| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Closing Weltje Road/Rivercourt Road access | |
| Posted by: | Francis Rowe | |
| Date/Time: | 24/03/23 16:57:00 |
| Tom, we are both hypothesising as neither of us are blessed with perfect foresight. The lower rate of collisions on the Chiswick stretch of the cycleway could be related to it not being fully open for much of the period during which the Hammersmith section was suffering all these injuries so it would be better not to be complacent. It could well be that the higher rate of serious injuries to cyclists in King Street could be down to local factors which will not be replicated in Chiswick but there is no reason to take it for granted. If we assume that Weltje Road closes, then eastbound traffic on the A315 heading to the A4 will have three remaining options - SCR, Dukes Avenue and Chiswick Lane. My concern would be that the preferred option of those with Waze/Google Maps and local knowledge would become Dukes Avenue because SCR has a short phase to get onto the A4 and Chiswick Lane requires you to progress further along CHR which can be very slow moving. You tell us 500 vehicles an hour are turning into Weltje at peak times at the moment so it seems to me a reasonable estimate that 100 an hour would now start to use Dukes Avenue as an alternative. Not great news for residents but the main drawback is the elevated risk this presents at the junction with the High Road. The light phase here, particularly for cyclists, is very long and not everyone has the patience to wait. I've seen a number of instances of a cyclist assuming an eastbound vehicle was continuing on straight and continuing on through a red phase. Fortunately the driver spotted them but, in one case it was quite close. I don't pass this junction every day and therefore it seems to be reasonable to assume that what I have witnessed is quite commonplace. I may be wrong, you may be wrong. However, the pandemic is over and there is no need to make significant changes without proper research and consideration. Closing Weltje Road would have widespread impacts across this part of London on cyclists, buses and general traffic. Rather than we both speculating it would be good if some proper analysis was done before a decision was made preferably, as Jeremy suggests by an independent transport consultant, who would be briefed to represent the interests of all types of road users and residents of both the affected boroughs. |