Campaigners! 🙌🏻 What’s a term for when you shout until you’re blue in the face about a stretch of road and nothing gets done – for YEARS? 🗓️ “Stuck Record Blues” maybe? 😢🎵🎤 Any others? Because I’ve had serious Stuck Record Blues for the last few weeks – and there’s a story behind it.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this road much 🤷🏼♀️😉 What do you think? It’s called Green Lanes. Okay I’ve shouted about it for over four years. Four flipping years! That’s the age of actual children! And BTW I’m going with Stuck Record Fury – Blues doesn’t do it justice.
Nothing’s changed here, so you could be forgiven for thinking this is some random backwater of a street in Haringey that no-one uses. But reader this is the MAIN ARTERY OF THE BOROUGH. The main route in and out. So let me tell you about how the fury came about.
On Wednesday 23rd July, myself and Haringey campaigners Louise Wass and Ben House joined dozens of others at Caroline Russell’s brilliant Vision Zero event at City Hall.
Dozens of campaigners, urban planners and bereaved families spent a morning talking about Vision Zero, and it was hugely powerful.
Vision Zero is the plan to have no deaths or serious injuries on our roads, and Caroline said it is the most important policy TFL has.
Along with many interesting slides, one really hit home. It was this one below. It was a heartrending map, showing KSI’s, those killed or seriously injured in spots across London. We were quite far across the room, 50 feet or so, but Louise said, “Oh my God I can see Green Lanes from here”.
She was right. We could.
There it is. Green Lanes. You could probably see it on the KSI map from space if it was big enough.
So this street that we’ve all been screaming and shouting about in Haringey for years, it is as dangerous as we feel it is. It’s on a flipping MAP shown by TFL in City Hall to show the spots where people are killed or seriously injured in London.
The map even says: “We see the highest number of casualties occur … on major A-Roads”. So like Green Lanes then. Green Lanes is one of the longest streets in the capital, and forms part of the A105.
So what’s it like, Green Lanes? Well for a start there’s loads of parking on pavements, and in the main shopping area. Because naturally parking for cars is more important than for people on pavements doing their shopping I do hope you understand 😃
Then there’s just loads of parking down a lot of this long main road where we clearly need a protected cycle lane.
Along huge stretches of it, car storage has been prioritised over people cycling safely.
This is what a stretch looks like. So much space for parking. How brilliant this could be if it was a protected cycle lane.
Now I understand that this was done historically and change takes time, but I really thought something would have been done by now. It’s an absolute scandal that it hasn’t.
There are many horrors – I saw someone on a bike nip between these buses a few seconds before, to get to the bike lane, and someone opened their car door and got out just in front of me. I’ve been nearly taken out here dozens of times.
But still, despite what it’s like, I saw so many people on cycles trying to navigate it. Check out this family here with a tot on the bike. I was amazed when they turned onto Green Lanes. There were dozens on cycles despite the dangers – just trying to get around on their bikes, an activity that should be safe.
Look at these 3 in the door zone, in between the parked cars and traffic. It’s absolutely crying out for a cycle lane here.
At city hall we heard from the brilliant campaigner Victoria Lebrec, who movingly told us about losing a leg when she was run over by a skip lorry on Old Street. She said that one of the most important things is creating cycle provision on main roads. And she’s right.
Collectively we’ve made a lot of noise about this road. Haringey Cycling Campaign has organised so many group rides to show what it can look like filled with happy children. So, why has nothing been done? It’s the million dollar question and people often ask me.
“Why’s nothing happened?” “Why the inertia?” They say. Caroline Russell said that Vision Zero is the most important policy TFL has, so why haven’t Haringey council tackled Green Lanes? Honestly – I’d like to know. Is there something I’m missing?
Here’s the serious and fatal injuries on Crash Map in recent years. This road is the main route into town for anyone living north of it for miles.
Inertia costs lives. And Green Lanes needs to be safe if we want any hope of tackling climate change.
Putting in protected cycle lanes would take some planning and political will, but it would transform the borough for those cycling.
I’ve no doubt that a few dozen parked cars would be replaced by hundreds or even thousands on cycles each day, who would no doubt stop in the cafes and restaurants as they spotted new places.
It would also make it a much more pleasant environment for those shopping to see people on cycles go by, rather than staring out at parked cars.
Transforming Green Lanes would transform the borough and it simply can’t happen soon enough.
I say: politicians, please, get on with it! It will be the making of Haringey and it will be the making of your political reputation.
And if anyone ever needs me to cut a red ribbon to launch it, my scissors are ready, snip snip, and I’ll buy a swanky outfit. I might even take the scowl off my face, you never know 😃.
This article was composed by Carla Francome. Feel free to chip in with your own experiences on the Bluesky thread.