Nightmare on Chiswick High Road - Hounslow is pressurinsing TfL

Well,  we all thought the Games Lanes would be a problem, but it's the light sequenceing, especiially on Chiswick High Road that is causing a nightmare for the town this week.  Here is our officer, Nick Woods's response to a local resident who complained:
thank you for this. I have yet again raised with Transport for London the appalling conditions along the High Road. Whilst, after a meeting in London last Friday afternoon, we seem to have achieved a general improvement across other parts of the Borough (helped, of course, by the school holidays) the same cannot be said of Chiswick. I can perhaps understand that there was some nervousness about this morning with the Games Lanes 'going live' along the A4 but, at lunchtime today, the A4/M4 was flowing freely whereas Chiswick High Road had traffic queuing solidly westbound from the boundary with Hammersmith and Fulham to the Heathfield Terrace junction.

 

As you may know, TfL's aim is to reduce general traffic flows along the Olympic Route Network (ORN) which includes the A4 through Chiswick and rather than just holding traffic at the immediate junctions onto the A4, they are trying to 'spread the load' to prevent absolute gridlock at the A4 junctions. But I believe they have tightened the screw far too much along the High Road and are actually causing gridlock in the Town Centre.

 

As you may know flows along the M4/A4 into London this morning were not brilliant, not helped, I understand, by an accident in the rush hour, but the route seems to be operating well off peak. TfL may well argue that this is because their measures are working. However, I firmly believe that their measures are too extreme and some relief is essential.

 

In terms of the Games Lanes along the A4, I have consistently argued for about the last 5 years, that they were unnecessary. Whilst I accept that you cannot have an athlete who has trained for years, be late travelling from his/her accommodation for his/her event at, say, Wembley Arena, I fail to see the same need to get that athlete or indeed an Olympic official to his/her accommodation in a fixed time from Heathrow and this is what the A4 Games lanes are intended to achieve. However, this was a battle I was never going to win and it appears that the Games Lanes are a requirement of any bid to host the Games. I also argued that for 'the greenest Games' there should be much more use of coaches, minibuses or, at the very least, electric vehicles for the Olympic fleet and, whilst there are some, I believe there should have been far more.

 

But returning to the High Road, I shall continue on the case and hopefully we shall shortly see some relaxation.

We are continuing to push TfL - they have to balance the needs of the Games with that of day-to-day living and working in London.