CROYDON COMMENTARY: City Hall and our borough Town Hall are being petitioned over a busy junction that lacks a safe crossing place for pedestrians, as PETER UNDERWOOD explains
Safer crossing: Assembly Member Caroline Russell on her visit to Croydon last month
In my lifetime there have been major advances in road safety. From compulsory seatbelts to airbags, to side impact protection, drivers and passengers in vehicles have become far more protected and far more likely to survive a collision.
But over that period there is one group who haven’t seen the same increases in protection. In some ways, they are being put in more danger. That’s pedestrians who are hit by vehicles.
The latest road danger figures make grim reading. In 2023, there were 49 pedestrians killed by drivers in London – that’s nearly one every week.
In addition, more than 4,500 pedestrians were injured by being hit by a vehicle. Of those, more than 800 were children (under 16). Four of those children were killed.
The number of people killed last year was up from 41 in 2022. The number of people seriously injured was also up, from 1,194 in 2022 to 1,225 in 2023.
So how do we get these numbers down and make our streets safer?
There are big strategies like the Mayor of London’s Vision Zero, that aims to eradicate deaths and serious injuries from London’s roads, which should be applauded for its ambition.
City Hall questions: the Lower Coombe Street crossing has been raised with Mayor Khan
There are also the campaigns to bring in 20mph speed limits on more roads that not only reduce collisions, but the lower speeds also reduce the chances of death or serious injury in those collisions.
And there are also campaigns to tackle local problems that put pedestrians at risk. One such campaign here in Croydon is to install a Pelican crossing at the junction of Lower Coombe Street and the High Street.
Marley King is leading this campaign: “I’ve lived in this area with my children for a number of years now and I know how dangerous crossing these roads can be. We used to have to cross this road every day when my children were at primary school.
“Drivers seem obsessed with just getting where they want to go as quickly as possible and have no regard for pedestrians. You have to take your life in your hands just to get to the other side of the road.”
King is being supported by Fairfield ward’s Green Party councillors Ria Patel and Esther Sutton. The dangers of this crossing have been raised by lots of residents and they are working to get this raised at Croydon Council.
The campaign has also been picked up by London Assembly Member Caroline Russell, who came to Croydon and talked to people trying to cross the road at this junction.
“There are far too many junctions in London where TfL provides signals for motor traffic without offering any help for people to cross the road,” Russell said.
Unanimous verdict: a street poll conducted by Green councillors found everyone wants a safer crossing
“So many of the people we spoke with made it very clear that they have lots of reason for wanting to cross the road at the junction of the High Street with Lower Coombe Street and it is frustrating that there is no protected time for people to cross the road safely.
“If the Mayor is going to meet his targets for 80% of journeys to be made on foot by bike and by public transport, then he needs to get on with installing safe crossings at places like this.”
Russell has already raised this issue with the Mayor of London and there are two petitions running to keep the pressure on – one for Croydon Council and another for the Mayor of London. Please sign both to support installing a safer crossing at this junction.
This is just one campaign to make one junction safer and it would be good to see other campaigns around similar problem areas.
We are all pedestrians on our streets at some point and so we need to keep pushing to make our streets safer. Our lives, and the lives of our children, depend on it.
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Peter Underwood, pictured, is a Green Party activist and election candidate who lives in Selsdon and works locally with conservation volunteers
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This is not the only instance in the this area.
Please check the junction of Warham Road with Brighton Road.
Whilst there are pedestrian lights across Brighton Road both north and south of Warham Road, there are no lights, nor time possibilities to cross Warham Road – where often traffic just doesn’t stop for pedestrians.
Under Mayor Perry, Croydon’s transport policy can be summed up as “Four wheels good, two wheels / two legs bad”
We also need more police presence and more speed enforcement. I notice that with the 20mph areas many drivers have reduced their speeds – but not enough. There is a core self entitled group so motorists that believe the speed restrictions do not apply them.
I note with dismay that the UK government is making mandatory in the UK the speed assist technology that became mandatory across Europe last month. Why, for the sake of Children, not?
I also think traffic speed would be reduced and the perception of road hazard would be significantly improved if we discouraged (via taxation etc.) the common use of large heavy cars in urban areas. How did we come to accept using large SUVs as normal in urban areas? They do not fit in the parking spaces and they are difficult to get around when parked – they encourage misplaced confidence (and sometimes an attitude of you will get out of my way) in the SUV drivers.
No one seems to be doing anything about electric scooters running up and down our pavements which is a huge danger to pedestrians. Today outside Wadden leisure centre one rider on an electric scooter was travelling faster than cars, I would estimate over 30mph. what chance does a child, pensioner or disabled person have met with that type of illegal activity.
I’ve just signed both and shared them.
Agree with the person who made reference to electric scooters. As a blind person they are a nightmare. Of course I can’t tell the difference between an e-scooter and an e-bike, they are both virtually impossible to hear.
Cyclists are also difficult to hear and I am very cautious on North End because of cyclists.
20mph roads. Electric scooters. Break-ins and burglaries.
The police are hardly doing any policing.
If you look at the crash maps online, in my area at least, virtually all road accidents are at the junctions of major roads. I am sure this is partly due to drivers who do not indicate, but it also shows the need for better crossing facilities for pedestrians on our increasingly busy roads.
How about children and young adults stop listening to their music with their ear pods and actually take heed of their surroundings!
For us 20+ year olds, we do take heed. It doesn’t stop the traffic on those roads where there are no crossings/lights though.
I’m 65 and grew up with many road safety initiatives from Tufty Club to the Green Cross code. The strong message was to be aware before crossing roads. The only road safety message now seems to be about the survival chances of being hit at 20mph vs 40mph. Pedestrians seem to use zebra crossings as if, to quote Cocoa the Clown c 1973, they’re a magic carpet and that stepping on them will somehow magically stop the traffic. Or walking in front of moving vehicles at junctions on the assumption that they have the right of way. The moral high ground having been hit isn’t worth much. There is certainly a strong case for better enforcement of 20mph limits and driving standards generally but pedestrians (of which I’m one) need to take responsibility for their own safety in the first instance.
Croydon is notorious for having more bad drivers than most London boroughs and more speeding drivers than other boroughs.
How do you suggest that Tufty deals with that?