Traffic changes in Covent Garden

Following a joint traffic study of the entire Covent Garden area during 1999, Westminster and Camden traffic engineers have published their detailed proposals on dealing with through-traffic problems in the area.

The study, the first time in many years that Camden and Westminster have actively worked together, aims to reduce vehicular traffic movements and exhaust emissions in the Covent Garden area through:

• severing the existing through-routes such as Long Acre, Drury Lane, Monmouth Street and Shelton Street
• creating 'cells' from which vehicles can not easily drive into neighbouring cells
• entry road treatments on all access points into the area.

The study has highlighted the enormous amount of through-traffic in Covent Garden streets - as much as 60% in some streets. It has also looked at residents' car ownership, delivery requirements for businesses and pedestrian safety issues.

Some of the proposals include:

• reversal of traffic flow in Upper St Martin's Lane
• reversal of traffic flow in Short's Gardens
• diagonal closure of Long Acre at the junction with Endell Street & Bow Street
• diagonal closure of Drury Lane at the junction with Long Acre and Gt Queen Street
• closure of Newton Street at the junction with Gt Queen Street
• closure of Tavistock Street at the junction with Southampton Street
• reversal of traffic flow in Shelton Street (between Mercer Street and Langley Street)
• introduction of 2-way traffic in Drury Lane (south of Long Acre)
• introduction of an 'Ecobus' service - a clean, gas-powered bus link between Covent Garden, the South Bank and the Tower of London, running at 10-minute intervals and suitable for disabled passengers.

Camden Council has agreed to carry out 'entry treatments' to all access roads into the area that are not controlled by traffic signals. This will be funded through Camden's successful bid to the Government Office for London (GOL) for London's first 'Clear Zone'

The current proposals will have a major impact on anyone living or working in Covent Garden. The removal of the huge amount of unnecessary through-traffic is welcomed, as is the expected reduction in exhaust fumes. We fear that the proposed scheme also has a number of serious shortcomings, e.g. the use of Betterton Street as the main exit route for vehicles using Long Acre and Endell Street. This will, without doubt, transform Betterton Street into Covent Garden's 'permanent traffic jam'.

Please contact us if you would like to have a pre-view of the proposals, before they are consulted upon in March 2000. The CGCA has a set of the drawings and the reports by the traffic 'experts' which describe the scheme in detail and you are welcome to view these or borrow them.

 

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