The Thamesmead Grump

Above, you will see a map of Bexleyheath town centre which I have stolen from Google (don't worry, they can afford it). Down the middle of the picture is Albion Road. This is currently being dug up, apparently with the intention of installing a cycle lane down the middle.

I'm all in favour of cycle lanes but I'm a bit worried about this one. At present, Albion Road is a dual carriageway and once the changes have been completed, it will become single lane only.

I wonder if the people who thought this idea up have really considered the consequences of what they have done.

Just after the Townley Road/Albion Road roundabout there is the entrance to the shopping centre car park. It's not at all uncommon at busy times for the access ramp to become completely blocked with cars waiting to get into the car park which results in them queueing into the road. Not a problem as anyone wanting to get past can just move into the outside lane.

Not any more. When this does happen next (and it will happen) it's going to result in traffic backing up all the way to the Albion Road/Broadway magic roundabout causing complete gridlock. I bet they never thought of that.

If anyone does manage to get past, they will only get as far as the next major junction at Hyland Road where traffic waiting to turn left is backing up behind the traffic lights at the Broadway/Arnsberg Way junction where the same thing will happen. In fact, this is already happening at relatively quiet times during the day. Just wait till Christmas.

Talking of insane traffic management systems. Coming home from Woolwich on the bus the other day, once the bus managed it's curious dog-leg right turn out of Woolwich New Road and onto the High Street, we were stopped straight away by a large traffic jam.

I've noticed this before, it always seems to be a problem on this bit of the road and is caused by another one of Greenwich Council's curious tendency to put bus lanes where they will be least effective. (See previous blogs ad-nauseam)

There is always a tailback of traffic from the Arsenal gate to the junction with Burrage Road; sometimes it tails back even further. It's caused by the fact that after the Burrage Road traffic lights, the dual carriageway is reduced to one lane in order to accommodate a bus lane.

While this is intended to make life easier for the buses, it actually has the opposite effect because although the buses have a clear lane after the junction, it takes three times as long to reach it because of the traffic jam caused by the bus lane being there in the first place. If Greenwich Council were to remove it, it would speed up the traffic no end.

BREXIT QUESTION

There must be at least a few pro-Brexit loonies who read this blog, perhaps one of them can explain something to me.

During the referendum campaign, apart from the usual chanting of OUT OUT OUT and ranting on about immigrants, my understanding is that one of the main reason you wanted us to leave the EU was so that constitutional decisions affecting the British people would be made by the British Parliament and not the European one. "Take back control" I heard more than once.

Why then, was there such a fuss when the House of Lords forced the government to refer the terms of our leaving to Parliament, rather than just a few ministers and civil servants? I thought that was the whole point but it seems that most of the protests seem to be coming from exactly those people who wanted the British Parliament to decide such issues in the first place.

I can understand the hysterical ranting of the tabloid press. It publishes what it's bosses tell it and as it's all owned by foreign based tax dodging billionaires, I can understand why they are nervous about the idea of a democratic system getting the upper hand. But why the Brexit loonies, surely that's exactly what they wanted?

The latest is that Theresa May has said that "she will take the UK out of the EU even if Parliament votes against the deal" (BBC).

This means that you, the British public will have absolutely no say whatsoever about the terms of our exit from the EU. It will all be decided by the Prime Minister personally with no reference to anybody. Well done everyone.

I do go on about this from time to time but here is a BBC news article about it. There is a small app you can download onto your android smartphone and it will work in the background helping scientists researching diseases such as Cancer, Ebola, Zika, TB, AIDS, etc.

It costs nothing to run and you could be helping to cure some of the most deadly threats to mankind.

If you have an Android phone, you have no excuse not to be running this. You can find it here.