A few weeks ago, we set off on a traffic-counting mission on Offord Road. We were shocked to find that
Offord Road carries three quarters of the traffic on the Caledonian Road, and the roundabout is taking 111% of the traffic on the Caledonian Road.
Now, Offord Road has well-known traffic issues, which have become steadily worse over the years. We wondered whether other streets are also suffering traffic overload.
McKenzie Road has an excessive amount of traffic for such a narrow, minor road. Drivers, many of whom may be just passing through our borough, are either racing along at a speed incompatible with the conditions, or they are stationary, building up in queues at the lights. This must be very unpleasant for the residents, but the road also has a lot of people not in cars making their way to work, school, etc. #lowtrafficislington was interested to see just how many - so we counted.
At 8.30 on a Friday morning, for half an hour we counted the number of people - adults and children - walking, pedalling or scooting, on the pavements or on the road. And we counted the motor vehicles, excluding buses and motorbikes. The numbers were very similar: 232 active travellers and 246 motors. Nearly half the total number chose active travel, despite the fact that the pavements are narrow and account for only about a third of the available width - and, of course, much of that width is taken up by parked vehicles, going nowhere.
People who choose to travel in a healthy, active way, and people for whom there is no choice but to travel by motor, should not have to share a side road like this with so much noisy, polluting, dangerous traffic. McKenzie Road is a prime candidate to be in a Low Traffic Neighbourhood. This would bring clean air, safety and peace to both the residents and the active travel users.
