School Streets

Just had a rather alarming email from Commonplace. They are starting - sans promised discussions as per.
Such are promises.

https://lewishamschoolstreets.commonplace.is/overview

School Streets

This week we launched the first phase of our school streets programme at Adamsrill, Deptford Green, Kelvin Grove and Prendergast Ladywell Schools. School Streets have been designed to ensure that social distancing can be maintained at the school gate, and parents or carers are able to wait for their children in a calm and safe environment that has clean air, without having to worry about traffic or idling vehicles. It also aims to make it easier and safer to walk and cycle to school, and hopes to encourage children and adults to switch to more sustainable forms of travel.

We’ll be bringing School Streets to several other Schools in the coming weeks. Find out more information here.

I’m all for reducing traffic around schools (especially by polluting vehicles). However, these measures will just clog up the roads around schools at drop-off time.

Residents of adjacent streets must be fuming!

Instead of the crude policy of closing roads, Lewisham could have banned petrol/diesel cars (this would be easily enforceable via ANPR cameras), encouraging parents and staff to switch to vehicles that produce zero noise and exhaust pollution.

Instead, with these closures hurting the efficiency of the road network, we’ll see additional congestion, longer journeys, pollution and anger amongst road users.

I’m on an adajcent street and I was promised by our local ward councillor that nothing would happen without a consultation. This email today that it has actually already been launched has come as a bit of an unwelcome shock!

I don’t know what part of the road is being closed or when.