On the 17th January the council (i.e. TfL) will close Whipps Cross Roundabout and open it as Whipps Interchange, a simple T junction! So what are the benefits we will get for our £4m? Some land returned to the forest and a nice place to park buses while they wait for the next leg of their journey. Will traffic flow any better - well I never noticed a problem with the roundabout!
What will happen now is traffic will be delayed more as the computer buffs at City Hall will be able to manage the traffic coming into Waltham Forest by altering the timing of the lights which they were unable to do when it was a smooth running roundabout!!
Here is the plan:
As it was:
I have to concur with you that i don't see any real benefits for the funds lavished on this project at this particular area. i approach this island everyday at peak times and traffic flow never seems that bad, in fact flow is often improved when lights are removed or temporarily broken although there are obvious cases when lights are necessary for safe access at junctions. We seem to have got rid of a working system for one of greater complexity for the sake of control, the other lauded benefits also seem rather slim ie. the increased cycle provision seems to be a widening of the existing cycle path which was already adequate for the relatively small number of cyclists using it - i'm one of them !
ReplyDeleteAs for returning land to the forest - it's not exactly in short supply here is it ? Oh well, we'll wait and see what happens and probably just get used to the predicted congestion as a fact of life unfortunately.