Petition against implementation of a low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) in Greenwich without exemptions for local reaidents
In short, we do not want Greenwich council to block all the access roads that run North/South between Woolwich Road and the A2/Blackheath for local residents.
The main points are:
1. Residents are generally in favour of LTNs and the stopping of ratrunning, making our streets safer as long as those measures are not punative to local residents.
2. If they are using NPR technology anyway for Blue Badge holders etc., as they rightly should, why can this not be extended to local residents whose life will be made a misery, due to the fact that we have the topographical quirk of a railway line cutting through the area with limited crossing points, and if you live in these side streets and cannot cross that railway line, residents are effectively be boxed in. Meaning circuitous journeys, wasted time, more time in cars (more emissions) and general strife.
3. The council's point regarding trying to lower emissions is a spurious one, as driving traffic to the arterial roads where traffic will become more congested, will likely increase emissions due to the fact that stationary traffic creates more emissions than traffic on the move.
There have been a number of changes to the traffic system over the years around Greenwich, all of which have been to the detriment of the local resident motorists. The council says that 40% of residents don't have access to a car, which means that they are deliberately ignoring the the 60% of motorists whose life has been made significantly more miserable by policies targeted at a minority.
If the council were concerned about traffic in the local area, more efforts would have been made to finalise and construct another river crossing point for example. They would also not have allowed the building of a huge Ikea which has significantly increased the traffic in the local area, particularly at weekends. They also wouldn't have removed a lot of the bus lanes for cycle lanes, making public transport a less viable option also.
The council say they are punishing the people who use rat runs, but what about those of us who want to drive down our own streets, why are we being punished? We are the people that drive down these streets more than anyone else and by cutting them off, we will be forced to take make much longer journeys, and the traffic on the main roads as a result will be unbearable. The council don't seem to understand that you cannot keep forcing ever more traffic into an ever narrowing bottleneck without alternative solutions. The answer to which cannot be, "well just give up your cars".
In my opinion, this will make make traffic and air pollution in Greenwich worse and life living in Greenwich worse as a consequence.
Please sign this petition to stop this madness and try and get the council to put something in place that actually benefits local residents not makes their life harder!
Daniel Jack Contact the author of the petition