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Sydenham Road Zebra
Crossing
Road Safety Audit
The police voiced some concerns over the location of
the zebra crossing and state they prefer a pelican as traffic have to stop at
red lights.
The safety scheme was independently safety audited and
these concerns were not borne out by the road safety auditors report. A
subsequent meeting took place between the Auditor, the Police and the Council
and the police still feel that the crossing position is not ideal. The
Council's auditors opinion is that a zebra crossing was more suitable, at this
location, than a pelican crossing.
The zebra crossing is on the desired point for
pedestrians and there isn't a better location nearby. Its provision is an
improvement for pedestrians. Buff anti-skid surfacing with SLOW markings on the
approaches to the crossing are proposed to be laid before the end of the
financial year (The laying of this is weather dependant). This will improve the
approach visibility to the zebra crossing.
The siting issues with a pelican are more or less the
same as that for the zebra crossing. A pelican crossing proposal is not
proposed for many reasons and these include; insufficient widths of footways
for waiting pedestrians, another set of signals in Sydenham Rd, compounding of
carriageway capacity problems. Siting a pelican may prove to be costly as the
bridge would need to be widened to accommodate widened footways and possibly a
central reservation for the signals.
Accident records will be monitored to ensure that the
numbers of accidents at this zebra do not exceed the average for Lewisham.
Should accident numbers be much higher than the average and have common causes
then the Council will consider closing the crossing.
Nevertheless we are investigating the feasibility of a
pelican crossing, and will advise you when we have a firmer idea of the cost
Pat Hayes
Executive Director for
Regeneration
21st February 2005
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