"Posted by: Adam BeamishDate/Time: 25/05/18 18:25:00But I can't agree that there wasn't lots of congestion before the Church Street closure. You and I have discussed this before Steve but pre-Church Street I commuted every day to/from either Teddington or Chertsey, more often than not by car. And it was always the same, if I was in the car I'd set up Google Maps on my phone to tell me the quickest route based on live traffic information, and if it told me to come back via the A316 it would never tell me to go either up Twickenham Road or St. Margarets Road and would always show the red 'heavy congestion' indication on those roads. Indeed, after the mini-roundabout was put in I'd often see the queues northbound either actually or almost tailing back to the A316 roundabout as I carried on along the A316 towards Richmond.Hence whilst I'll always say it is worse now, I'd never suggest there wasn't an issue before, because Twickenham Road, especially northbound in the afternoon rush-hour, has been bad for years, long before the closure of Church Street."TO WHICH I RESPONDED "No it wasn't Adam - you are quite wrong. Look at the time of my post. I was on the 267 bus and have been at approx the same time every day for nine weeks because I was on a special project. Thank heavens the project is finished now so I won't have to use the 267 along Twickenham Road. Never, before Church Street Closure, was the road practically grid locked between 3 and 4pm on a Thursday. As I said before, my wife is a teacher (not rush hour traffic)) and has used the road in both directions since 1998. It is 100% certain it was never really bad before Church Street closure.Also as I have repeatedly stated, hundreds of people are now avoiding Twickenham Road so the knock on effect on St Margarets Road, Worton Road, St Johns Rd, Linkfield, Worple etc has become a nightmare. All because of Church Street. Surrounding roads have become rat runs because of Church Street. Talk to locals; talk to the Traders in South Street to see what they think. Personally I believe the northbound backlog from ASDA up to St Johns Road was caused by the mini roundabout at South Street / Twickenham Road.(since it was changed from being a traffic light) However, this is worse now since Church Street closure because all vehicles arriving from St Margarets Road have to use South Street instead of the direct route up Church Street. When they arrive at the Twickenham Mini roundabout they have right of way over Twickenham Road traffic which causes huge problems northbound at Gumley House School.To further compound the problem, northbound traffic approaching Van Gough House gets jammed up past Isleworth library because two lanes filter to one lane at Gumley House School since the white elephant cycle lane was introduced. So even when the light is green for northbound traffic it can't get across Worton Road junction purely because of the volume of traffic backed up because of the additional traffic through South Street.Not rocket science...Very simplistic stuff and easy to alleviate the problem with a little thought. An intelligent answer to ease the backlog down past the library would be to have a left only lane as you approach Worton. This would allow those who want to turn to proceed without having to wait and wait and wait for the traffic in front of Gumley House to move. I suggested it to the Council when the mini roundabout was first introduced but it was rejected without reason. It would seem that this Administration thrives on intentionally creating chaos for vehicles with some weird third world idea that we will all be on bicycles within the next year or two." So if you want to cal me a liar because my experience, and the experience of 1000's of commuters is different to yours a decade ago, go for it... but your experience is not my experience or the experience of anyone else I know who tries to use Twickenham Road, St Margaret's Road, Linkfield Road, Worton Road, Bridge Road, Whitton Dene, St John's Road, Worple Road etc.etc.etc.It is common knowledge. Lambert's Folly has created a disaster zone like nothing ever seen in the area before! Nobody is interested in survey to try and convince them otherwise.
Steve Taylor ● 2468d