Stanstead Road / Brockley Rise Junction Changes

Walking past this morning, I noticed that temporary traffic lights have been put in place ahead of the start of work on the junction of Stanstead Road and Brockley Rise.

Details of the plans are here: https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/roads/stanstead-road-brockley-rise/user_uploads/stanstead-road_brockley-rise-consultation-report.pdf

Personally I am disappointed that we’ll have new light-controlled islands in the middle of busy roads rather than allowing pedestrians to cross in a single movement, but the current lack of safe crossings means that almost anything is an improvement.

For a couple of months, I expect the work will be very disruptive for those travelling along both the South Circ and the Brockley Rise / Cranston Road route.

I’ll leave it to cleverer people than me to comment on the changes. I’m busy having an allergic reaction to the newly-verbalised noun “signalised”. Urgh!

I guess they had to have staggered pedestrian crossings because of the way the traffic flows - when one side the road is stopped the other is moving? Just guessing.

But overall yes I am just pleased something is being done about those crossings!

Cranston Road resident here. First I’ve heard of this (apart from bumping into a load of the workers as I came home late last night. Don’t actually mind it, though I worry the island on the north side might be a bit wide. Life would be marginally easier if, in the exiting Cranston phase, a right turn onto the South Circ was allowed, but that gives no phase free to cross the eastbound South Circ, so fair enough.

We really could do with a crossing at the other end of Cranston, at the junction with Woolstone/Houston Road. It’s a very busy junction both for pedestrians and vehicles due to the proximity to Kilmorie School and the high traffic volumes down both roads, including numerous skip lorries etc flouting the 7.5t restriction. The cross-roads often cause priority confusion for those exiting Cranston or Houston and no-one really looks out for pedestrians.

Took the liberty of extracting the image from that PDF:

Screen Shot 2017-02-01 at 17.27.10.png909×958 243 KB

Seems like a reasonable plan to me and at least there’s some evidence of public consultation for this one.

I use these crossing every morning. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, waste of government money if you ask me.

Out of curiosity, does our approval rate match what they found?

Going through the junction this morning at about 10:30 there was a considerable tailback waiting to exit Cranston Road. I counted the timings on the lights - only 10 seconds compared with about 20 in the opposite direction. Once I got onto Brockley Rise there were a lot of pinch points caused by the workmen’ lorrys and buses coming the other way.

What is it like at peak times? I’m heading through Lewisham tomorrow morning at about 8am and think I might be quicker slogging through Catford.

Cranston always has a shorter phase than Brockley Rise but it does seem even shorter still with the temporary lights. Seems to be quite a lot more traffic than usual turning off via Loxton/Colfe and easing into traffic on the S Circular then turning left onto Brockley Rise to avoid the end of Cranston.

Thanks, Stephen, that’s interesting. I’m never sure these days which is the better route to Lewisham - to chug through Catford or go through Brockley Rise and Ladywell.

Just to be aware that there is a UXB at Manor Park which may add to travel woes.

Excuse my ignorance, but where is Manor Park?

Near Trinity Primary School. Quite a bit away but as I have learnt, anything in that area (near Lewisham) pushes traffic back quite a bit.

It was mental on Saturday and I should have turned down Loxton Road and backed round to the South Circ - the timings are way off and it took four or five cycles to get through. Cycling through the back up of traffic is also a pain atm but it is all temporary. I have always preferred the Ladywell way to Lewisham myself…

I do tend to share the view that there was no pressing need for these changes. Not against them but I don’t really see that they add much value.

Me too, but recently there have been fairly long tailbacks on Brockley Rise and then at the Ladywell traffic lights when I’ve had to go that way (typically at about 8am, a time I normally try not to be on the road). I haven’t gone via Catford in donkey’s years but assume it’s as bad as ever. But it DOES move.