As the Transport Committee meets on Wednesday to hear that the crucial Putney Bridge junction is showing improvement, residents continue to suffer extreme congestion at rush hour, with one residential road in particular taking the brunt this week thanks to sat navs rerouting to avoid the High Street.
Chelverton Road has become gridlocked in recent weeks, with drivers reporting half-hour waits after navigation apps directed them through the residential street as an alternative to congested Putney High Street.
One Putney.news reader, who lives on Chelverton Road, said she has spoken to multiple drivers stuck in queues who said their sat nav directed them down the one-way street, where they then became trapped. “They sit for almost half an hour unable to turn around,” she said.
She timed a comparison journey last week. It took her six minutes to reach Putney High Street traffic lights via Upper Richmond Road, the parallel main road. Meanwhile, drivers following navigation app instructions through Chelverton Road faced waits five times longer.
The congestion pattern was evident on 9 February. Chelverton Road backed up with vehicles attempting to turn onto Putney High Street, creating a queue that extended around the corner onto Upper Richmond Road itself. That queue then backed all the way to the main Upper Richmond Road/Putney High Street junction, bringing the area close to complete gridlock.
The congestion triggered dangerous driving, with frustrated motorists mounting pavements to bypass stationary traffic.
The problem extended across multiple streets. Disraeli Road was backed up nearly to Oxford Road. Werter Road experienced severe congestion. Putney Bridge Road remained heavily jammed. Residents in a local WhatsApp group reported similar displacement effects. “Glendarvon Street is taking the brunt this morning,” one wrote. “They need to resolve the rat run along the embankment.”
Henry Cheung, Wandsworth Council’s Assistant Director of Engineering, confirmed the problem in a message to residents this week. “I am aware Chelverton Road is suffering this week in particular,” he wrote, adding that “a number of residents have emailed me directly from Chelverton Road, highlighting the AM congestion issue.”
How sat navs choose routes
Google Maps dominates navigation in the UK, used by 77% of adults according to Ofcom’s 2025 data, with Apple Maps at 15% and Waze at 11%. These apps choose routes by predicting travel times using live traffic conditions combined with historical patterns, selecting the path with the lowest estimated time.
When Putney High Street becomes heavily congested, the algorithms legitimately calculate that residential alternatives like Chelverton Road appear faster, even if those streets are not designed for through traffic. The result is a classic rat run problem documented in transport research. Drivers individually seeking the fastest route create collective congestion that overwhelms residential streets.
What councils cannot do
Hall suggested the council could “advise or compel the sat navs to change their algorithms to exclude the congested side roads.” But research into navigation regulation shows councils cannot order algorithmic changes directly.
The navigation industry’s position is clear. Providers require a legal basis before they will structurally avoid a road. Generic requests to stop sending people down residential streets are not sufficient when the road remains legally open to traffic.
What councils can do
Under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, traffic authorities can impose restrictions including time-limited turn bans, access restrictions and road closures. Once these restrictions exist in law and are properly signed, sat nav companies generally respect them.
Crucially, infrastructure exists for rapid updates. Google’s Maps Content Partners portal and Waze for Cities programmes allow councils to share restrictions that are reflected within minutes in routing apps. The Department for Transport’s D-TRO service provides machine-readable digital traffic regulation orders specifically designed to ensure restrictions reach navigation systems quickly.
Wandsworth consulted on exactly this in 2022
In June 2022, Wandsworth published consultation plans for a weekday early-morning ban on motorists turning left from Upper Richmond Road into Charlwood Road. The stated purpose was explicit: to prevent drivers using Charlwood Road and Chelverton Road as a shortcut.
The consultation documents showed two options: a timed banned turn from Upper Richmond Road into Charlwood Road, and a timed restriction on the bridge between Upper Richmond Road and Norroy Road except for cycles.
It is unclear what happened to these proposals. Cheung said residents this week that he had previously liaised with residents of Chelverton Road to discuss ideas for how the council and TfL could tackle the problem, but their petition was unsuccessful due to lack of support.
Council: ‘Not aware of anything making this worse’
Cheung acknowledged the council is monitoring Chelverton Road, Oxford Road and Charlwood Road as drivers unable to turn right from Upper Richmond Road onto Putney High Street seek alternatives. He said he had asked Transport for London to investigate if there are any reasons why this is the case.
But he added: “We are not aware of anything that would be making this worse at the moment, but will investigate it in more detail next week once the highway works at Lacy Road are complete.”
The timing is notable. Transport Committee meets on Wednesday to discuss Paper 26-32, which shows morning peak journey times at Putney junction remain above the 2023/24 baseline despite 15 months of signal changes and kerb realignments. The data suggests junction improvements have not resolved congestion on main roads, potentially explaining why the apps continue to route drivers through residential alternatives.
What residents can do
Residents can report congestion patterns directly to Wandsworth Council’s traffic team at traffic@wandsworth.gov.uk, providing details of times, dates and traffic volumes.
The Transport Committee meets on Wednesday 11 February. Residents can turn up to the meeting and make it clear that the impact of the Putney Bridge junction redesign continues to cause problems more than a year after it was introduced.
If multiple residents are affected, a community petition requesting the council implement traffic regulation orders for Chelverton Road and other affected streets may be more effective than individual complaints. Under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, residents can formally request the council consider a TRO, particularly with evidence of traffic volumes, safety concerns or air quality impacts.
The regulatory framework exists. The question is whether Wandsworth will use it.
Not to state the obvious but if there was an open bridge at the end of Castlenau………………..
This is a gallon into a pint pot situation.
Too right..
As a resident of Chelverton Road, if I recall correctly the consultation referred to was sent to both Chelverton Road and Norroy Road. Since the latter isn’t really affected by the traffic (as it is not part of the rat run to the high street) the level of responses was not sufficient to force the council to put measures in place. In fact, even if 100% of Chelverton Road had been in favour of restrictions, the wider spread of the consultation probably meant that the overall response rate was inevitably going to be too low. The comment in the article implies that residents do not support traffic restrictions which is very much not the case. We are desperate for something to be done about the constant, daily gridlock on the road.
There is a no left turn sign at the corner of Upper Richmond Road and Charlwood Road between 7 and 10 am so those drivers will all have got fined.
Please can you provide details of the Transport Committee meeting tomorrow – time and location (council HQ I presume?). Many thanks.