Hello John,
You say:
"No, you're not missing something. They're not exactly alike [meaning Replingham Road and Dover House Road], merely an example of how an anti-rat-running measure can't be installed in a way that doesn't affect the local residents in exactly the same way."
So, residents of Dover House Road and surrounding roads will not be able to enter or exit DHR on either end ever? I very much doubt that can be the case. What will the consequences be for the disabled and/or elderly residents? No ANPR at all? I understand taxis are not allowed in either. It is madness.
The reason Dover House Road and Erpingham Road cannot be compared is that for the latter, the closure is for morning rush hour only. But the main reason you cannot compare DHR with Erpingham Road is because DHR does not get direct traffic from Roehampton Lane, Medfield Street does — and to a lesser extent Roehampton High Street. If you do not deal with the root of the problem, you do not solve the problem. Medfield Street gets the brunt of this (it is not a main/trunk road by the way) and, believe it or not, most of the traffic goes onto Putney Heath and not Dover House Road. DHR does get traffic from URR directly but not to the same extent as Replingham Road. The problem with the bottom of DHR is that cars are parked on both sides of the road so only cars or buses can go past one at a time. The rest of DHR is virtually free, easy going and appears much wider and dare I say it, traffic free?
But the real root of the problem is the end of the A3. The traffic can go down Roehampton Lane, Putney Hill or West Hill. I cannot understand why a Park and Ride system cannot introduced. One bus can take up to, say, 80 passengers. In rush hour, if there are 10 buses, that is 800 cars off the road — a sobering thought!
This whole scheme was devised by the Department of Transport and it delegated the responsibility of implementation to various authorities in the country with the promise of extra funding. For London, it was TFL who involved Local Authorities, also with the stick-and-carrot of additional funding. I think, but have no proof, that DHR was already on the books and, instead of considering morning and evening rush hour, they have closed it completely. I feel sorry for the independent shops on the parade who had absolutely no idea this was going on....
You also say:
"Eventually most cars (drivers?) will realise there's little point trying to rat-run through these residential areas and they'll keep to the main/trunk roads (where they should really be) that are going to be busy regardless."
So, a solution for DHR is that does not get traffic from a main/trunk road but a problem is transferred/exacerbated in the latter on congestion and pollution does not matter? Therefore, would it be incorrect to draw the conclusion that, provided DHR has no traffic, anything else is everybody else's problem?
Ivonne Holliday ● 2039d