Dangerous crossing “can’t be improved”
I’ve had a disappointing response from officers to issues I raised about a dangerous spot on Grove Road.
The zebra crossing between Wennington Green and Bunsen Street, across Grove Road, is a hot-spot for near misses and actual accidents involving pedestrians and inattentive drivers. There were 5 collisions in the vicinity in the past 7 years, according to crash data.
A local parent told me about an incident they had on the crossing when her husband was knocked down by a motorcyclist. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but everyone involved was very shaken.
The zebra crossing is on a long, straight section of road and drivers often come speeding over the bridge over the canal and don’t see the crossing until it’s too late to slow down sufficiently.
I asked transport officers if they could suggest any improvements to the design of the crossing to make it safer. They said that the issues were mostly related to poor driver behaviour, and that it’s difficult to make any improvements with engineering solutions.
I’m determined to not take ‘no’ for an answer and have asked officers to consider replacing the zebra crossing with a traffic light controlled crossing instead. All the other similar crossings along Grove Road also have traffic lights and do feel safer for pedestrians. I will update this post when I have an answer!
Update!
I’ve had the following back from the team:
“Officers from the Transportation Team advise that converting a zebra crossing to a pelican crossing may be perceived as an improvement, however there are further issues that need to be considered. For example, a pelican crossing introduces a wait time for a pedestrian that a zebra does not, this can lead to pedestrians crossing the road when they do not have right of way which has the potential to increase collisions.
On review of the collision statistics, there have been 5 collisions in the vicinity of the crossing in the last 7 years of available data, with only two pedestrians involved. Therefore, officers do not recommend converting this zebra crossing to a pelican.
Failing to stop at a zebra is an offence that can only be enforced by the Police. We would
recommend reporting incidents to the Metropolitan Police for their investigation by calling the
non-emergency 101 number or online“
The low number of reports does not reflect the number of near misses I see at this junction. I encourage everyone to report things like drivers failing to stop, near misses and actual collisions to the police. With more reports, there may be more of a case for a new pelican crossing which I am convinced would provide more safety for vulnerable road users.
Previous post Category: Local action Next post