Despair on the road to nowhere

DO YOU feel frustrated, angry, desperate and claustrophobic?

If so, you might be a regular user of the notorious A205, otherwise known as London's South Circular Road.

Having lived south of the river for many of my 26 years in this great city, the route I'm ruminating on has often held me hostage.

The trouble with the South Circular starts with its name. I mean, it's not very circular. In fact, it's a higgledy-piggledy mishmash of roads that sometimes barely join up.

Actually, there are 38 different roads, streets and place names that comprise the South Circular. Confused? You should be.

Unlike its northern cousin, the mighty A406, which at least forms part of a circle, and is a proper thoroughfare, the South Circular is barely recognisable as a route to anywhere. It begins at the Woolwich Ferry and meanders south-west through countless junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights until it meets the Chiswick roundabout.

The North Circular has benefited from multimillion pound investment programmes in order to create what, in places, resembles a four-lane highway.

Consequently, when driving on it, you get the sensation of actually going places.

Neither "circular" provides the motorist with much that could be described as a life-enhancing view, although I'm told that the morning sun emerging through the mists over Clapham Common might make you feel a little poetry coming on. The A406 takes you through an apparent industrial wasteland, while the A205 can make you feel as if you're trespassing through people's gardens.

The 205 winds its not-so-merry way through a wide range of income brackets.

From leafy Richmond and Dulwich to the tougher neighbourhoods of Southwark and Lewisham, there's no doubt that the overcrowded South Circular is, if nothing else, a great leveller.

Heart 106.2 Stryker Biker Mike Loughlin (one of our travel guru Jeff Stryker's motorcycling traffic monitors, as heard on my Drive Time Show) reckons the South Circular is an important artery, or as he puts it a "necessary evil," but worries about its impact on the surrounding environment. Mike reckons we should even contemplate closing it down and divert drivers onto the M25, because pollution is destroying some beautiful, historic buildings - especially in Dulwich and Woolwich.

So what options do we have? Another Stryker Biker, "Little Dave", thinks we should look at how other major cities have dealt with traffic.

Tiered motorways, as in Los Angeles, or designated vehicle days in other parts of the United States (blue cars on Mondays etc). Of course, to really reduce congestion we could make the South Circular a four-wheel-free zone, allowing more room for motorbikes and cyclists - or perhaps sole use of official cars carrying Crystal Palace supporters!

Transport For London assures me that it doesn't need to come to this.

We're "world leaders of traffic technology" and a brand new software programme has been developed, enabling traffic signals to work in synchronicity, cutting down travelling times.

We'll see.

Long term, south London really needs a better rail system, with more stations and faster trains.

No doubt unpopular decisions need to be made to give the South Circular a break before it gets gridlocked, and, like the M25, which inspired the hit song The Road to Hell, it becomes The Road to Nowhere.

Copyright 2001
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