The traffic island outside Snappy Snaps has finally gone, and Weiss Road is about to go one-way – but Wandsworth Council appears to have given up trying to get the one change that isn’t in its own gift.
Council leader Robert Morritt, whose own Thamesfield ward has borne the brunt of the botched Putney Bridge junction redesign, and new transport cabinet member Nick Austin, who lives and works just off the High Street, have overseen a genuine burst of activity this summer.
The island has gone. Weiss Road, according to a video from another Thamesfield councillor, Cllr Salvatore Murtas, will now run one-way from Lower Richmond Road, cutting off at least some of the rat-running drivers use to dodge the queues.
That’s real progress. What it isn’t is measured. As we reported earlier this month, nobody at the council has published a number for what “fixed” would look like, or a date by which residents could check.
There is one big change still coming: the inset bus stop promised outside TK Maxx, in space freed up when the old phone box finally came out. But it looks as though the council has quietly stopped trying to get Transport for London to move on the changes only TfL controls: the length of the bus lanes, where the bus stops sit, and – the single change residents and opposition councillors campaigned hardest for at May’s election – reverting the Lower Richmond Road turn onto the bridge back to two lanes.
None of this means the changes underway won’t help. They probably will, to some degree. The question Putney.news keeps asking, and keeps not getting an answer to, is the same one: by how much – and is it enough?
Why on lower Richmond Road when the lights go green for turning right towards high street are the left turn red. This if green would let another few cars turn left – madness not changed
I have seen white vans I. The right hand lane go around top and the. Left over bridge in frustration
Of corse it’s not enough: the real action needed is action to produce a marked reduction in the number of cars – but that’s too politically toxic for most.
Needs a much broader approach which includes leaving the car at home for short journeys. Experience over decades in many different settings is that creating more space for cars – on its own – doesn’t reduce congestion and usually increases it. Need to do other things as well. Would love to see our new transport lead and local councillors visit some of London’s success stories for increasing walking and cycling and improving high streets rather than using the failed policies of the past
How exactly is the removal of this traffic island going to change anything, seriously? I’m happy to be enlightened, but I really can’t see what it’s meant to achieve or what difference it will make. Seems like a token gesture at best by a new administration trying to appease their car-centric voter base.
What does our Merton and Wandsworth London Assembly member have to say on this issue?
Perhaps I have missed their contribution.