Dartmouth Road traffic queues 5 May 2010
Posted by Philip in Streets.trackback
Not time for a long blog post (I hear there’s an election on and I should be out and about), but I and others were wondering what was causing the massive traffic queues on Dartmouth Road so I asked TfL whether they’d rephased the lights. Here’s what they have to say:
The traffic signals at this location operate under a real-time traffic management system. This system works by having vehicle detectors buried under the road surface which monitors the volume of traffic and levels of congestion, and changes the signal timings to optimise the road capacity. This is to also minimise delay to all users, including pedestrians and public transport.
Our engineers have investigated this matter and found that some of the detectors have been damaged due to recent resurfacing and roadworks. As a result real time traffic flow data for Dartmouth Road was lost. However this issue has been reported and will be repaired. Meanwhile temporary measures have been put in place to reduce the effects until it is rectified and we will continue to monitor the situation during this period.
Alex Feakes
George Crozier
margotwilson
Up in Forest Hill 
For several weeks the situation in Dartmouth Road was being made much worse by the fact that traffic was being diverted there as a result of the closure of Sydenham Rise to Northbound traffic due to gas works. At the time I wondered why the lights had not been re-programmed to take account of the diversion, but perhaps the damage you mention was in part the cause. Why though did no-one from TfL or the council notice the very lengthy queues? Perhaps because traffic through Forest Hill in rush hours and at weekends is regularly pretty terrible, though in fairness it’s hard to see what could be done to make things better.