A traffic jam of indecision that tailbacks for decades!

How many times have you heard the following statements?  “We must not let this happen again” or “Lessons will have to be learnt”, or even more alarming, “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of.”

The banner that accompanies this blog was produced by the art department of my old school, Nower Hill High, which has been pressing the authorities, along with residents, for action to make the traffic junction right outside the school gates a lot safer for pedestrians to cross and for car drivers to pass through.

I became involved in this campaign 18 months ago but others have been asking for safety improvements for more than three decades, and this week, yet again, demands were presented to the council by the banner-waving school children in an effort to lobby the Traffic and Road Safety Advisory Panel to make the recommendations that will benefit everyone.

As a councillor I am approaching everything I campaigned on before the election and everything that I have been subsequently asked to do by my electorate, with a matter of urgency.  I am motivated both by a sense of enthusiasm and a sense of duty and this road safety issue will remain on top of my ‘to do list’ for as long as it takes.

The pleas on the banner to “fix it now” and the references to death are not the work of a sensationalist scaremonger out to get a cheap headline; these are real and justified concerns.  By Harrow Council’s admission the junction where George V Avenue, Headstone Lane and Pinner Road all converge is the most dangerous traffic blackspot in the whole borough.  It is the scene of numerous collisions and near-misses and sadly it may only be a matter of time before a pedestrian or car driver is seriously injured or worse.

To compound matters, Nower Hill High School, which is already the eighth most populated in the whole of the Greater London area (based on pupil numbers) is about to get even bigger from this coming September when another 300 pupils join the school, so everyone who cares about the situation has every right to feel the frustration as the transport and road safety experts appear to be caught in their own traffic jam of indecision that literally
tailbacks for decades!

In many people’s view the reluctance to install right turn filters where they are currently missing along with indicators to tell pedestrians either to walk or don’t walk are overshadowed by concerns of greater traffic jams that may occur with a re-phasing of the traffic lights themselves.  Surely the co-ordination of a signaling system that goes red to stop vehicle movements and simultaneously goes green for pedestrian movements and
vice-versa is not rocket science?  And in any case would it not be better to change the habit of a lifetime by being pro-active if it means the most dangerous road junction in Harrow is going to be much safer as a result?