I LIVE off Gordon Avenue in Stanmore, previously a 'rat-run' for drivers avoiding the congested route between here and Harrow, leading to main routes to the North and into London.
Gordon Avenue being purely residential, the council laid three cushion-across-the-road traffic calmers, which were somewhat effective in slowing down and even reducing the amount of traffic, certainly at peak hours.
The council installed the 'calming' system here and throughout the borough primarily in the interests of safety whereas, as I have observed in the last three years, in actual fact these humps provide a far greater source of danger than the through, and sometimes, fast traffic did. That is because there are no restrictions stopping parking near or indeed on the pavement-side humps, with the result that everyone is forced into the middle of the road.
I see this every day in Gordon Avenue, including round a 90-degree blind bend, and although as yet I believe only one head-on crash has occurred, I am sure the danger is equally acute elsewhere in Harrow where these three-piece cushions have been put in.
Areas closer into London have their 'humps' laid fully across the road rather than in threes, but even there the lack of nearby parking restrictions also drives traffic into the middle of the roadway and, by and large, this method of calming represents far greater danger than the aimed for safety measure it is claimed to be.
I am copying this letter direct to Councillor Susan Hall but do hope that some of my fellow readers of the Observer will raise their voices with mine either to get traffic calming humps removed in the interest of safety, or at least call for parking to be stopped within a sensible distance, so that cars can ride the pavement-side humps rather than the central ones.
ANN NODES Stanmore
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