London Banter - View Single Post - Mayor sets out plan for 22-mile ring-road tunnel under London

Mizter T · May 15th 14, 04:22 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 14/05/2014 17:07, wrote:
[...]
What a hare-brained idea! What would the portals do to their localities
and why would it divert anything from the streets in central London?

It would certainly make a big difference to the bits next to the
laughable south circular. That road is sufficiently awful that I often
find it quicker to just drive straight across London instead of using it.

Ah yes, the "South Circular"; once described as a 'collection of
signposts' rather than an actual road.

Still is, I believe, where I come from (Putney).

Same can be said of the whole thing - almost all of it is single
carriageway, the only thing it shares with the North Circular is half a
name.

That said, the signposts are better than they once were - I think it was
in the mid/late 90's when there was a big resigning project by the
Traffic Director for London (which was a kind of pseudo-agency of the
Department of Transport) on the trunk routes around the metropolis, and
TfL keeps them up to scratch - beforehand they'd degenerated into a bit
of a mess.

In the pre satnav days I've a recollection of being asked several times
for directions to Dover by continental car drivers in various places
around south London - I think many were either searching for or had
mislaid the South Circular!