Transport 2000 calls for removal of London’s one-way systems

 

Dave Wetzel, Vice-Chair of Transport for London, is joining campaign group Transport 2000 in calling for a major review of London’s one-way systems. These are twice as dangerous as two-way roads and have a severe environmental impact.

Dave Wetzel has announced the results of a Transport 2000 competition to find London’s worst one-way system. The major system at the junction of the Old and New Kent Roads and Tower Bridge Road (the Bricklayers Arms Roundabout) is named the ‘winner’. See list below!

Transport 2000 is calling for a major review of London’s one-way systems. It has produced a league table of many of London’s worst systems having judged them against five criteria including their effect on pedestrians, cyclists, public transport users and the residential environment. The worst one-way system is in Southwark but other examples nominated for the title are in Camden, Westminster, the City, Ealing, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Wandsworth

Transport 2000 has also produced a report ‘Major One-way Systems - Dangerous Damaging and Out-of-Date’ The report shows that one way systems are twice as dangerous as two-way roads, hugely damaging to the areas where they are located and in conflict with modern traffic planning and urban design principles.

Norman Beddington, a Transport 2000 London activist, says:
“The day of the one-way system is done. They are dangerous, and hugely damaging to the local environment. They allow through traffic to dominate and degrade large areas. Local residents and the local economy suffer. Conditions for pedestrians, cyclists and bus passengers are often appalling. Transport for London has shown the way forward with its scheme, now being built, to return the Shoreditch one-way system to two-way working. Major changes to the Vauxhall system are well underway. The same principles must be applied in many other places ”

He continues:
“The Bricklayers Arms Roundabout is a particularly bad example. The Old Kent Road was the lowest quality property on the Monopoly Board. Partly because of the awful one way system, it remains low quality to this day. Removing the one way system would be an enormous boost to the local community and the local economy.”

 

Results
(worst systems have the highest scores - maximum score 25)

1=. Old Kent Rd/Tower Bridge Rd (the Bricklayers Arms), 21
1=. Hyde Park Corner, 21
2=. Tottenham A10 (Tottenham Hale), 20
2=. Aldgate, 20
2=. Harrow Road (Paddington), 20
2=. Camden Town, 20
3=. Nags Head, Holloway, 18
3=. Wandsworth Town Centre, 18
3=. Stoke Newington, 18
4=. Swiss Cottage, 17
4=. Gypsy Corner, 17
4=. Victoria Station, 17
5=. Hammersmith Broadway, 16
5=.Stratford Town Centre, 16
6. Ilford Town Centre, 15
7. Tottenham Court Rd/Gower St, 14
8=. Aldwych/Strand, 13
8=. Lewisham Town Centre, 13
The joint ‘winners’ are the Bricklayers Arms and Hyde Park Corner

Total number of entries - 20 (2 duplicated)
Total number judged - 18

Entries were judged against the following five criteria: impact on pedestrians; impact on cyclists; effect on bus passengers; severence effect for tube or rail stations; and severance and blight for residents and businesses.

The judges were: Dave Wetzel, Vice-Chair Transport for London; Nick Dolezal, Association of London Government; Alison Dines, Islington Cyclists Action Group and Harley Sherlock, the Islington Society