Ladywell and Brockley residents have started a dialogue with councillors in both wards to look at ways of reducing the amount of traffic using local roads in the Hilly Fields and Vicars Hill areas, writes Tim Collingridge of Healthier Streets for Ladywell.
Residents in both wards have been campaigning against speeding and traffic pollution and for better streets and traffic reduction measures for several years.
Last year saw a well supported local petition on curbing traffic chaos on Vicars Hill https://www.change.org/p/end-traffic-chaos-in-ladywell and the Brockley Better Streets group has been campaigning in the Hilly Fields area since 2019.
We all know Vicars Hill is particularly bad during evening rush hour with long queues of traffic causing serious pollution and hazard for pedestrians and cyclists following the Waterlink Way.
Frustrated drivers often resort to dangerous manoeuvres such as overtaking the queue to turn into Gillian Streeet and passing the pedestrian refuge at the bottom of the hill on the wrong side.
Gillian St is always hazardous to cross as a pedestrian.
At other times of the day residents commonly observe motorists racing up or down the hill at speeds well above the 20mph imit.
Although highway changes could just be made on Vicars Hill it is not clear that this would solve the root cause of the problem.
roads like Vicars Hill should not be carrying such high volumes of through traffic.
Google Maps regularly directs drivers from th Old Kent Road heading to the South Circular to go via Telegraph Hill, Brockley and Ladywell as the fastest route.
Inevitably ‘rat-running’ drivers tend to drive faster and more aggressively through our narrow and unsuitable roads as they have no local allegiance.
This is causing misery to people living in all these Lewisham wards as is evidenced by the number of local groups campaigning to address this issue.
Instead of local fixes, area-wide solutions are needed. Watch this space for further updates on these discussions.