North Road, SW19

North Road, SW19 is one of the few places in Merton where you can park without restriction. As it's a few minutes walk from Colliers Woood tube station, you can guess what happens: commuters double-park down a large stretch of it. Or they did until now. Merton have now introduced a residents parking/pay-and-display scheme, and as a result, the area is now pretty empty of parked cars. That's good news for residents because there will be less traffic along their streets. There's a small benefit for cyclists as well - the volume of parked cars used to narrow the street to the extent that it was difficult for a cyclist and a vehicle to pass each other safely, whereas now that conflict is considerably reduced. What would have been better if they'd allowed parking on one side only, but in practice there seems to be so little demand that in practice it's not a problem.