Forum Topic

Michael, your ability to misunderstand someone's post and then argue the toss relentless based on this misconception is remarkable.To be clear, all I am saying is that based on a recent walk along Chiswick High Road at the weekend it seemed to be comparably busy with the peaks during the weekday. I am not claiming that this is proof that weekends are now always busier - it was just a one off observation.If you were to press me, I would say the gap could be narrowing as people adapt to the switch from Lime and Voi and Forest deliver more bikes to the area. They were certainly much more prevalent than I had noticed before.Quite why you, C9's loyalist supporter, would be so vehement in disputing this point which confirms the view that it is busy in the face of denials of that fact by people who hardly ever come to Chiswick, has me scratching my head.As for traffic patterns on the High Road, we have three pieces of key evidence on which to base any conclusions, the traffic surveys that you cite showing a fall in the number of cars on CHR, data from TfL showing average speeds are down and delays are up on CHR and data from TfL including its most recent annual report which shows that motor vehicle  traffic across London is climbing back steadily to pre-pandemic levels.We don't really have good enough data on roads off CHR to show whether or not displacement is taking place but people familiar with Bath Road, Wellesley Road, Duke Road, Acton Lane, South Parade and others will tell you that it is. Of course you will dismiss this as being anecdote but for you view to be right it has to be assumed that traffic patterns in Chiswick are unique and we are seeing an overall fall as it rises in the rest of London.

Francis Rowe ● 2d

A reason why traffic surveys are important is because observational evidence (in other words, anecdotes) from peoples' occasional short visits to CHR is so unreliable.There are traffic survey cameras at the junction of CHR and Turnham Green Terrace and they have been recording numbers of cyclists and motor vehicles every hour, 24x7 since they were installed in 2021 (with the exception of a few months late 2024/early 2025 when they were offline because of power issues).There is a vast amount of data available and that's why I know that weekday peak hour cyclists numbers are around x1.5 more than weekend midday.Traffic patterns are also different between weekday and weekend.  Weekday cycle flow is "tidal" with the majority of cyclists heading eastbound in the morning and westbound in the evening with balanced flows during the inter-peak.  Weekend cycle flow is balanced throughout the day.  Inter-peak and weekend will be primarily local journeys while the peaks are primarily commuting.There has also been steady increase in numbers since the Cycleway was fully upgraded in January 2023 with the largest increases during peak times in winter and adjacent months indicating more people cycling year-round rather than just seasons with better weather.Spikes during tube strikes are also apparent with numbers cycling exceeding 5000 during some of the strike days last year.My comparison with cars rather than buses was deliberate because of how inefficiently cars use space in urban environments given most of them have just 1 person in them.

Michael Robinson ● 6d

The developments in Brentford on the S side of the A315 were part of Chiswick Riverside in the 2022 elections so won't be included in the large increase of Riverside electorate between 2022 and 2026.The new developments by the stadium look like the main reason why Riverside electorate increased.In London, the best predictor of people voting Conservative (and Reform) isn't wealth but age.  Conservative support is very heavily skewed towards older age groups.People living in the newer developments will be younger and I'd be pretty confident they will not be Conservative supporters in the main.You claim "for many voters in Chiswick Homefields and Chiswick Gunnersbury with LTNs also a sore point for many".  So what LTNs are a sore point for voters in Chiswick Homefields and Gunnersbury? Because with the exception of the roads closed many years ago to stop rat running (e.g. Beverley Rd, Vaughan Ave) there haven't been any new ones installed there.On the other hand, Riverside has had a whole series of LTN measures since 2020 as part of the S Chiswick liveable neighbourhood scheme.The Conservatives campaigned on opposing these measures in 2022 and 2026 and what happened? They lost a Cllr each year.  Maybe the younger demographic in the new developments can explain 2026 but it doesn't explain 2022.  If the S Chiswick LTN measures had been that unpopular then the Conservatives should have won all seats in 2022 and 2026 but they didn't and have gone backwards.The Conservatives would be pretty dumb to keep campaigning on issues like C9 and LTNs.  To paraphrase the physicist Max Planck "science advances one funeral at a time" and Conservative voters will die off and be replaced by people who have grown up with bike lanes and LTNs and just view them as normal, just like even Conservative voters in Homefields view closed access to Chiswick Lane as normal.

Michael Robinson ● 9d

Something is clearly happening in Chiswick Riverside and originally I'd have agreed with you that it was about boundary changes. However, having looked at it more closely, there were two main additions - the sliver of territory between Kew Bridge Road and the river which is mainly very expensive riverside property privately owned. I'd assume this would be Tory-leaning.The other bit is the large amount of new builds around capital interchange way. I haven't actually walked through this area for about 6 months and couldn't tell you anything about the occupancy levels and tenancy types but even if full it doesn't seem to me that it would have a sufficient anti-Tory bias to influence the overall result.Perhaps the best way to look at this is to consider that Chiswick isn't really a naturally Conservative area - it doesn't vote that way in General Elections or Mayoral Elections. It has differed in local elections because of a sense of grievance over issues such as parking and the Conservative councillors elected have tended to be quite effective and established the advantage of incumbency. Cycleway 9 remains an issue for many voters in Chiswick Homefields and Chiswick Gunnersbury with LTNs also a sore point for many in the former. Before Michael gets upset, I am not saying these are good or bad measures, just that they have solidified Conservative support in these wards and delivered a few hundred votes to provide a comfortable majority. In Chiswick Riverside there is no such hot button issue and it is reverting to more normal voting patterns - just a thought.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 9d

Michael always interesting to hear/read your views even if you insist on remaining the mouthpiece for a single issue pressure group.At the Grove Park Hustings all three candidates who were elected answered questions on a variety of local issues.They all agreed that what was originally called the South Chiswick Liveable neighbourhood scheme had been handled extremely badly and that was now an overwhelming need for a major review and public consultation on all the measures.Gabriella Giles explained that traffic data on how the scheme was operating "now" had been made available to councillors but had not (yet) been released to the public. This information made it clear that the predicted reductions of traffic on key roads had not in fact materialised. The phantom scheme on Thames Road / Strand-on-the Green was just an unfunny joke. In addition several residential streets had experienced much heavier traffic because barriers and traffic cameras had led residents to regularly seek long diversions.Gabriella, Amy and Rick were baffled at the inability of Labour led Hounslow Council to, even after all these years, link registration on the CPZ database to the residents' access scheme. This still caused some residents a great deal of anguish. Gabriella explained that she had even arranged a quotation for the necessary software package. The council just ignored this.Why was there still no online way that residents could use to apply for "vistor access" for trades people, visiting family members, teachers etc. Incompetence, arrogance or simply an obsessive fixation on promoting "active travel" no matter what the consequences in the real world.  The tens of millions of pounds incurred in fines has had a significant impact on those seeking to enter the area for business purposes or to sample the hospitality of pubs and restaurants.I could go on. But to summarise, it was good to see such unanimity amongst our elected representatives that, there were a number of fundamental improvements that could be made to the road schemes of Chiswick Riverside. 

Sam Hearn ● 15d