after a difficult day at work
you see streets you never knew existed
sometimes great thoughts come to mind while cycling – solutions to long standing problems can spring into your mind!

Support for Croydon Council’s plan

Dear Croydon council

I live near the Auckland Rd Cypress Hill junction.

Before the bus gate; barrier with flowers

The road block was fantastic – we saw our non cyclist teenagers both cycling down the streets learning the dangers in a safe way and they now want to cycle to school or walk. The whole road was jogging, chatting in front gardens, cycling, playing outside and dog walking while remaining distanced. It’s been amazing.

How is all this being paid for?

In May 2020, the Transport Minister, Grant Shapps, announced £250 million for an emergency active travel fund (the first stage of a £2 billion investment).

Pop-up bike lanes with protected space for cycling, wider pavements to allow social distancing, safer junctions, and cycle and bus-only corridors were promised across England.

What does Croydon Council say

This is what Croydon Council Highway Improvements Team say:

Scheme background:

The road closures and other measures across the borough have been installed at speed in response to covid-19 pandemic with the aim of reallocating road space to cyclists and pedestrians enabling safe, socially distanced active travel and form part of the Council’s Streetspace Improvement Programme (CSIP). The central government imposed lockdown has resulted in a substantial reduction in motor traffic, creating less polluted, quieter streets across our borough. Many people have opted to cycle or walk instead of using their own vehicles or public transport, in some areas there has been a 70% increase in the number of people using bicycles for exercise, safe and socially distanced travel.