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Oh dear, Wandsworth seem inordinately pleased with these figures as they’ve put them about in different places. Unfortunately, the quoted figures are almot comically inappropriate in trying to make a case that the closure of Hammersmith Bridge has increased traffic in Putney.
"Snapshot data from the DfT shows that between 2020 and 2023, the overall number of motor vehicles on Putney Bridge was estimated to have increased by 16%, from 32,083 to 37,239.”
These figures compare 2023 with 2020 – but the bridge was already closed, in 2019. Sorry to labour the point, but comparing one set of figures after the closure with another set of figures after the closure is completely meaningless in any suggestion that the closure caused an increase, and in any case the 2020 figure was artificially depressed since it was during the height of the pandemic.
“The Council's own automatic traffic count data shows a 25% increase in traffic during the morning peak hours between 2019-2023."
These figures are as bad for the case: the base year, 2019, is the wrong choice since the closure occurred in early April that year, so three-quarters of the 2019 figure occurred after it. And also, cherry-picking the morning peak period is dubious: only a full day’s figure would be right.
What is really needed is a comparison between the figure now with that in 2018, the last full year before the closure. Fortunately, just such a comparison exists, in Freedom of Information request 3707 2425 to TfL ( https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/foi-request-detail?referenceId=FOI-3707-2425). This records traffic levels over not just Putney Bridge but over Chiswick, Kew and Wandsworth Bridges; the results are summarised in the graph below.


The figures clearly demonstrate a (small) reduction over all bridges, far from the ludicrous claims of Wandsworth, Fleur Anderson and others, and destroy the case for Hammersmith Bridge to be reopened when based on claims of extra traffic diverted over the other bridges.

Richard Carter ● 110d