Traffic Chaos

The congestion and pollution problem in Tonbridge High Street was again highlighted in this week's Kent & Sussex Courier.  Traffic jams have been a problem in the town centre for years.  Today it is a daily problem, with the added complication of air-quality, but even as far back as the 1960's there were weekend snarl ups as people headed through the town, on what was then the only route to the coast from London.

Nothing has eased the traffic.  Not the building of a by-pass, or the route around the industrial estate, nor the straightening of the High Street, or the widening of the road that led to the destruction of medieval buildings.  Not parking restrictions, nor car parks, traffic lights, roundabouts or double yellow lines, and according to The Courier TMBC now 'proposes stricter parking enforcement to reduce "idling of engines"... improved junctions ...and a reduction in harmful emissions from buses.' Will it ever end?

Even over 100 years ago, in Victorian Tonbridge, the town was proposing measures to ease 'traffic' in the High Street.  The problem in 1871 was more about the amount of people and animals travelling through the main thoroughfare, than the 'motor' vehicle snarl-ups we now experience.

Apparently more than a century ago on the town's market day the amount of traffic The Little Bridge carried was constant, and when special events occurred such as the County Cricket matches there were queues of slow moving carriages in the High Street.  This was often made worse by large traction engines hauling waggon trains on behalf of the Medway Navigation Company.  In some spots the road was only 14ft wide and these places caused blockages and made it unsafe for pedestrians.  The line of buildings was then totally irregular and what pavement there was was generally used by High Street traders to display their goods. It was all very 'hit and miss'.

So in 1871 a 'Town Improvements Committee' was formed to use their imagination and expertise to permanently solve the High Street's traffic problems, so as to create a healthy and pleasant environment for the people of the town.  Little did they know that even after all their well intentioned improvements a century later the problem would have worsened catastrophically.

The Committee recommended a number of improvements to ease the flow of traffic such as the removal of all bow windows and steps to High Street buildings around the Little Bridge Area (NO, I hear you cry), so as to give more pavement width.  A second recommendation was to raise enough funds to buy as much frontage as possible to be used for widening the road.  And so the devastation of the town's heritage began.

A census was conducted in August 1871 (140 years ago) to establish the amount of traffic that passed over the Little Bridge on three chosen days.  On market day 1084 animals were counted crossing the bridge, 101 of them horses, now that must has been a sight, but also a great difficulty if road in some places was only 14ft wide.

Mid-Victorian England, C.W. Chalkin, KCC, c1977

So, what is next for our town?  How is Tonbridge ever going to solve its traffic problem? A century has past and we seem to be no further.  Any ideas?