17 February (Part 1) - Impressive imagination
I suppose I shouldn’t rise to the bait, but anonymous emails are
extraordinarily frustrating. If readers dissent with what is written here
why, metaphorically speaking, lob a brick and run for it? Even more annoying are
those who entirely miss the point or misunderstand it.
“Why” - referring to ‘Broadway
- very literally’ - “am I so against widening pavements” asked someone
yesterday evening. It was news to me. I have expressed the hope that the
workmanship is of a higher standard than that imposed on Orpington. I have
surmised that the more acute bend outside ASDA is designed to slow traffic, and
I fail to see why diverted traffic is sent around an anti-clockwise
circle during the construction period, but I see absolutely nothing to criticise in the
scheme itself. It was described as “impressive”
when first announced.
When correspondents wrote predicting an increase in the rate of pedestrian
accidents I replied that a friend who once worked for the Transport Research
Laboratory studying the effects of such shared space schemes, told me that
if well designed the new Broadway should not be a problem.
In any case, if nothing is ever changed the whole place will get to look tatty -
and surely the western end of Broadway already was.