Daily Life

Being out and about locally at present is refreshingly different. The nearest main road, Worple Road,  usually full of noisy trucks and dozens of cars, particularly during morning rush hour has been closed for over three months whilst Thames Water have been relaying a broken water main of some kind.

Thames water fairly recently even provided a small minibus for those with walking difficulties and who wish to travel cost free to Wimbledon or Raynes Park train stations.

As the picture to the left indicates the road is virtually traffic free apart from the odd local resident's car or the Thames Water minibus. 

All the TfL bus stops have been closed and the affected buses along with the usual heavy traffic rerouted to a parallel but smaller road at the top of Wimbledon Hill. 

The smaller road, The Ridgway, is quite unsuited to the large volume of traffic currently travelling along it. The occasional bus stop on the Ridgway, previously used only by the mainly single deck bus, travelling to Raynes Park and return but now used by double deck buses  on their way to Kingston and Clapham causes the already large volume of traffic to back up, whilst the bus passengers board and  exit at bus stops, thus causing the road to become even more congested and dangerous  for pedestrians to cross.

Before the Thames Water works, many school children would take buses to their local schools or be driven by their parents. Currently however it would appear that the road closure is resulting in large numbers of pupils from all the local schools both state and private, walking to school talking and even sometimes singing together, which must be far more healthy than either walking along a noisy congested road or being driven to their schools would have been, before the Thames Water works began.

Friday was climate change day when many school children and others around the world protested at the effects of  traffic pollution on human and animal life in the  world.Currently Thames Water are being threatened with huge fines if their Worple Road works are not completed by the end of this month. 

How much more in line with the concerns particularly of young people, would it be, if instead of fining Thames Water, a decision was taken to close Worple Road to most heavy  truck traffic and single person cars, once Thames Water has departed?