Poor Designed Alleyway
Waltham Forest compared to Amsterdam
What has Waltham Forest’s Mini Holland got to do with
Holland – very little!
Having visited Amsterdam it seems to me Waltham Forest (WF) and
TFL are following a totally inappropriate model which is resulting in the waste
of £30m of public money. Amsterdam has a population of 1.1 m and WF’s
population is a quarter of that and our roads are half the width.
Pedestrians – In
this category I include those pushing prams and wheel chairs. In Amsterdam
being a pedestrian is a nightmare. The pavements are not particularly good
(same as WF) but you have to negotiate cycle lanes and road traffic to get to
the trams which are the main form of public transport and consequently very
busy. Trams stop in the middle of roads as they are not as flexible as buses.
Our cycle lane policy of having cycle lanes cutting through bus stops is
creating similar dangers as boarding a tram in Amsterdam. Gaps in the tram
lines create real hazards for pedestrians – worse than our uneven paving.
Cycling – By
definition a cycle lane makes it easier to cycle but in Amsterdam motor bikes
share the cycle lanes with cyclists, they can go faster creating potential
hazards. The cycle lanes cross pavements creating dangerous contact points with
pedestrians so if you are with a 4yr old toddler, as we were, you need to keep
your wits about you!
Amsterdam is flat so cycling is easy – in WF there are many
hills so cycling is not so attractive.
Amsterdam’s cycle lanes are extremely busy and the very
experienced cyclists speed along oblivious to others. It is not uncommon to see
them using their phones with no hands on the bike. We do not want this in WF as
it benefits no one.
Bicycles which have a range of carriers for goods and kids
take up a lot of space – typically 2 bikes for the space of a car so their
benefits are limited despite what the campaigners say in London.
Unbelievably very few cyclists or motor cyclists wear
helmets, but they use old fashioned “sit up and beg” type bikes. In WF most do use
helmets so we have a safer cycling mentality and a greater range of bikes.
Age – Cyclists
have to be fit so are usually teenagers to mid-40s which works in Amsterdam as
it has a young population, but there is no place for those disabled in any way.
WF has a much wider age spectrum so cycle lanes are only for the minority and
our disabled access is far superior to Amsterdam.
Clutter – It is
said that in Amsterdam there are as many bikes as people. Just walking along
any street you find huge numbers of bikes locked to railings taking away space
for pedestrians in addition to parked cars – even electric ones with trailing
cables. The architecture of the city is very pleasing being no more than 6
storeys high with streets beside canals, but are spoilt by the clutter of
bikes. WF just does not have the space on our streets for this sort of clutter
so we need to ensure we do not copy Amsterdam and let bike ownership get out of
control.
By trying to copy the Dutch we have wasted the majority of
the £30m on unnecessary road works – Copenhagen crossings, and trees in boxes
etc. The junction with Wood Street and Lea Bridge Road is taking months and a
massive amount of money to achieve very little and work still has not started
on the Whipps Cross Roundabout! Although our streets are half the width of the
Amsterdam streets we have tried unsuccessfully to create dedicated cycle routes
on our busiest roads e.g. Lea Bridge Road to the detriment of other road users
– the pavement in Markhouse Road has narrowed in places which does not help
pedestrians. There are numerous other examples. I just hope at the next election
we will be able to overturn this hopeless policy.
2015
2016
2017
Wood Street Junction - taken months and still not completed.
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