"John Rowland" wrote:
While I can see that capacity problems at the Strand/Lancaster Place
junction might be an argument for the underpass to be northbound-only
during the morning rush-hour, and possibly the evening rush hour too, it
seems obvious to me that it should be southbound-only at all other times.
There's no real need for a northbound underpass when the roads are not
crammed full, and a southbound underpass would cut about 300 metres off a
lot of journeys, saving a lot of time, money and fuel. Tidal flow might
have been rocket science 50 years ago, but it surely couldn't cost much
these days.

Out of interest, where did this spring from? Are there talks of making it
into some sort of tidal flow system?

Personally I say you're talking ****e. I've seen lots of queuing at varying
times of day on the approach to that junction from Waterloo Bridge, due to
lots of different movements - traffic from different directions, buses,
pedestrians, where the underpass has been a godsend, but never once had an
issue getting from North to South (Kingsway to Waterloo Bridge),even at busy
times of day - the traffic flow is just so much better. Probably to do with
the fact that (a) there are lots more pedestrians around the junction near
the Savoy, and (b) it's the last main junction before Trafalgar Square, so
it's all fairly slow and stop-start (more stop than start) from there to
Trafalgar Square. Nor have I ever known significant queuing on Fleet Street
approaching Aldwych from the East. And cutting 300 metres of journeys is
inconsequential when you consider the extra fuel that'll be wasted with lots
more people sitting stationary at traffic lights. There's plenty of
cross-London traffic in all sorts of directions during rush hour - it's
foolish (IMHO) to think that around there there's one clear flow heading
away from town.

And sorry for not structuring this better and making it more readable,
paragraph-wise.

--
"For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."