Walked down Hither Green Lane this evening to see what effect the road closure and bus diversions were having.
On the positive side, road traffic seemed much lighter than on a normal evening. Good news for cyclists and fit pedestrians. Traffic heading south along Hither Green Lane had plenty of opportunities to take diversions and things seemed to be going reasonably well for them. It was more chaotic for the traffic which intended to travel northwards from Courthill Road and found the entrance into Hither Green Lane blocked and were forced to take last minute decisions on whether to turn back, or to continue along Courthill Road past its road closed signs, or continue into Morley Road. Complicated by the cars coming south along Courthill Road. One scary moment when a car went up the wrong way up Courthill Road into the oncoming traffic. Overall, a lot of stressed and angry motorists.
When I reached Lewisham High Street I decided to test the instructions to bus drivers that they were supposed to pick up and drop off passengers wherever it was safe to do so along the route of the diversion. I managed to stop a 225 at the bus stop outside the Ladywell Leisure Centre going southwards along Lewisham High Street. Everything seemed OK until he ignored the requests of the people on the bus to stop along Brownhill Road. He also ignored the diversion into Torridon Road, turned into Hither Green Lane at the Brownhill Road junction, and only stopped to let off some pretty angry passengers at the Duncrievie Road stop.
I decided to test whether this was a one off and caught another 225 in Torridon Road. This driver seemed pretty friendly and helpful. He failed to pick up a passenger who hailed him on Brownhill Road, but that was a non-deliberate oversight, and he let me off at Lewisham High Street at the corner of Courthill Road quite cheerfully.
A bit later, waited to see if buses would stop again outside Ladywell Leisure Centre. A 225 bus driver came along and, upon seeing me, passed by. After a certain time, a 181 bus driver came along and, upon seeing me, passed by. As witnessed by Max Calo. And then a good Samaritan 181 driver came along, questioned me as to where I was going, and took me to the junction of Brownhill Road and Torridon Road, and let me and the other passengers off, as according to the regulations.
So it all depends on the goodwill of the bus driver as to whether (1) you get on and (2) get off the bus.
One thing which people in the area were universally annoyed by was what the lack of notice at the closures. All in all a sorry story which needs more probing.
