Goodbye to gyratory

Published: 6 May, 2011

• WE are delighted to see there is cross-party support for sorting out the Archway roads.

The quoted cost for returning Archway to two-way traffic is already down from £11m to £6-7m. Even the lower figure includes costs such as the renewal of existing pavements as well as replacement traffic lights (due shortly). 

But if replacements are needed, the costs will already be allowed for in other budgets. A more realistic figure for the work is therefore £3.5m or £4m; £2m is already available for Archway public realm improvement. 

It has been public policy for the last 20 years that the roads should be sorted out, but this is the first time such a large sum has been available. 

It makes up at least half of the more realistic lower-cost estimate, and the remaining 40 per cent to 50 per cent is effectively provided by savings in other Greater London Authority expenditure, for example on improving air quality and for the cycle superhighway. 

What needs to happen next is to allocate part of the £2m for Archway public realm improvement to pay for traffic modelling – costing about £50,000 – and for a public consultation to find the preferred option.

Combining the balance of the £2m with the remaining funding streams would ensure, as Councillor Paul Convery estimated at the last North Area Committee, that the gyratory is removed within the next four years.

In the meantime, Transport for London is proposing 20mph limits for centres such as Angel and the Nag’s Head as part of the proposed Cycle Superhighway, but the Archway town centre has been left off the list. 

Although Junction Road and Holloway Road are transport routes, they are also places where people work and live. 

Archway therefore also merits the same protection, and indeed may need it even more than places like Angel, given the recent fatality in Junction Road.

Many of the pedestrians killed on Islington streets are older, vulnerable individuals. Making these changes will contribute to Islington Council’s objectives of social justice and a fairer Islington.

KATE CALVERT
Better Archway Forum
Highgate Society
Islington Living Streets
Islington Cyclists’ Action Group