Forum Topic

Gridlock

Is now happening. Yesterday evening at about 6pm there were at least 20 cars queuing along Whitestile Road and back up Junction Road in an attempt to get out onto South Ealing Road. This meant that anyone who had turned left into Whitestile Road from South Ealing Road was unable to drive along Whitestile Road - it was blocked by the oncoming traffic.  Traffic was queuing up South Ealing Road as far as the eye could see and barely moving.Not the first time this has happened recently.I am guessing that this was traffic trying to bypass the roadworks and traffic lights on Windmill Road or people trying to bypass the queue down the A4 to the new traffic lights at the roundabout at the Ealing Road/A4 junction.The Windmill Road works seem to be never-ending and are causing huge tail-backs.  If you are driving north from Brentford and want to get across the A4 junction you have to sit through several green phases before there is enough room in Windmill Road to clear the junction safely and not get stuck in the yellow box. The same thing is happening to traffic turning left into Windmill from the A4.The new traffic lights at the Ealing Road/A4 roundabout are causing lengthy tailbacks along the A4.  They are also affecting traffic turning left onto the A4 from Windmill Road because even if the lights at the Windmill Road junction are green there is not enough room on the A4 to make the turn.  This then also holds up traffic coming down Windmill Road which wants to go straight ahead or turn right.As others have said, the old traffic lights at the South Ealing roundabout worked perfectly well. I've been driving round that roundabout for the last 20 years (don't take that literally!) and never encountered or witnessed any problems.  You just had to make sure you gave way to traffic already coming round the roundabout, even if lights were green in your favour.  At least the traffic kept moving.The other problem locally is the roadworks on Kew Bridge Road which are causing tailbacks to the County Court. There has been some suggestion that these are not due to the construction of the Cycleway but because of gasworks being carried out at the same time.So, 3 points/queries:1. When are the Windmill Road works going to end?2. Please can we return to the old traffic light system at the Ealing Road roundabout.3. When are the Kew Bridge Road temporary lights going to be removed so that we can have a normal traffic flow once again?The gridlock which is now a daily occurrence around here at the moment does nobody any good - whether you're a driver, cyclist or pedestrian.  I was walking down Whitestile Road yesterday evening and it was horrible.  So was South Ealing Road.

Alison Robins ● 317d8 Comments

I was talking to a gentleman from Howdens in Brentford this morning and he told me the traffic light shenanigans is badly affecting their business. So much so they have written a very long and strongly worded letter to TfL. If it’s negatively affecting a successful and established company like that you can bet it’s much worse for start ups or small businesses.Interesting to note the traffic light meddling on the South Circular. I had to go to Wandsworth for a job on Wednesday and it took an hour and a half to travel the seven miles. The traffic wasn’t heavy but it was stop-start all the way there, precisely because of traffic light phasing. Similar on the way home.The obvious methodology to measure congestion is traffic counts, which TfL can easily do but seems reluctant. I bet there are fewer vehicles on the road on average compared to, say, five years ago but they are determined to make getting around more difficult. What the 17 year old work experience chaps formulating London transport policy don’t ever consider when sat at their comfy desks is the millions of pounds their ill-thought out and executed policies cost London businesses.

Simon Hayes ● 316d

Its been causing a lot of local resident concern in Chislehurst,Beckenham and Orpington as well as Forest Gate and Norwood.

Raymond Havelock ● 316d

Yes, relieved to see last night that Windmill Rd now finished.Interesting what you say, Raymond, about the traffic light rephasing on the South Circ.  It's now taking me up to 2 hours to drive from East Sheen to Brentford.  South Circ is solid from Mortlake Cemetery to the north side of Kew Bridge and it barely moves. Had assumed it was the effect of the ULEZ with all the non-compliant vehicles being pushed out to the South Circ but from what you say there may be something else going on.

Alison Robins ● 316d

Good news is the Windmill road works have stopped - for the time being.TfL have been altering traffic lights on the South Circular Road from Clapham all the way round to the to end of it in SE London. It's now a rolling works towards Putney, Sheen and Kew.The timings for dwell at Red in all directions is nearly 50% longer and at some junctions 85% longer.They are doing the same in the City and are moving this 'initiative' West.South Ealing Road junction is the first having replacement lights fitted.None of this has been discussed or made public and most councils have not conveyed this policy to residents either.It is simply to create pollution hotspots to justify policies that are based on claims that have been proven unsound.They did the same thing with the LEZ by shuffling Diesel Buses and Hybrids to peripheral areas to distort figures. Barely made a difference as it turns out Hybrids are no cleaner than Euro 6 diesels.  Very few Electric buses were in service at the time.I think the correct word in Gerrymandering.  Or messing with Peoples lives to force their will.Some may remember the Ken Livingstone's administration did the same thing in the Congestion Charge zone to make the congestion so bad it was justifiable and then reverted it after it commenced. Then tried the same trick with the CC extension only it was rumbled and discontinued.

Raymond Havelock ● 316d

The Windmill Road works finished today and traffic flow was much better this afternoon. I wonder when the next round of digging will start?

Simon Hayes ● 316d

There was a previous thread on the traffic light A4 junction and according to Cllr Lambert there is a meeting tomorrow between TFL and LBH to try and resolve the problems. Don't hold your breath that anything useful will come out of this though. LBH are trying to discourage driving from what I can see and they either want people to walk,cycle or take public transport.

David Cook ● 316d

The "expert" planners and engineers at TfL have also rephased the signal timing at Chiswick roundabout and at Ealing Common. The resultant chaos is self-evident.

N V Brooks ● 317d

Couldn't agree more.  I've posted already about the catastrophic new phasing of the A4 roundabout/Ealing Road/South Ealing Road lights.  Whoever did it needs their head examining.  Are they watching the almost all-day chaos on CCTV?  The phasing needs to be put back to how it was.

Cathy Jones ● 317d