Councillors in Addiscombe are holding a ward-wide consultation on the introduction of 20mph zones in the area’s residential streets.
A letter and reply postcard will be delivered to every household over the next few weeks asking residents their views on 20mph zones. Residents can also take the survey online.
The consultation is in response to residents contacting Labour councillors Mark Watson, Sean Fitzsimons and Patricia Hay-Justice. Complaints include commercial vehicles and motorists using residential roads as cut-throughs, causing noise and pollution as well as making the streets less safe for children, cyclists and pets.
“We believe that a simple and cost effective measure would be to introduce 20mph limits on our residential roads,” Watson said. “This has proved popular in other cities and London boroughs and we believe it would suitable for Addiscombe. 20mph zones will also encourage commercial vehicles and non-residents to use the main roads, rather than using our streets as ‘rat runs’ and make the streets more pleasant for cyclists, pedestrians and residents.”
More than half of road deaths and serious injuries occur on roads with 30mph limits. Britain has the highest percentage of pedestrian road fatalities in Europe (22.5 per cent), while having one of the lowest levels of children walking or cycling to school; British parents consistently cite traffic speed as the main reason why their children are not allowed to cycle or walk to school. There is at least one senior school in Croydon where pupils are forbidden from cycling to school because the neighbouring roads are considered too dangerous.
“Lower speeds improve streets both in terms of safety and quality of life,” Watson said. “Evidence also suggests that 20mph zones prove effective that motorists comply without the need for other road calming measures.
“Lowering residential speed limits to 20mph has been found to increase journey times by just 40 seconds, but decreases child pedestrian accidents by up to 70 per cent. We also appreciate that not every road in Addiscombe will be suitable for 20mph, which is why we want to hear from the views from residents,” Watson said.
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One way to stop rat-running and make residential streets safer would be to discourage so many from driving their kids to school in the first place.
I pass a secondary school every day where the vast majority of kids live on nearby estates and if too far to walk they are not more than a few minutes from a bus route. Yet the number of hulking great teenagers being dropped off outside is astonishing, and even more if it’s raining, as if the poor things might melt.
Small wonder many take their chances in the side streets rather than fight through the chaos close to the school.
I live in Addiscombe and my son goes to a school in Purley. The only reason I drop him at school is because of my concern about his safety. He used to go by 466 bus and after the stabbing on 466 bus I decided to take him by car rather than on a 466 bus.
Perhaps the Addiscombe councillors should find something better to do. At the moment drivers can’t even reach the speed of 10 mph on Lower Addiscombe Road and these people are talking about 20 mph.
I agree that speeding should be controlled but not at 20 mph. Though the Tories and drivers would disagree with this I would welcome more cameras and speed checks.