Red Lion Lane One Way Proposal

Red Lion Lane - One Way Proposal
Red Lion Lane - One Way Proposal

Highway safety seems to be fairly active theme in the area at the moment, there was the traffic monitoring in cleanthus road last year (not sure what came of that), and the extension of the 20 mph zone to eaglesfield road; now there’s a new speed/vehicle counter on the hill going down to kent, plus the occasional traffic police with lidars round the garden centre, and the new road safety improvements to shrewsbury lane where it meets the main road plus the pedestrian refuges at various stages, and the proposed double yellow lines on the main road round the farm (this will save people getting parking fines when they drive to the lambing day in april)…

Overall it just goes to show that gene selection for fear of spiders and snakes, useful though it may have been in the ancestral environment, is now being replaced by meme selection – i.e. we’re just not scared enough of vehicles yet, so culture has to intervene whilst we wait for the genome to catch up (i.e. all the people who are afraid of cars reproduce more effectively than those who aren’t).

In 2000 Red Lion Lane benefited from traffic calming as part of the 20mph traffic calming measures enjoyed by many roads in the area, and was also turned into a down-the-hill-only road at the top end. At the same time the idea of excusing pavement parking on the bottom end was briefly considered before being, erm, parked. Since then the council have received a number of complaints about drivers having difficulty passing each other on this lower section of the lane, and also complaints about damage to parked vehicles, which presumably happens when things get tight. Efforts have been made to revive the pavement parking idea, but now a more radical measure is being proposed which is to make still more of the lane down hill only.

A mini vote is currently on, mainly to sound out the feelings of those who live on roads that will get the up-hill traffic that currently use red lion lane as a rat run when the junction at the old shooters hill police station gets slow, and so I anticipate that herbert road→paget rise→ankerdine crescent→shrewsbury lane→foxcroft road→eaglesfield road will now become the cut through of choice for those in an, erm, hurry. The other way that through traffic might cut through would be herbert road⇒ripon road⇒eglinton hill⇒eaglesfield road – so it may be that residents in these roads are being polled.

Lost Cat

Lost Cat - Artillery Row - October 2009
Lost Cat - Artillery Row
The behaviour of dogs and their owners was recently considered, and now it’s time to think of the cats of the hill too. Paget Rise appears to have by far the most cats, and quite a few of them are very friendly and/or elegant too, but this story is about a cat on Artillery Row, a very muddy road, which, as an aside, is where Aphrodite had his studio (he is one of the pioneers of drum and bass, in fact this whole area played an important part in the foundation of this form of music on account of how far radio waves carry from here).

Anyway, yesterday it was raining cats and dogs (groan), and so I found myself wondering how to get to the other side of the biggest, muddiest puddle of all the big muddy puddles on Artillery Row (a private road with no storm drains) and I noticed a lost cat sign, which is included here minus the contact details, as I did not, (and never do), approach sources.

If you do have any information about where this cat is hiding from the terrifying tv repair man, then either email the webmin address at the foot of the page, or add a comment, and I will contact the household, or, if you’ve got welly boots, go to Artillery Row.

Here is the message verbatim, I wonder why it’s written from the cat’s perspective?

As you can see I am an adorable young female black cat, I ran out frightened of the tv repair man and haven’t been able to get back into my home as I am lost and confused.

Please let my owners know if you see me, thank you very much.

Bella
xxx

Good Dog (Owner)

It might not quite be a banksy, but the council dog stencil does seem to be fairly effective at keeping the hill clean and safe, at least in the bits it appears; I certainly would tread carefully walking across the roundabout lawns on the wimpey estate, or certain parts of eaglesfield or shrewsbury park or the woods, although things are getting better.

Anyway it seems to be a fairly serious initiative with its own enforcement officials being geared up to hit anti-social dog-owners where it hurts, i.e. the purse.

I’m not sure what kind of dog the stencilhound is? I once saw a similar street painting in paris, and it was definitely a lapdog of some sort, you know the type that fits in a handbag, but the Greenwich version appears to be modelled on a cross between a Poodle and an Alsation, I call it a Poosation.