Highgate Society publishes transport strategy

Camden is currently reviewing its transport strategy and the Highgate Society has submitted its own transport strategy to Camden to influence what they decide.

The trouble is that borough boundaries run through the middle of Highgate. One side of the High Street is in Camden and the other in Haringey, and south of Dartmouth Park Hill and Hornsey Lane is in Islington. As a result Highgate can often be left out of initiatives as there is no one borough with responsibility for us – which makes for particular difficulties when it comes to transport.

So a central issue for any transport strategy for Highgate is cross-borough co-ordination. There is no point one borough introducing a scheme which just pushes traffic, pushes pollution and congestion, into another borough. And Highgate is a shopping centre and should be treated as one, which neither Haringey’s nor Camden’s current strategies do. It has a distinctive character with some steep hills and narrow streets, which can cause congestion, limit transport options and tend to increase emissions. Any transport strategy needs to take that character into account.

Our strategy sets out our support for electric vehicles, for the schools safety programme and for cost/benefit analyses for all new schemes: it sets out priorities of road users, the need for measures to improve air quality, and to take care of existing pavements and lighting, among other things.

The strategy can be found here.