Forum Topic

Kew Bridge Traffic Lights out

The lights at the north side of Kew Bridge were out for most of Wednesday and for a while police cadets were busy managing traffic flow.However when I went through it twice earlier this evening (7:00 pm and usually very slow if not stop-start) it was full on, no traffic anywhere - none on the bridge, none on Chiswich High Road, none queueing anywhere!!If this is how it would work without the traffic lights I saw lets turn them off now!

Stephen Browne ● 6779d12 Comments

Brilliant Susan, I laughed until it hurt :-)))

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6774d

Twas brillig, and the slithy carsDid gyre and gimble on the junction;All mimsy were the motorbikesAnd the traffic lights did not function.Beware the motorists, my son!The bumper’s bite, metal that scratches!Said Calvi-Freeman, who for funThe fumious traffic watches.And as in uffish thought he stood,Mad woman, she with eyes of flame,Assumed green light and that she couldCross easy with no blame.One, two!  One, two!  And through and throughChris’ verbal blade went snicker snack!!Composed a post, turned her to toastThen went galumphing back.(with apologies to Lewis Carroll)No offence taken Chris (and just for the record, it wasn't me!)

Susan Lawrence ● 6774d

For Colin -  The other day, upon Kew RoadI saw a light that hadn’t glowedIt didn’t glow again todayIn Holland it would stay that way.For Susan - The other day, as I ruminatedI saw a light that wasn’t illuminatedIt wasn't lit again todayI’d just ignore it anyway.( No offence, hopefuly :-) )With apologies to Ogden Nash

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6775d

Susan -was it you I saw nearly get T-boned yesterday ?!  ;-)Colin – the following roads in Hounslow borough are Transport for London’s responsibility (Transport for London Road Network, or TLRN): A4, A30, A205, A312, A316, A406.  All the rest (except the M4) are Borough roads.However, TfL is responsible for ALL the traffic lights (signals) in greater London.If I can find out why the Kew Bridge lights are off, and for how long, I will this post tomorrow.

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6775d

How long has this situation been running? I would have thought if it was going to be long term, that is more than a day or so, an effort should have been made to erect large tempory warning signs. Who is the responsible body TFL? I hope not!but I fear it might be now that the North/South Circular Roads of which Kew Bridge is part,have been down graded from 'Trunk' to 'Local', thus giving Ken and his TFL Boys freedom to enact yet another poke-up. Hounslow Council? The Police? Who knows.

Colin Vaughan ● 6776d

Yes, but the fact that the traffic lights are out comes as a surprise.  My experience of coming through this junction was that my brain interpreted moving traffic in front of me as an indication that the traffic light must be green.  It took a second or two, on looking at the light, to realise that it was not there.If we were to do an experiment such as the Dutch have done, we would make clear what was expected and ask everybody to remember that pedestrians need to be noticed and allowed for.

Susan Lawrence ● 6776d

I spent ten minutes at this junction at lunchtime today.  I was en route elsewhere and stopped to see how things were running without the lights.  I saw three near misses  -the worst was when a small car travelling from Brentford to Kew treated the no-lights as a green light and belted into the junction in the face of two lanes of approaching traffic from the right.  How she wasn’t flattened by a 4x4 I’ll never know.  Very few drivers gave way to pedestrians trying to cross on any arm of the junction.

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6776d

Maybe the Dutch have a more charactaristic calm approach to such situations. It probably wouldn't work everwhere in Europe.

Colin Vaughan ● 6777d

Colin, yes it may well work in a Dutch town but there is a world of difference between that and the south circular/A315 junction.The trouble is, when the traffic lights fail, pedestrians get a pretty raw deal and vehicular accidents are likely to occur.  By way of evidence, there was a traffic accident there on Wednesday morning when one vehicle heading from Chiswick to Brentford was t-boned by a car coming up on the inside of a stationary Kew Bridge northbound queue.

Chris Calvi-Freeman ● 6777d

Well they tried doing away with the Traffic Lights in a Dutch town and it worked. No jams everything flows, a few minor shunts, but nothing serious. In contrast before that they were getting 3 traffic related deaths a year. Makes people much more cautious, and puts the 'ball of responsibility' in their court. However familiarity might dull all that, and the feckless few wouldn't care a hang anyway.

Colin Vaughan ● 6777d

I pedalled through in the rain at 22.30 and was similarly surprised at how empty the place was. It would be interesting to know if traffic flows in the area were low for any strange reason (though I can't think of anything).Also reassuring to smell the sewers passing the bus stop outside the Wagon and Horses. Did anyone ever explain it ?

Tim Henderson ● 6778d

I too was amazed at the lack of traffic with the lights out.Just hope they are not in a hurry to fix it, as it sure seems to have made a difference.

Bhavna Patel ● 6778d