please empty your brain below
It is not unique. Burngreen Park in Kilsyth on the northern edges of Glasgow has a "road traffic school" too
http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=20324

My kids used to love going then when visiting Granny

Peewit | 24.02.15 - 7:27 a.m. | #

There is, or at least was one, though not as grand as the Tottenham system, in Southall Park to the west of London. I used to go with my best mate and his parents with our bikes in the early sixties to learn how to ride on the road for the glorious day when we would be allowed to cycle to school.

Dave | Homepage | 24.02.15 - 7:40 a.m. | #

Yeah, there's another one in Aberdeen's Westburn Park, though now lacking in road markings - https://goo.gl/maps/WDLVf

Highlights included possibility of falling into the burn if you toppled off your bike at the wrong moment.

KH | 24.02.15 - 7:48 a.m. | #

The young kiddie on the bike is clearly getting a lesson in driving straight across a mini roundabout. This will be invaluable to him as a future driver in London !

petras409 | 24.02.15 - 7:57 a.m. | #

Whilst there are several bike-scale miniature road layouts across the UK, I believe only one Model Traffic Area was ever built.

diamond geezer | 24.02.15 - 8:06 a.m. | #

There is something similar in Harlow, although it appears to be full size and for off (main) road training for car and motor bike learner drivers.

It's plain to see on Google Earth - just north of the A414 Edinburgh Way.

John Simmons | 24.02.15 - 8:45 a.m. | #

Oh drat I thought I was going to be the first to say "Ahem, we had one too". It is on Southampton Common, over near the Cowherds pub. I think it's still there although probably in poor repair.

I think DG has defended his claim to uniqueness though......

Stephen | 24.02.15 - 8:47 a.m. | #

It was one of my child's favourite places! Many thanks for all the information, photos and links.

Bob Lindsay-Smith | 24.02.15 - 9:05 a.m. | #

We used to have one of these - although not as grand by the looks of it - in my home town of Scunthorpe, complete with road signs and working traffic lights if I recall correctly. Then the council decided to rip it up and it's now the site of the council offices....

Brad Emerson | 24.02.15 - 9:09 a.m. | #

Thank you for this. I must go at some point.

the orange one | 24.02.15 - 9:25 a.m. | #

I fondly recall many a trip to the MTA to hire a bike and take to the streets, gradually progressing from small three -wheeler, to my joy of graduating to a proper boy's bike.

They have done a great effort on the refurbishment although one or two features have had to go [pity].

I strongly believe this facility develops road craft [as long as the parents know what a roundabout is themselves]...

Indeed I wrote to the mayor's cycling 'tsar' suggesting he come and visit the MTA to be suitably inspired but he didn't bother ... I also suggested to the ODA to include a version in the cycling facilities on the Olympic Park but no one paid attention...

Seems you have to be a TV celebrity to be heard...

thanks for the memories DG

| 24.02.15 - 9:46 a.m. | #

"reopened in 1947 for the delight of a new generation"
Yep, that was me in the early 1950s.
I went there Sunday afternoon when visiting Granny.

parktown | 24.02.15 - 9:49 a.m. | #

The picture of the one way street is odd, as the road markings at the far end suggest do not appear to prohibit entry from that end.

timbo | 24.02.15 - 10:07 a.m. | #

We used to have one of these :)

And its history is remarkably similar to this one, with the deterioration and the recent restoration.

PSG | 24.02.15 - 10:10 a.m. | #

Me too in the fifties. We called it "the bicycle park". Come to think it was probably the 60s, because we went there by car. Great memories evoked.

Malcolm | 24.02.15 - 10:21 a.m. | #

There also used to be a cycle training road layout in Garratt Park off Garratt Lane in Earlsfield/Tooting on the banks of the Wandle.(Now grubbed out) Actually , the best way to teach kids to cycle on the road is to...cycle on the road! And it's bikeability, not cycling proficiency. A big clear area of tarmac is much more useful for teaching bike control than a simulated road scene which couldn't be less like most roads in London and will give kids a false sense of security. Great post.

South London Lad | 24.02.15 - 10:26 a.m. | #

Excellent that they've included pavements so that London's cyclists can learn where to cycle, and traffic lights so that they can learn what to ignore.

Simon | 24.02.15 - 10:30 a.m. | #

The blazes is "bikeability"? Sounds like another initiative from "Midtown".

Simon | 24.02.15 - 10:31 a.m. | #

Bikeability is "Cycling Proficiency For The 21st Century". See:
https://bikeability.dft.gov.uk/

Very useful for anyone cycling in Midtown!

South London Lad | 24.02.15 - 10:36 a.m. | #

Ooh that roundabout photo has really irked me! I feel a "modern generation" rant coming on...!

Cornish Cockney | 24.02.15 - 11:37 a.m. | #

I remember a TV news report on the MTA in the 1970s, probably on Nationwide. It featured the MTA upon opening in a b&w newsreel, then showed its then current condition - overgrown and with traffic lights and belisha beacons broken and vandalised. I always wondered where it was, but tracked it down online a few years ago.

Kim | 24.02.15 - 12:27 p.m. | #

I grew up a very short ride from there, and spent many many hours there in the late 60s and 70s - initially as a wobbly cyclist and later it was a teenage evening hangout. It was showing wear'n'tear by mid-70s but only truly became rundown during the Thatcher government era!!

Frank F | 24.02.15 - 12:49 p.m. | #

I grew up in Ilfracombe in the late 70s/early 80s and there was a MTA at the High School (now an academy) which I can see from Google Maps no longer exists. Shame, really.

Mark | 24.02.15 - 1:12 p.m. | #

Used to be a colony of UK, there are *several* Model Traffic Area in Hong Kong, and I must say I *love* to be in one, despite having only been inside ONCE, and by now I can simply drive a real car onto the road to experience the fun (and responsibility, of course).

Patrickov | 24.02.15 - 1:16 p.m. | #

I'd never heard of the Model Traffic Area before today but it looks fascinating. I will definitely check it out, thanks DG!

James Armitage | Homepage | 24.02.15 - 1:43 p.m. | #

I used to love visiting this when I was a kid growing up in Walthamstow in the early 1960s. So glad to hear it has been restored!

Jim Webber | 24.02.15 - 7:41 p.m. | #

Judging by the behaviour of all too many London cyclists, they ought to be dispatched there for a cycling proficiency test!

Excellent blog as always

Malcolm | 24.02.15 - 8:25 p.m. | #

That's utterly charming

Chris P | 25.02.15 - 1:29 a.m. | #

Pretty sure it was on something like this in Doncaster that I took, and passed, my cycling proficiency test around 1964. I needed the badge in order to cycle to school.

Alan Burkitt-Gray | 25.02.15 - 11:42 a.m. | #

Thanks for the history and pics, but unfortunately it is incorrect. I live round the corner and my two sons spent many happy hours during the 1980s (maybe even into 1990s can't remember) queueing in a line to borrow bikes from the shed. So it was definitely not abandoned or lacked a bike man who made sure the children behaved and rode the bikes during the 80s. My sons were born 1980 and 1983 and so I know I am accurate. Thanks. Jackie

Jackie richards | 27.02.15 - 9:42 a.m. | #

Thanks Jackie. I've updated the paragraph about the 1970s to better reflect your additional information. And I'm delighted that the facility lingered on longer than I'd thought.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 27.02.15 - 5:43 p.m. | #

There's an unusual combination of a Stop sign with Give Way markings in one of your photos.

Charlie Holland | 18.05.15 - 12:09 p.m. | #

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!
THIS IS MY GRANDPA GEORGE PARIS, PARK SUPER
I had no idea footage existed let alone available on line. I love you for posting this info.
WE LOVED THIS PLACE AS KIDS, SO PLEASED THAT LOCALS HAVE SAVED AND RESTORED IT.

Jane Paris | 21.04.16 - 2:28 p.m. | #

Delighted to hear it, Jane, and what a wonderful record of your family's history!

diamond geezer | Homepage | 21.04.16 - 2:52 p.m. | #











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