As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent on this
crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over four years! It
is said to have cost £100k to create.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls, with the
exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in tonight's Standard.
Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

Some (balanced) views he
http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?...etail&id=83381

Ian

--

Ian F. wrote:
As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent
on this crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over
four years! It is said to have cost £100k to create.

The money was presumably spent on demolishing walls and moving kerb lines,
lighting poles and camera poles, rather than on redoing the road surface.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls,
with the exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in
tonight's Standard. Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

I don't think Boris has been Mayor long enough to be responsible for the
scheme, BICBW.

Some (balanced) views he
http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?...etail&id=83381

There's been one in Burnt Oak since approximately 2001, which might be the
oldest one in London. Here's a 2004 discussion...
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....eef9d821b556c8

On 3 Nov, 20:47, "Ian F." wrote:
As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent on this
crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over four years! It
is said to have cost £100k to create.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls, with the
exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in tonight's Standard.
Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

There is no need to have a cow. The Balham crossing is probably as
scary and useless as the Oxford Circus one. They are both just
cosmetic. The diagonal crossings are dangerous and totally unnecessary.

"Offramp" wrote in message
...
On 3 Nov, 20:47, "Ian F." wrote:
As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent on
this
crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over four years!
It
is said to have cost £100k to create.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls, with
the
exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in tonight's
Standard.
Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

There is no need to have a cow. The Balham crossing is probably as
scary and useless as the Oxford Circus one. They are both just
cosmetic. The diagonal crossings are dangerous and totally unnecessary.
===============

Well I went to try it out this evening and found the whole thing shut down,
fences all round the crossing, and Oxo Station shut; all for someone to turn
on a few lightbulbs.
Bah, humbug.

MaxB

On 3 Nov, 22:35, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 14:32:47 -0800 (PST), Offramp
wrote:

The diagonal crossings are dangerous and totally unnecessary.

Why? [genuine question btw]
--
Paul C

I can't see why either.

There would be three clear phases. I couldn't make any sense of the
old phasing at Oxford Circus (and never will now), but I generally
just crossed when there seemed to be a gap, because I couldn't work
out what was going on.

"Ian F." wrote in
:

As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent
on this crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over
four years! It is said to have cost £100k to create.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls,
with the exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in
tonight's Standard. Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

Some (balanced) views he
http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?...etail&id=83381

Ian


The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8337341.stm) are quoting
£5 million, as does the localgov link.

I've no idea how you would go about spending £5 million on removing some
railings and installing coloured paving - that can't sound like value for
money to anybody, even the contractor who installed it!

Also I do hope it doesn't cost £5 million to remove because, having seen it
for the first time last week, it doesn't look safe to me (it is too easy
for pedestrians to get too close to the buses, even if they are only going
at walking pace, and remember this is currently a junction where bendi-
buses turn).

David

On 2009-11-03, Offramp wrote:
On 3 Nov, 20:47, "Ian F." wrote:
As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent on this
crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over four years! It
is said to have cost £100k to create.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls, with the
exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in tonight's Standard.
Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

There is no need to have a cow. The Balham crossing is probably as
scary and useless as the Oxford Circus one. They are both just
cosmetic. The diagonal crossings are dangerous and totally unnecessary.

I can remember when I was about 12 and diagonal crossings were
introduced at a couple of city-centre intersections. They were called
"scramble" crossings, and I think they are still there - 48 years later!
There are actually quite a lot scattered around the world. The idea is
that they are good for places with high pedestrian traffic.

(The city in question was Brisbane, in Australia).

E.

David Jackman pleasereplytogroup wrote on 03 November 2009 23:09:39 ...

having seen it for the first time last week, it doesn't look safe to me (it
is too easy for pedestrians to get too close to the buses, even if they
are only going at walking pace, and remember this is currently a
junction where bendi-buses turn).

Given that we don't have kerb-edge doors to protect passengers on the
streets of London, how is that different from any other light-controlled
crossing in London? Since all the traffic now stops for the pedestrian
phase, it should be safer than before.

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

Richard J. wrote:
David Jackman pleasereplytogroup wrote on 03 November 2009 23:09:39
...
having seen it for the first time last week, it doesn't look safe to
me (it is too easy for pedestrians to get too close to the buses,
even if they are only going at walking pace, and remember this is
currently a junction where bendi-buses turn).

Given that we don't have kerb-edge doors to protect passengers on the
streets of London, how is that different from any other
light-controlled crossing in London? Since all the traffic now stops
for the pedestrian phase, it should be safer than before.

In the Oxford Street area, pedestrians do not accept the idea that some
phases are not for them.

In article ,
(Basil Jet) wrote:

Ian F. wrote:
As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent
on this crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over
four years! It is said to have cost £100k to create.

The money was presumably spent on demolishing walls and moving kerb
lines, lighting poles and camera poles, rather than on redoing the
road surface.

The media has totally ignored the fact, despite e-mails and calls,
with the exception of a tiny piece in Metro and a short letter in
tonight's Standard. Seems they are scared of upsetting the Mayor.

I don't think Boris has been Mayor long enough to be responsible
for the scheme, BICBW.

Some (balanced) views he
http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?...etail&id=83381

There's been one in Burnt Oak since approximately 2001, which might
be the oldest one in London. Here's a 2004 discussion...

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....hread/thread/c
f49f67a30217d1e/d6eef9d821b556c8?hl=en&q=burnt+oak+diagonal+crossi ng+watlin
g+avenue#d6eef9d821b556c8

How old is the one near Battersea Park station? I don't remember it not
being there.

--
Colin Rosenstiel