Further proof of the need for better enforced speed controls on key routes through Croydon was delivered by another out-of-control motorist on the eve of the end of the council’s 20mph consultation.
Inside Croydon‘s loyal reader sent us this picture, taken from a window of their Grange Road home in Thornton Heath on Monday, after the latest prang on this notorious accident black spot. Fortunately, on this occasion, no pedestrians or by-passers were seriously hurt.
Some jokers and people with views so extreme that they have been kicked out of UKIP are opposed to Croydon Council’s 20mph proposals for residential streets in the north of the borough. This despite 20mph limits having been imposed, and successfully enforced with speed cameras, on roads in the south of the borough.
It seems that for those opposed to the scheme, getting to an appointment a minute or two sooner is more important than trying to make our roads safer places.And the issue of the race track through Thornton Heath that is called Grange Road has also caused a split in the ranks of the Labour group in charge of Croydon Council.
Earlier this month, Inside Croydon reported how Labour Alderman Adrian Dennis, a former ward councillor, had come out against the 20mph policy. Dennis specifically opposed a 20mph limit on Grange Road.
According to Dennis, 20mph speed limits, “… do not work on main roads, which why the Thornton Heath Neighbourhood Association has objected to the proposal in the first area as it includes the A212 (Grange Road)… This is also the view of the local councillors”.
But Matthew Kyeremeh, one of Dennis’s successors as an elected councillor in Thornton Heath, has told Inside Croydon that, “I was not consulted by Alderman Dennis nor is the view expressed by him exactly my view.”
Kyeremeh said, “For the record I will like to state that as a local councillor for Thornton Heath and in my personal capacity I fully support this 20mph campaign as proposed. I have been out there at the doorstep canvassing for support for the scheme as proposed by the Labour administration of which I am part.”
The outcome of the consultation is likely to be published in a couple of months.
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Well … erm … it’s interesting but if you look at Rod King’s map of where accidents actually happen Grange Road actually has a very good safety record – there was one death there back in 2000. A pedestrian at the top of the road. Conversely Whitehorse Lane which is to remain at 30mph has a considerably higher accident rate and much greater traffic flow but still only one death in 2002 of a motorcyclist. So the two road have both had 1 death in the period 2000-2010. 10 years. Althought there is still danger on both roads the perception of danger is far larger than the actual danger.
Now… if you wanted to be logical about it the most logical course would be to spend money on traffic calming measures at the top of Grange Road which is very steep where the accidents seem to happen and on Whitehorse Lane around Sainsburys and the Football Ground which is where most accidents seem to happen. This has got to be cheaper and more sensible than painting twenty signs on all the roads and putting them on all the lamposts… but of course that would be a road safety measure not an anti-car propaganda exercise. Indeed, apart from Whitehorse Lane there are only three main through routes through the area. If you slowed traffic down on these the rest of the area’s problems would be self solving. There is not a great incentive to anyone to drive down dead end cul-de-sacs that they live on at 30 or 40mph. The twenty’s plenty policy agenda is nonsense. It is not about reducing road deaths it is about politicians lazily following the path of least resistence. Put up lots of signs saying it is now 20mph (keep the cycling minority happy) while not bothering to enforce it (keep the motorists happy). Spending £1.5 million pounds on telling people they are all naughty is not a sensible use of public money. Neither is pushing all the traffic onto every TFL road you don’t control a sensible policy. And neither is it sensible for a city with massive urban sprawl of 606 square miles to have a default road limit of 20mph in the optomistic hope it will stop people driving.
“It seems that for those opposed to the scheme, getting to an appointment a minute or two sooner is more important than trying to make our roads safer places” If getting places sooner is not important why does the twenty’s plenty movement persistently deny that these policies will actually result in the rest of us getting everywhere else more slowly. If they were honest about the increased costs to people who use the roads and the increased transport costs the policy will pass on to consumers they might not be so annoying.
You seem obsessed with death, Anthony. Is that because you die on stage whenever you perform your comedy shows?
Not all road accidents involve fatalities, though.
Take a look at http://www.crashmap.co.uk and search for Grange Road Thornton Heath – you may need zoom out then in to get the data to come up. It shows the road has an appalling safety record.
“people with views so extreme that they have been kicked out of UKIP are opposed to Croydon Council’s 20mph proposals for residential streets in the north of the borough”
Yes well you think that councillor Adrian Dennis is the National Rifle Association from America. He’s not he’s an ordinary man who’s just got a different opinion than you – one based in experience rather that ideology. Who does actually have the extreme views here? Have a pootle round the roads of Lambeth all made 20mph by Steve Reed and count the number of cars actually driving at 20mph on the myriad of 20mph zones. Gypsy Hill supposedly 20mph …virtually no one drives at 20mph on it. The same is true of Dulwich Wood Park and College Road (both now 20mph despite the fact they are main roads that very few people live on) … no one sticks to the new 20mph limit. You can brand us all as extremists and launch into personal smears all you like but you’re just shooting the messanger. People aint driving at 20mph on these 20mph roads. So what you going to do about it? Rosendale Road … no one drives along that at twenty either …and that’s got speed humps any everything. Either we are all extremists or you and the Steve Reeds and Kathy Bees of the planet live in a fantasy world…