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Dovercourt Road -less forgotten?

Posted by Kimberly on Tuesday, August 10, 2010

There's an interesting sentence  in the council proposal to sell off the Dovercourt Open Space
it could be used in conjunction with the redevelopment of adjoining sites if proposed in the future.
Not wanting to do research ourselves, one of our reporters drove their van to the bottom of Dovercourt Road, the cul-de-sac where nothing happens, and waited for a pedestrian to come by, where we doored them (pavement side) and asked them some questions as they recovered. The open space area is to the left of this photo, incidentally.

Apparently the plan is to sell of the Muller Road bus station, knock down the three bungalows you can see behind our white van, and open up a direct link between Dovercourt Road and Muller road, instead of the turn off and traffic lights you have to deal with today. Looking up the road (open space on the right) you can see there is room to put your foot down here.
This finally gives people a reason to drive down this road. Fast. Normally the only visitors are outsiders who don't see the small turnoff that leads to the city and carry on down at speed. We know this as Josh Hart used this road as his sample of "a quiet road" in his comparison of three roads of equal widths and different traffic rates: Dovercourt Road, Filton Avenue and Muller Road. This was the road where people knew their neighbours across the road, where they talked to each other, something so unusual it made the national press, as well as the local magazine.

Josh's survey showed this road only gets 140 vehicles/day, which leaves them out from the vibrant heart of the city.
The opening up of this road to through traffic would let Josh write a followup paper, showing how social relationships change when a road that was a quiet cul-de-sac suddenly becomes busy.

It also has some very interesting implications for the North Fringe route. The cycle path was planned to bridge over the stream, meander through the open space and then the cyclists can turn right onto this dead end road. But if the Muller Road terminal really does go away
  1. This won't be a quiet turning any more, it will be turning right over through traffic.
  2. The road won't be quiet
  3. They may reroute the bike path
Frankly, we think they should just kill the bike route plan now. With direct car access to Muller Road there's no need for it,; the crossing of the former open space just reduces its resale value. And, with a nice fast route all the way to the rugby grounds, why cycle? Why not drive up? Park and walk, or, if we can get that historical access to Abbey Wood sorted out, drive all the way up to the MoD site?

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