Road Safety
Out and about on the Wybourn this morning the good people from Streetforce were busy painting the lines on the road. It reminded me that I have been pressing the Council to take some simple steps to improve safety at the junction of Fitzwalter, Stafford and Glencoe Roads, but no action has been taken because no one has yet died as a result of an accident here. Way back in 2004 I presented a petition to the council. It would not be expensive to turn the junction into a mini roundabout by simply painting the lines on the road. At present traffic coming from Stafford or Glencoe Road can’t see oncoming traffic from Fitzwalter Road when they stop on the Give Way lines. Cars creep forward until they can see, by which point they are in the middle of Fitzwalter Road. Cars often come very quickly down Fitzwalter Road, so this is an accident waiting to happen. I don’t understand why the local planners are so opposed to mini roundabouts. My Mum lives in the London Borough of Sutton and my in-laws live in Tyne and Wear. Both authorities have mini roundabouts all over the place- but in Sheffield there are hardly any.
Another junction where the Council are about to make some improvements, is the one between Granville Road and Fitzwalter Road. Stopping parking near this junction should improve the view for traffic turning into Granville Road. The pavement is going to be widened on the corner of Norfolk Park Road to make it easier for pedestrians to cross.
If you would like some action taken on the five way junction, please add a short comment below and I will forward these to the Council.
Out canvassing today a resident on Stafford Road suggested making the City Road end of Stafford Road a one way street, towards City Road. I am thinking about this. It would improve the 5 way junction, but it might also have the effect of increasing traffic on other residential roads.What do readers think?If money were no object I would want to turn all the local streets into “homezones”, so that kids take priority over cars and streets are reclaimed for people. If we weren’t ploughing so much money into futile wars in the middle east, the Government could easily help Councils fund such projects. In the meantime probably the best we can hope for is to extend the traffic calming from Wybourn across to the other side of City Road to include the streets around Granville and Stafford Road.