| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Closing Weltje Road/Rivercourt Road access | |
| Posted by: | Jeremy Parkinson | |
| Date/Time: | 27/03/23 08:32:00 |
| It seems to me wrong to get too complacent about traffic levels in the area. With Heathrow not yet back to normal levels, the chances are A4 traffic will increase further. Also any short term ULEZ benefits will be diminishing. Chiswick High Road may have fewer vehicle movements due to drivers avoiding due to the congestion but some of that traffic will have been displaced onto roads like Chiswick Lane, SCR and Dukes Avenue. It would be interesting to see data for traffic flows on those roads. I agree that the paramount consideration here should be avoiding people getting seriously hurt. I was surprised in that respect not to see immediate work taking place at the dangerous King Street junctions to ensure available funds from the current financial year were not lost. However, the priority should be to get these junctions fixed. You (Tom Pike) have assured us that better junction treatments will reduce casualties and, if you are correct, there doesn't seem to me any need for further measures. If the casualty toll for cyclists continues to rise, this needs a proper strategic approach rather than the suck-it-and-see mess we have had so far. You are currently accusing everybody who raises concerns about safety and congestion of hypothesising, when your claims about why shutting Weltje Road and Rivercourt Road will stop serious injuries to cyclists and won't cause further congestion in Chiswick are equally speculative as far as I can see. If cyclists continue to get injured on King Street after the junctions are improved, then we do have to look at closing Weltje Road and Rivercourt Road. However, this should only be done after a proper independent cross-borough analysis shows clearly that such a move would not simply transfer the risk elsewhere and wouldn't cause significant extra gridlock in Chiswick. |