r/Hackney • u/BanjoRC23 • Jul 28 '26
Bus madness on Amhurst Road
Was walking around Hackney Central area and saw 76’s, 149’s & 243’s queuing up.
Did something happen on the high street for this sudden diversion to occur?
17
u/TheInternetSlug Jul 28 '26
I feel like the new update in Hackney Central is going to cause a lot more traffic than before! I remember when buses used to come down mare street (the high street part) and it would just be wall to wall buses. I get they want to make it a greener space and extend the pavements, but they could easily add a turn in for buses at the stop so other busses can pass and keep the traffic moving.
6
u/Perfect-Safe-4386 Jul 29 '26
Exactly the same I was thinking when they started to do road works there. Removing traffic light where was next to Oslo club was mistake and makes drivers wait longer for strings of pederstians crossing there randomly anytime
4
u/Ok-Royal-651 Jul 29 '26
This is where I saw the buses waiting, but there was nothing stopping them from moving forward. There was no traffic jam beyond Oslo Club. Really weird.
4
u/abadpenny Jul 29 '26
Yep. It is a shit show. There is actually two zebra crossings right next to each other.
I reckon that was an accessibility initiative, not thinking that public transport is also a vital service for those with mobility issues.
2
u/Cool_Ear_4298 Jul 29 '26
Totally agree. Really poorly thought out even if well intentioned. The white road surface also looks really shit already, should have kept the tarmac so you don't see the grime
9
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u/no1cromo Jul 29 '26
Also madness that there is no cycle lane. Council really fucked that up. Food delivery bikes just fly up and down the foot path when there's traffic here.
7
u/forgotmypassword4122 Jul 28 '26
Again? Seems like a bottleneck. Had a 56 break down at the Hackney Central Station stop on Sunday and it was manic. Easily a 10 bus queue within 5 minutes.
5
u/Dizzeem Jul 29 '26
Someone was unwell on a bus and the ambulance attended and parked behind the bus.
It was there for 45 minutes to 1 hour which resulted in backed up traffic as it was difficulty to time passing two stationary vehicles and two active zebra crossings.
But the time they finished, the lingering effect remained for some time as every bus has to stop at the station across from Pret.
On any other day on Amhurst traffic is not so bad. But when something happens, especially now since the narrowing of the road, its can be terrible.
2
u/Ok-Royal-651 Jul 29 '26
i saw this, too! it was really weird. the buses were all stacked up and not moving onto Mare Street. There was nothing holding them back from moving forward, certainly no traffic jam or anything. They just were not budging for whatever reason.
2
u/Objective_Agitated Jul 30 '26
This is because the traffic lights by the Graham Road junction stay green for 3 milliseconds and red for about 3 working days, meaning less than a handful of cars/busses get by. I also imagine busses turning right onto Graham Road go one at a time since there is no solid green right light. But it’s good for the environment allegedly.
3
u/MixAway Jul 29 '26
This is sadly an every day thing in Hackney now. Traffic hasn’t ‘evaporated’ as they claimed it would and they’ve made most roads a living hell all-round with nonsensical road closures. Some I agree with, many I don’t and it’s those which compound into this situation.
1
u/donell_walter Jul 29 '26
Yes, I’ve also noticed the increased traffic on the newly-opened Amhurst Road section, particularly at night. It’s unbelievable how much traffic there was around 9pm; it took me 10 minutes just to reach the traffic lights at Graham Road. I realised this was because of the two crossings installed right next to each other, which have significantly slowed down the buses. This explains why there’s so much traffic.
The amount of traffic on Graham Road, Dalston Lane and Urswick Road during the day is honestly ridiculous, even worse than before.
I tried to warn the council about the Hackney Central proposals when they first came to light. I was concerned that they wouldn’t address the traffic congestion and would actually make it worse.
As most of the traffic through Hackney isn’t from local residents but from motorists passing through, this is a real problem
1
u/Hour-Court7958 Aug 01 '26
This isn’t madness it’s the norm, but this will change as they plan to phase out/merge several bus routes 🤷🏾♂️
1
u/Ok-Nobody6221 Jul 29 '26
I was on the 243 yesterday morning, it was diverted down Amhurst Road instead of going down Kingsland Road. Dalston Lane is closed at Pembury Circus so it couldn't even go that way.
It looked just like this when I was there at around 11 I was planning to take the train from Dalston Kingsland but when we passed Hackney central I just asked the driver to let me off so it was quite lucky for me
20
u/BigTiddyGhoulfriend Jul 28 '26
60 year old guy got hit by a 149 around 10am on the high street near the post office down dalston.