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COULSDON INNER RELIEF ROAD
The Coulsdon Inner Relief Road is the only
significant piece of road construction in the Mayor's draft Transport
Strategy. The Croydon Society has reservations on the merits
of building this road and has written the following letter to
the London Borough of Croydon asking the council to justify the
proposal in terms of the movement of people within the Borough
rather than on the basis of improving traffic flow through Coulsdon.
Dear Sir,
We are concerned that very little has been
said about the effects of building the Coulsdon Inner Relief
Road on the Borough as a whole. Its benefits to Coulsdon town
centre are clear but many people in Croydon have doubts on its
benefits to the Borough as a whole. They are concerned that the
result may be increased traffic congestion elsewhere in the Borough
because their experience is that traffic expands to fill available
road space either by diversion of travel from other modes or
generation of new travel. They need answers to the following
questions before they can make their own judgement on the merits
of building the road
1) How many people are travelling through
Coulsdon now on a school day on foot, by bus, by car, by train,
by bicycle and by motorcycle? As there are substantial variations
in the volume of travel by time of day, numbers should be supplied
by hour.
2) How is the opening of the Coulsdon Inner
Relief Road expected to change the number of people travelling
through Coulsdon and their distribution by mode of transport.
3) What will be the change in the volume of
traffic using the Purley gyratory? At present, congestion causes
some traffic restraint at this junction. Will congestion increase
or decrease? By how much?
4) Building the Coulsdon Inner Relief Road
will change the residential roads liable
to be used for rat running. Are there any proposals to restrain
rat running in residential roods, such as Smitham Downs Road,
that are likely to be affected?
5) While the public inquiry approved a dual
carriageway, there are people who
consider that a single carriageway road would be better as it
would be both cheaper to build and in keeping with the capacity
of the A23 on either side of Coulsdon. Would a single carriageway
road change your answers to questions 2 and 3 ?
This letter has been copied to the Greater
London Authority. To date, we have had no response.
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