Traffic Calming - Nightingale Lane
I was talking to some of the engineers three weeks ago about the works that they have been doing all year along Nightingale Lane. Apparently these are now finished but the Council are undecided about whether or not they are going to resurface the road.
in it's current state - full of pot holes and bad road markings (where there are any at all) it appears to me to be more dangerous than it was before they started the work. With the winter weather now upon us the surface is only going to get worse and more dangerous as frost and rain will get into all the existing seams and pot holes.
The metal post on the narrowed areas are very hard to see in the dark and wet - despite the red and yellow reflectors on them - there are so many other posts and signs along the road this gets confusing.
Please Wandsworth Council would you finish the job properly by resurfacing and then putting in proper road markings.
in it's current state - full of pot holes and bad road markings (where there are any at all) it appears to me to be more dangerous than it was before they started the work. With the winter weather now upon us the surface is only going to get worse and more dangerous as frost and rain will get into all the existing seams and pot holes.
The metal post on the narrowed areas are very hard to see in the dark and wet - despite the red and yellow reflectors on them - there are so many other posts and signs along the road this gets confusing.
Please Wandsworth Council would you finish the job properly by resurfacing and then putting in proper road markings.
Comments
Are we really sure the job is completed???
I have given up using my bicycle on the Lane - it is far too dangerous.
Our Council is run by fools who need a wake up call at an election. Perhaps a "Green" would take a more practical approach to our lives and livelihoods.
Presumably this scheme was introduced as a safety initiative. The chicanes are dangerous road hazards and have already caused a number of accidents and . Suddenly an oncoming vehicle is veering on to your side of the road. Do you stop, or should they stop? Maybe you judge enough room to pass. Misjudge that and and this will cost you in damage. An unacceptable danger to road users.
Most insurance companies will consider this a knock for knock accident so you both lose your no claims. It’s going to be very difficult prove the accident was not your responsibility.
Look at the damage already, in this picture. Now we will pay for the repairs as well as the millions already wasted on traffic management: raised junction, humps, chicanes, pavement narrowing.
Wandsworth Council at the end of the year publish the number of accidents and our money you spent on causing them. Traffic management used to be about keeping the traffic flowing- now anything to stop it.
They even removed the bus stop outside the hospital so now the bus stops the traffic. What on earth do those ridiculous raised junction achieve?
Dangerous pot holes are left in disrepair. People swerve to miss them. If you don’t miss them you pay for the damage to your car. Locally there are wrecked pavements caused by HGV s delivering to the Nightingale developments. Over a year later no repairs!
My sympathy for the poor woman who had to wait three hours at the petrol station for the rescue service after her tire burst at one of these chicanes. So much for a quick nip to the shops.
Should someone be injured or even killed at the site of these chicanes there should be a call to prosecute those responsible. In the meantime Wandsworth justify the millions spent whilst those who pay suffer financial hardship. Present the road traffic accident statistics so we can see what we are paying for.
It is apparently a scheme which is aimed to improve road safety which has worked effectively in other countries. I'm not aware of where this has been trialled, but I do think that trialling ideas which have worked elsewhere is certainly to be commended.
It is unfortunate that the scheme was put on hold with the Olympics, and I can only hope it is finished soon. Being only half done, means that it is difficult to properly evaluate it. Perhaps our council can follow the Mayor's lead and borrow more ideas from Holland who have a significantly better safety record for their pedestrians and cyclists in their towns than we do in the UK.
I do think progress is being made for changes to our street scape along those lines, and there are a few projects I'm working on which hopefully will come to fruition in the coming years.
It is also worth noting that the speed at which people are driving along Nightingale Rd is clearly an issue. Resulting in longer stopping distances, and greater force on impact. Nationally there is a lot of support for 20mph limits, and already 6 boroughs are in the process of rolling it out. Indeed there is a local 20s Plenty for Us campaign too. I'm hopeful that we may well hear some positive news regarding developments on that front too perhaps sometime next year when the West Putney trial has been evaluated.
My partner is a careful driver of 30 years and was not speeding and this extra cost has come at a time when we are already struggling financially.
I really don't see why this was a priority for the council. Along with the unnecessary widening of pavements in Clapham Junction both of which now make cycling and driving in Battersea much more dangerous, I really am starting to believe those that say this is about handing out lucrative building contracts to their friends.
Seconding / expanding on Paulbir's point I think that we should have a 20mph limit on all residential streets in the borough, with the exception of some trunk roads. Lower speeds would make it easier to negotiate tight turns, as well as reduce force involved on impact when collisions with street furniture / other vehicles / people occur.
ANY person who pushes a pram or a pushchair out in front of them at any junction or road ... doesn't have the right angle to see what is going on - much better to pull the baby over the roads than push them. Would you shove them out first if they were walking?
The sooner folk realise that cars are not wanted the happier they might be. York Road - the sloping left turns were replaced by sharper angles so the drivers either mount the kerb or swing out ... especially the buses. Chicanes and road humps are designed to reduce speed .. they are also designed to damage vehicles who go over the humps (suspension etc.,) and the chicanes only make some drivers grow horns and try to do them at the 30mph they think they should be able to travel at.
Driving now is a nightmare and one which will not go away.
But what to do? As mentioned in an earlier post, a 20 mph speed limit would have absolutely no effect. Drivers totally ignore it. unless it is supported by speed cameras, which, we have already been told, cannot be afforded. I am unable to believe that the Council consulted anybody about this new scheme. Any sentient being could have told them that it was utterly, completely, totally, ridiculous and would achieve nothing. They should have saved OUR money and left things as they were. Nothing is perfect, but as somebody once said "if it aint broke don't fix it."
I am particularly interested that initially there were many posts praising the new scheme, and I felt I was a lone voice crying in the wilderness,. Now that things have settled down nobody has a good word to say for it, and its innumerable faults and failings have been ruthlessly exposed.. Does the Council still defend this disaster?
In the meantime I also recommend the use of the pothole hotline! I've used it a few times and each time the pothole has been filled in days!
As a resident I am delighted car drivers are tentatively driving past our homes! If a driver has to stop to let an oncoming vehicle pass or turn out of a side road that's perfect as it slows the traffic down!
I am also relieved that after 10 years living on the Lane I am no longer being woken early in the morning by speeding lorries!
I note that most of the foregoing derogatory comments are from motorists passing through Nightingale Lane but from a resident's view, the traffic calming measures are the best thing that has happened. No longer are we awoken in the night with traffic/lorries thundering past at such speeds that our house shakes!
And with traffic forced to now slow during the day, with 2 schools (including one for deaf children) and 2 old people's homes in the location - surely this can only be an added safety point. Far better safe than sorry!
Comments are closed. Why not start a new conversation?