There is big one-way system in Tottenham Hale, one of those with various lanes that make drivers believe that it is ok to speed like mad. It is served with a network of traffic lights; the kind where you need to press four or five buttons and wait for the corresponding green lights, taking up to twenty minutes to walk a few yards. 

The one way system leaves an island in the middle, and in this island there is a nursery, a school, a small set of shops and Tynemouth Medical Centre.

Bordering this island, then, is this one road that branches out into two or three different lanes. In order to cross it, pedestrians need to use a different traffic light for each of those ramifications because there is no crossing to cross the one road.

However, there was a shortcut, for both pedestrians and cyclists, in the form of an underpass.

Not any more.

(this is the tunnel on the other side).

There, under the road, roughly between those two cars, was the tunnel, now filled up into non-existence..

For some reason, in the context of the roadworks to make this one-way system back a two-way one, the planners thought that the first thing to do would be to eliminate this safe route to underpass that very busy road.

Route 54 ran on the tunnel that went under the road you can see on the top-right corner of the picture above.

There was the cycle and pedestrian path.

There was the tunnel.

Pedestrians are advised to go (left) all the way round the traffic lights system but sadly, going (right) across the road saves enough time to make the risk worth it and pedestrians are seen crossing that busy road.