Good to have you on here, Sophie/Ned/Sade (delete as applicable :) ). As to Dalston Junction, yes, it is our general principle that all turns should be permitted at all junctions, with very few exceptions, and it's a principle that we would always apply here, as fully as possible. Obviously, cyclists can get off and push their bikes along the footway, crossing at pedestrian crossings, but that's not good enough.
However, as you probably know, Dalston Junction is on the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) and Hackney has little say over it. The problem with TfL is that they are extremely unlikely to want to re-introduce all the turns here. There is, of course, a reason why turns are banned at junctions; it's to emphasise and prioritise certain alignments over others, in this case east-west traffic (mostly bound for or from the motorway at Hackney Wick or the A12 Lea Interchange, or the Lea Bridge Road). If you permit all turns, particularly right turns, you generate delays to the passage of motor traffic in one (or two) dominant directions, and this is not something that TfL wants. They would try to 'model' (motor) traffic here and tell you that it 'couldn't be made to work' or some such phrase because it would lead to longer queues and more congestion. By contrast, we would argue that there wouldn't be longer queues or more congestion because some existing motor traffic would simply 'disappear', i.e. people would switch their trips to other modes. This is a phenomenon known as '(motor) traffic evaporation' and it's not something that's taken sufficiently seriously by TfL. Needless to say, we will continue to push the case. We want permeability in all directions at all nodes precisely to reduce the amount of through motor traffic.
The right turns would be particularly unlikely to be re-introduced here, so that, for the time being, it would make sense to reintroduce the left turn from Ball's Pond Road to Kingsland High Street at least. Even that would be looked at askance by TfL, though! It's not such a problem for cyclists who are willing to ignore traffic rules (it's pretty easy to turn left there), but we obviously want them to be able to do it lawfully.
Albion Road: As you've probably read in the draft Vision, we want all of the street network away from the main streets to be modally filtered, so that all through motor traffic (as opposed to motor traffic which actually has a destination in an area) uses the main street network. We would want this to be done to all streets in Clissold Ward. It would even be nice to do something like this to Albion Road.
This will probably be something that's quite far in the future (10-20 years, or could it happen more quickly?), but it's certainly conceivable to make it a through route only for buses and cyclists. It will depend on how cycle and bus traffic develops in the area, and then the traffic 'cell' (within which all streets are modally filtered) could eventually be extended to include all of Stoke Newington and parts of Dalston between Green Lanes, Church Street, the A10, Ball's Pond Road, Newington Green Road, and Newington Green.
As councillors, it would of course be great if you could drum up political support for all of it. :) If it was supported by a large majority of the local population, it could certainly happen more quickly than I envisage above.
(We're always available if you want to do a walkabout and talk about traffic issues in the area.)
Good to have you on here, Sophie/Ned/Sade (delete as applicable :) ). As to Dalston Junction, yes, it is our general principle that all turns should be permitted at all junctions, with very few exceptions, and it's a principle that we would always apply here, as fully as possible. Obviously, cyclists can get off and push their bikes along the footway, crossing at pedestrian crossings, but that's not good enough.
However, as you probably know, Dalston Junction is on the Transport for London Road Network (TLRN) and Hackney has little say over it. The problem with TfL is that they are extremely unlikely to want to re-introduce all the turns here. There is, of course, a reason why turns are banned at junctions; it's to emphasise and prioritise certain alignments over others, in this case east-west traffic (mostly bound for or from the motorway at Hackney Wick or the A12 Lea Interchange, or the Lea Bridge Road). If you permit all turns, particularly right turns, you generate delays to the passage of motor traffic in one (or two) dominant directions, and this is not something that TfL wants. They would try to 'model' (motor) traffic here and tell you that it 'couldn't be made to work' or some such phrase because it would lead to longer queues and more congestion. By contrast, we would argue that there wouldn't be longer queues or more congestion because some existing motor traffic would simply 'disappear', i.e. people would switch their trips to other modes. This is a phenomenon known as '(motor) traffic evaporation' and it's not something that's taken sufficiently seriously by TfL. Needless to say, we will continue to push the case. We want permeability in all directions at all nodes precisely to reduce the amount of through motor traffic.
The right turns would be particularly unlikely to be re-introduced here, so that, for the time being, it would make sense to reintroduce the left turn from Ball's Pond Road to Kingsland High Street at least. Even that would be looked at askance by TfL, though! It's not such a problem for cyclists who are willing to ignore traffic rules (it's pretty easy to turn left there), but we obviously want them to be able to do it lawfully.
Albion Road: As you've probably read in the draft Vision, we want all of the street network away from the main streets to be modally filtered, so that all through motor traffic (as opposed to motor traffic which actually has a destination in an area) uses the main street network. We would want this to be done to all streets in Clissold Ward. It would even be nice to do something like this to Albion Road.
This will probably be something that's quite far in the future (10-20 years, or could it happen more quickly?), but it's certainly conceivable to make it a through route only for buses and cyclists. It will depend on how cycle and bus traffic develops in the area, and then the traffic 'cell' (within which all streets are modally filtered) could eventually be extended to include all of Stoke Newington and parts of Dalston between Green Lanes, Church Street, the A10, Ball's Pond Road, Newington Green Road, and Newington Green.
As councillors, it would of course be great if you could drum up political support for all of it. :) If it was supported by a large majority of the local population, it could certainly happen more quickly than I envisage above.
(We're always available if you want to do a walkabout and talk about traffic issues in the area.)
Will be good to meet you at the conference.