A Scenic Tour of Bromley
Roads
The following is a tour of
some of the common road congestion points in Bromley. These pictures were mainly
taken between 1.0 and 3.30 pm on a week day, which is by no means the busiest
time of day, but as you can see, there are normally queues of traffic even then.
You may have thought that our logo above is a picture of Bromley, but clearly it
can't be as the traffic keeps moving!
Click on the thumbnail pictures
below
for a larger format picture. Note that these pictures are available to anyone
free of charge so long as an acknowledgement is made of their origin being the
Bromley Borough Roads Action Group.
The
tour starts on Sevenoaks Way which leads to the Orpington Bypass. The
picture shows the junction of Sevenoaks Way and Leesons Hill, just before the
railway bridge - one of several railway bridges in the borough that act as
bottlenecks. Sevenoaks Way is one of the busiest roads in the borough with up to
35,000 vehicles per day using it - this includes a large proportion of HGVs and
other heavy traffic with the result that it is also a pollution black spot.
We
are now going to take the A222 route which runs off the A20 through Chislehurst
into Bromley and on towards Beckenham (with a few minor detours on the way).
Firstly we come along Perry Street (the picture was taken looking east at about
3.30 when it was already congested from the school run traffic).
The
next picture also shows Perry St, at the junction with Ashfield Lane.
This junction was "improved" a few years ago on safety grounds but unfortunately
the right filter lane into Ashfield Lane is now too short with the result that
traffic turning right blocks traffic on the main road as you can see in the
photograph. Despite a number of complaints, there are no plans to fix this
problem.
We
now come to the Chislehurst War Memorial junction. Long queues of traffic
form in all directions at this junction. The Chislehurst to Orpington direction
is a particular problem because of the narrow width of the road, which results
in any larger vehicles such as buses wanting to turn right blocking all other
traffic. Widening of the junction has been looked at several times but has
always been thwarted by the Commons Conservators.
A
quick detour to look at Chislehurst High Street. Traffic queuing to enter
the High Street as usual which has been congested ever since new traffic lights
were installed and parking arrangements changed. Results in standing traffic in
the High Street for a lot of the time with resulting air pollution.
Another
detour to Manor Park Road, Chislehurst. The scene of the original
foundation of B.B.R.A.G. where objections arose to the traffic calming scheme
now in place - this looks busier than it normally is because the photograph was
taken at school closing time so the parked cars are parents waiting to collect
their children. The first picture shows an example of "three-across" speed
cushions.
The
second picture shows the same road and how parking alongside a "two-across"
speed hump forces people directly over the hump, as opposed to being able to
straddle them. In summary, a poorly designed traffic calming scheme in a road
where it was totally unnecessary anyway.
The
next view is looking towards Summer Hill and Chislehurst train station.
Because of the steep hill and the junction at the top with Watts Lane, Old Hill
and Camden Park Road, this stretch of road is normally heavily congested. This
is particularly so in the evening as commuter traffic tries to escape out of
Bromley onto the A20 and hence to the motorway network. However this picture was
actually taken in the morning rush hour which just shows that it is jammed up
most of the time.
Further
along we come to Bickley Park Road. This picture shows the junction with
Blackbrook Lane (looking west along Bickley Park Road). Note the classic route
that large vehicles take over mini-roundabouts - namely straight over. This
junction also creates large queues in all three directions during rush hours.
This
photograph shows the junction of Barfield Rd, Thornet Wood Rd and Hawthorne Rd
on Blackbrook Lane. This junction is notoriously congested during school
opening and closing times and this picture actually shows that the queue of
traffic in the morning up to the junction with Bickley Park Road stretches past
this point, even when the school is not open. Blackbrook Lane is of course the
location of another traffic calming scheme which would have been much worse
without the intervention of BBRAG.
We're
now almost into the centre of Bromley but first we have to get through the
Widmore Road junction with Tweedy Road and Kentish Way. The first picture
shows the queue on Widmore Road.
The
next picture shows the queue at the same traffic lights but in the other
direction on Tweedy Road.
And
now on to the Shortlands junction on Beckenham Lane. Another
example of a railway bridge constricting traffic which is where we started.
Traffic stands in Beckenham Lane for most of the day, queuing to get under the
bridge.
Yes
traffic, traffic, everywhere. Hopefully this tour has given you some impression
of the traffic problems in the leafy London suburb of Bromley. If you have any
suggestions for additions (and we missed out a detour down Homesdale Road for
example), then please let us know.
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