John Rowland wrote:
I was just looking at
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/proj...aces/2259.aspx
and I noticed that Natal Road, which usefully gets you right up to the
Brownlow Rd/A406 junction without experiencing any traffic jams when both of
those roads are utterly clogged, is going to have a forced left turn to
Bowes Road, making it useless. I also notice that they are banning the left
turn from the NCR to Melville Gardens, which is currently a very handy
escape route when the A406 here is clogged (which is most of the time).

That's not a new plan, it's been knocking around for years. Enfield
Council are also making the side roads between Melville Gardens and
Wolves Lane one way to match the ones in neighbouring Haringey. The 2
roads nearest the NCR will be one way in the opposite direction to the NCR.

As nice as am sure it is for drivers to cut through off Melville Gardens
and through from there it can be a pain for those of us living around there

Stuart wrote:

As nice as am sure it is for drivers to cut through off Melville
Gardens and through from there it can be a pain for those of us
living around there

If they fixed the main junctions, Melville Gardens could be left open for
the people who live there and also as an escape route for rare occasions
when the NCR screws up, without it being the 24/7 rat run it is now. It is
noticeable that the traffic jam always ends at exactly Melville Gardens
because it acts like an overflow hole in a sink. Blocking Melville will
cause the jam to reach back to the Cambridge, and Pasteur Gardens will then
be the overflow, bothering more people than now.

John Rowland wrote:

If they fixed the main junctions, Melville Gardens could be left open for
the people who live there and also as an escape route for rare occasions
when the NCR screws up, without it being the 24/7 rat run it is now.

That is true, the whole thing is a much bigger problem.

I've long thought that the cheapest and least disruptive way to sort the
bottleneck would be to build a flyover (I'm thinking more Chiswick than
Westway) from just after Green Lanes to New Southgate. Put all the
through traffic (or one direction) on that.


It is noticeable that the traffic jam always ends at exactly Melville Gardens
because it acts like an overflow hole in a sink. Blocking Melville will
cause the jam to reach back to the Cambridge, and Pasteur Gardens will then
be the overflow, bothering more people than now.

Often it goe back a lot further than that, weekends for example

The cheapest and least disruptive way to sort the bottleneck was the one planned by the Department of Transport in the good old days before we had TfL. That plan was to divert the A406 from Bowes Road across the recreation ground behind the row of shops on the north side of the road and then curve back again into Telford Road.

I'm quite sure that eventually London will have a sensible, responsible Mayor who recognises that London's roads have to function properly and who will consequently make sure that this section of the A406 is improved accordingly. How long we have to wait for that sensible, responsible Mayor is anyone's guess.