Forum Topic

Sutton Court Rd

Shut.Police everywhere. Looks like a crime scene.

David Darlow ● 1099d43 Comments

Has been shut from about 2.30 pm .

Cris Bur ● 1099d

Is this a serious thing - I have to walk up there in a few minutes ?

Helen Bamberger ● 1099d

Still closed at 8pm. No sign of any police activity though.

Davey Harris ● 1099d

That explains why Chiswick was gridlocked this evening

Chris Johnson ● 1099d

I was there at 7.40pm.  SCR closed to traffic and pedestrians between Wavendon Avenue and Barrowgate Road.  The rest of SCR was open as usual.  There appears to have been a car crash on SCR earlier, but there's no sign of it now, and it's not clear whether the closure is related to that.

Richard Jennings ● 1099d

There is a report about what happened on the front page. The prolonged closure of the road raises a lot of concern about the condition of the person who was injured.

Anita Blake ● 1098d

Any more news about what happened? Is the road still closed?

Stella Ellis ● 1098d

Conservative Councillors putting all their energy into a futile and obviously performative last-gasp effort to remove a cycle lane while ignoring the actual danger to people on Chiswick's roads: drivers of motor vehicles. I hope this person is OK despite the worrying length of time police tape closed the road to everybody including pedestrians on the pavement.  Sutton Court Road from just north of Barrowgate to the junction of the A4 is a chaotic and lawless arena for selfish drivers to push their way through in whatever way they can and gain a few seconds on their journey. This road needs radical redesign. Narrow to a single carriageway the width of a SUV in both directions, protected one way cycle lanes on either side.That's just for starters. Throttle the junction and then restrict traffic further if that does not work.

Paul Campbell ● 1098d

What an idiot. That's the only road linking north and south Chiswick.I'm all for bikes but you sound as demented and ridiculous as some of the mad car people.

Basil Finnis ● 1098d

Do shut up PaulOn your bike ……..

Madeleine Hazard ● 1098d

It’s this kind of response that makes this forum increasingly irrelevant to Chiswick residents. People read this kind of thing and don’t come back and certainly won’t contribute. Making this road safe for all Chiswick people who use it is not demented. It’s the right thing to do.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

Reminds me of Covid. The cycle lobby rub their hands together at a possible tragedy, and use it to introduce cycle lanes. So predictably tunnel visioned. Anyone else would be embarrassed

Maggie Dodge ● 1097d

Being positive, Hopefully the pedestrian will make a full recovery and live to fight another day.But this junction needs badly sorting out, it’s been a free for all for many years now and it getting worse.I’ve no facts or figures at my disposal,  it on observation only, that a good percentage of traffic use the Sutton  Court Road as a means to gain access to the M4. This isn’t local traffic its commuter traffic. Chiswick is still being used as a through route from the North .How you would stop it I have know Idea.  But trusting LBH to sort it out, would probably end up curtailing local traffic as well. Engage some experienced traffic engineers to look at the whole area rather than piecemeal approach which has blighted the area from the government’s knee jerk reaction since covid.

Bernard Allen ● 1097d

Yes it is obvious the vast majority of traffic is through traffic. The more space is given to cars the more through traffic you will get. Throttle the junction and more of that traffic that is coming from Acton will be forced to use the north circular instead. Same with Turnham Green Terrace. That is getting worse by the week. It is a seriously unpleasant street now with a lot of foot traffic pinned to narrow pavements full of clutter while southbound through traffic queues polluting the street and northbound through traffic speeds along causing danger to people crossing the road.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

But you're not embarrassed MARGARET DODGE by using someone's hospitalisation from a being hit by a car to make your own cheap nasty point. Shame on you, if you had any to lose.

Tony Mansell ● 1097d

Let us be honest, Paul will not be happy until all motorised vehicles are off the road.  I am pretty sure that once he has got cars off the road he will be targeting lorries and buses.The idea of cycle lanes down both sides of Sutton Court Road is and always has been a complete non-starter.  The road is not wide enough in place to accommodate 2 cycle lanes, a pedestrian island and still leave enough room for 2 buses or a bus and a fire engine to pass each other safely. And that is still the case if you were to remove all on street parking because of the pinch point at the shops and 2 pedestrian islandsBut Paul is correct about one thing, SCR from just north of Barrowgate to the A4 is a mess with vehicles wanting to turn right onto A4 causing chaos by ignoring road markings.  The problem is that it is a mess that TfL will not fix because it would impact on the free flow of traffic along the A4 - it has been obvious for years that the A4/SCR junction would massively benefit from a separate phase to allow vehicles travelling south on SCR to turn onto the westbound A4

Justin Stephenson ● 1097d

There is plenty of room for a cycle lane on both sides of Sutton Court Road and it has actually been designed. I don't want all cars off the roads. I drive. I want safer streets for everybody and see the opportunity to radically reduce car miles in urban areas. LTNs, cycle lanes, single carriageways for cars, single lanes at junctions and lots of other measures will help to achieve that. If you make it more difficult for cars to drive THROUGH an area then you have fewer cars driving TO the area. Town planners, traffic engineers, TFL and LBH all get this now so your idea of increasing the volume of cars using SCR by giving them a separate phase to turn onto the A4 will never even be considered.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

Spot on Justin. It's just too narrow.However you're right, they need to sort out the phasing of traffic turning right. That area is extremely dangerous with driver and motorcyclists using it as a racetrack.They need cameras on that stretch of the A4.

Basil Finnis ● 1097d

As I understand it, the accident happened some way from SCR’s junction with the A4, so the arrangements there are probably irrelevant. As for the traffic management discussion, two principles seem to be in conflict - improving the flow of traffic, which used to be a legitimate objective, or restricting it, which seems to be a more recent aim. I guess the logic of the latter would be to ban right turns, if that’s what most people want to do, or close the junction altogether. But the logic of that would be to close the A4/M4 as well, if that’s where the traffic wants to get to.  We can’t have traffic wanting to go places!

Peter Evans ● 1097d

Yes restricting traffic is now the objective. You don’t need to ban a right turn. Making the road single carriageway all the way to the lights would constrict the traffic enough to make SCR a less desirable route to the A4 than alternatives.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

I don't agree with his solution, but Paul makes a valid point: "Sutton Court Road from just north of Barrowgate to the junction of the A4 is a chaotic and lawless arena for selfish drivers to push their way through in whatever way they can and gain a few seconds on their journey". I'd go further, and say it's lawless from north of Wavenden. Drivers turning right at the lights frequently overtake the queue back from the lights at speed, and drive well over the middle of the road. When they get to the back of the queue for turning right they often can't get wholly back on the right side of the road until the lights change and the traffic starts to move. Perhaps double white lines and a camera might help.

Robert Fish ● 1097d

Anyone noticed that massive expanse of pavement running alongside the A4 ?ANYONE ?????You know, the one two minutes away from CHRd ?

Madeleine Hazard ● 1097d

Paul "There is plenty of room for a cycle lane on both sides of Sutton Court Road and it has actually been designed."No there is not plenty of room.  SCR is 25 ft wide apart from the pinch point at the shops which is a little less (not sure by how much).A double decker bus is 8'4" wide (not including wing mirrors) so for safe passing  of 2 buses you need to provide 18 ft of width.  A pedestrian island is 3 ft wide.  So that is 21 ft of road width already used.That means you have a total of 4ft of width to accommodate 2 cycle lanes, which is not enough even if you did not include proper segregation (even little plastic bollards) for each lane.And that assumes you eliminate all on street car parking, and you somehow dealt with the fact that there are a large numbers of properties on SCR with off street car parking which would need to cross those cycle lanes.There is absolutely no chance of segregated (or even not segregated) cycle lanes down both sides of SCR, it is a complete impractical non-starter.  SCR is a vital route to connect Grove Park to Chiswick north of A4 and necessary to connect Chiswick north of the A4 to the train station.

Justin Stephenson ● 1097d

And the alternatives would be what, exactly ?

Madeleine Hazard ● 1097d

You don’t need the pedestrian islands when you redesign and traffic calm the street. They are 80s road infrastructure and when the street is redesigned to accommodate the cycle lanes pedestrian amenity will also be modernised and new signalled crossings installed where required. There is plenty of space. The car lobby always says there isn’t. It’s their first reason for blocking schemes before all the others get rolled out as a project progresses.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

For somebody who loves to drive journeys every day that should be substituted with walking, cycling and public transport you have a surprisingly weak knowledge of the local road network.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

For somebody that clearly doesn’t know me at all - I drive, cycle and walk as it happens You are so tiresome - I’m sure you will carry on banging your desperate little cycle drum Don’t make it right though  …..

Madeleine Hazard ● 1097d

It's amazing what you can learn about the most vocal opponents of cycling in Chiswick by attending the odd Chiswick Area Forum. Especially when they like to make a song and dance of themselves.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

I should have said, of course, that it's lawless from just south, rather than north, of Wavenden. Just north of Wavenden is a pedestrian refuge, which stops people from driving down the middle of the road.

Robert Fish ● 1097d

I cycle, you tin-eared nincompoop !!!

Madeleine Hazard ● 1097d

I'm pleased that both your choice of mode of transport and your language is improving. Self-improvement should always be applauded.

Paul Campbell ● 1097d

"Self-improvement should always be applauded."I'm sure if you ever gave any sign of it, Humpty, we would all applaud.

Richard Greenhough ● 1097d

Put another island like that just South of the Barrowgate junction.The traffic would have to stay in single file until it was past that island.  It would stop people going up the outside and jumping the queue.  It would stop those same people blocking the filter for turning right into Barrowgate going North on Sutton Court Road.

Al Webber ● 1097d

Good idea!

Robert Fish ● 1097d

Good luck with this.  I repeatedly complained to LBH and TFL years ago about this exact thing, ie. installing a right turning traffic light filter.  Needless to say, it went nowhere.  It has since become a much worse situation since LTN's were introduced and other exit points of the area closed off or restricted.

Liz Collins ● 1097d

We all know Paul Campbell drives don’t we?

Maggie Dodge ● 1096d

Let us get back to the question what happened at Sutton Court Road? It looks like we will never be told.

Stella Ellis ● 1096d

Well so Paul claims but then so do most cyclists and walkers. I expect he also takes or has taken trains boats and planes sometimes too - just like the majority of people in the western world.

Philippa Bond ● 1096d

Yes,  but do the rest of the world stand in judgement telling others what not to do, regarding climate change. I see Mayor Khan is flying off again in order to save the planet.  Thank goodness for compliant jet planes. How are you missing the point Philippa?

Maggie Dodge ● 1095d

I think Khan sat pedalling on an exercise bike for the whole journey.

Colin Jordan ● 1095d

There is a report on the front page. As there has been no update it is probably okay to assume that the condition of the person hit wasn't too bad otherwise there probably would have been a witness appeal.

Mark Evans ● 1095d

He couldn’t have. His feet wouldn’t reach the pedals.

Steve Taylor ● 1095d

No Maggie, I'm not missing the point, I'm seeing it - which you obviously don't since you just seem to want no change when urgent change is needed. When did life ever just go as planned?

Philippa Bond ● 1095d