The A2, which crosses Blackheath, is the responsibility of a central government department (the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions DETR). Other roads in the Greenwich World Heritage site area are managed by the Highways department of Greenwich Borough Council. They look as though the predominant considerations are to do with traffic flows, not urban design.
All these roads are the responsibility of transport engineers, primarily concerned with their role as transport arteries. There are some signs of a growing interest in urban design, but they are few.
A 'traffic calming' policy has been followed on the roads surrounding the World Heritage site. It has slowed traffic speeds but does not seem to have diminished the volume of traffic passing through the area. The components of the scheme (eg pinch points and bumps on the road) are examples of traffic engineering, not urban design.
This dreary expanse of municipal tawdriness is just outside the World Heritage site, at the junction of Hyde Vale and the A2
