The photos right and below look North from Chalfont Common Post Office.
It's of Rickmansworth Lane. It's called a lane because it is a lane!
Cars can pass each other fairly comfortably, but a single parked car
reduces it to single-lane immediately. That's not too much of a problem
at present. But double or triple the traffic volume or use it for
construction HGV's and it's not too difficult to envisage the consequences.
|
 |
Above is the Rickmansworth Lane/Chesham Lane staggered crossroads.
There would be a heavy price to pay here for 1,500+ extra car movements
per day, particularly for children walking to Robertswood school in
the morning. Would traffic lights, gunmetal grey poles and yellow
lines help? We think not. It would just slow down everyone's journeys
and create additional noise and pollution as cars stop then accelerate
away again. |
 |
Above and to the right is further North along Rickmansworth Lane.
It's semi-rural in nature. The proposed access road for the NSE's
housing development would join Rickmansworth Lane about here, on the
left-hand side. Anyone living in the vicinity is guaranteed extra
noise (including early and late) exhaust fumes and difficulty in joining
the lane. Is it wide enough to cope with hugely increased traffic?
Well maybe, but if not, what's on the cards? Compulsory purchase of
peoples' front gardens for a wider road? Rickmansworth Lane is popular
with cyclists and horse riders. Many of both groups are children.
The increased volume of traffic will not benefit the health or safety
of these people. |
| |
|
| 218
new homes, plus the sheltered housing, etc. will generate approximately
450 additional cars (public transport is not frequent). This is not
a trivial number. The Church Road car park in CSP takes 166 cars -
this is over two and a half times as many! Where will they park? (That's
a large area of Green Belt just for a car park, then). The local roads
would be far, far busier. It is difficult to see how road safety would
not be adversely affected. The effects would ripple onwards and outwards
- there would be many extra car journeys through CSP - e.g. to the
Leisure Centre, to and from the schools and shopping trips to/from
Tescos in Gerrards Cross. |
| |
|
| Then there is the matter of the roundabouts. Very late in the day (May 2005) the NSE propose amending their scheme to include 2 roundabouts on Chesham Lane plus 'traffic-calming' chicanes and other measures. As most people will be aware, the NSE have had a bee in their bonnet about so-called "traffic calming" for ages. This looks like their backdoor approach. And it's kind of odd really, because their site will not generate any more traffic than today - it's the 450 or so cars their external developments that would generate more traffic. A large proportion of that traffic would exit on to Rickmansworth Lane but no NSE "traffic calming" is proposed there. Could it perhaps be because the NSE won't be directly affected? |
| |
|
| By way of adding injury to insult, the NSE propose to close their main entrance to traffic. Access would instead be via the Debenham House entrance. Only a tiny fraction of their traffic approaches from the Gorelands Lane direction, so most of their traffic would drive along Chesham Lane from their existing entrance as far as Debenham House and the same route in reverse when leaving the site. This amounts to a traffic generation scheme! With the pavement crossing the road on a bend and the narrowness of Chesham Lane this is not a good idea for pedestrians or cyclists. In effect, the NSE are saying 'Let's ramp-up the traffic volumes and then impose "traffic-calming" to make things safer.' How clever is that? What about just leaving things alone instead? |
| |
|
| Then
there is the matter of construction traffic. The total resale value
of both developments is around £125 Million. This is equivalent
to around 500 3-bedroomed houses. It is probably easier to visualise
the construction traffic necessary to demolish and rebuild 500 houses
than looking at the NSE's information. It would be a massive undertaking,
taking perhaps 3 to 5 years. During this time the extensive HGV traffic
to and from the sites would prejudice road safety in the area as well
as contributing to noise and pollution. It is also difficult to see
how the road surfaces would cope with such an onslaught. |
