On 18 Nov 2011 at 4:26pm Matt Kent wrote:
There is a very good interactive map today showing all the accidents over the last 11 years in the UK. If you zoom in around Lewes you can quite clearly see where all our accident hotspots are. Its about time ESCC got behind a central and residential 20mph zone, and improved these areas. Hotspots include Church Lane (Malling), Outside Waitrose and the Memorial, along the Western Road and the Kingston and Beddingham round-a-bouts.
Check it out here »
On 18 Nov 2011 at 4:40pm Matt Kent wrote:
h++p://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/nov/18/road-casualty-uk-map
On 18 Nov 2011 at 5:40pm wanderer wrote:
so you would like a 20mph limit on the kingston or ashcoombe roundabout and beddingham roundabout .. simple just bring out a tractor at rush hour that will sort that out
Housing estates yes 20mph and in town impose jay walking penalty's
On 18 Nov 2011 at 9:23pm SHS wrote:
Accidents are caused by inattention, failure to anticipate, failure to read the road and people being just plain stupid (the latter includes speeding but also 101 other things). The solution is not yet more tins signs littering the landscape but greater awareness of the Highway Code and better driving skills. Some people potter along clear straight main roads at 25 mph thinking they are 'safe drivers' but in fact they are often either on the point of a deep slumber or so busy nattering to a passenger that they haven't a clue what's going on around them. The point of driving is to get from A to B but some people think the car is just an alternative living room sofa. In Lewes for starters how about a zebra crossing at that terrible junction at the bottom of Station Street with Southover Road? Five roads cross here and millions of pedestrians attempt to cross from East to West (? anyway, you get the drift...).
On 18 Nov 2011 at 11:24pm Missing You wrote:
Sad to think my friends have become just a statistic, this is dreadful
On 18 Nov 2011 at 11:29pm Decent Citizen wrote:
Sadly this is just as you say. Statistics. You know and remember them,I do not but,I send my heartfelt sympathies to you and those affected.
On 18 Nov 2011 at 11:36pm Bazooka Joe wrote:
Disturbing link.
However, there have been NO fatalies within the town centre.
On 18 Nov 2011 at 11:45pm Bazooka Joe wrote:
Sorry - did not mean to sound flippant.
32955 fatalities in the UK is horrendous - I knew several of them (3 of them from Lewes). RIP
On 19 Nov 2011 at 7:43am Matt Kent wrote:
@Bazooka Joe. It is a staggering amount of life lost. And it's a real shame however that when you campaign for road safety improvements East Sussex County Council generally look at accident and fatality rates to justify spending any money on improvements. I doubt there will be many road improvements in the future either, given that ESCC pretty much eliminated their road safety budget in last years Comprehensive Spending Review. I believe the figure was £500,000.
On 19 Nov 2011 at 8:48am DFL wrote:
20 mph in town sounds like a good idea !
On 19 Nov 2011 at 11:05am Southover Queen wrote:
I've said it before, but I'm astonished at the paucity of safe crossing places in town. I'd single out the area round the station which terrifies me even as an able bodied person: there are taxis reversing fast into the flow of traffic, there are buses, there are hordes of school children trying to cross east-west, there are drivers hurtling through at the statutory maximum, there are people trying to get from the offie to their train etc etc. It's mayhem and you need eyes in the back of your head to negotiate it safely.
Then there's the area outside Waitrose and the bus station. Yes people should go to the pedestrian controlled lights at the bottom of East St, but they don't in fact. If your bus is at the bus-stop outside of Waitrose you'll try to catch it. And anyway there is no protected crossing from the little church to the traffic island, so you're still at significant risk.
In terms of traffic hazards, I'd name the exits from St Pancras Rd into Southover High St and the exit from Rotten Row onto the High St. The St Pancras one isn't quite as bad as Rotten Row because at least the traffic is slowed slightly by a road hump, but Rotten Row is awful - speeding traffic coming through the bottleneck and no way for either vehicle to see each other until it's too late. I usually wait until I see the eastbound traffic moving because at least I know I won't get smashed by some eejit speeding through the bottleneck. At the very least a mirror would help, so that the poor driver exiting Rotten Row would know what was coming.
And there are no safe pedestrian crossings above the bottleneck until you get up to St Annes Crescent. So more scuttling pedestrians vs speeding traffic.
Of course the Highway Code says that drivers should proceed at a speed which is safe for current conditions, which in my book means that most of Lewes town should already be limited by common sense to no more than 20mph. Would it stop the eejits from driving dangerously? I slightly doubt it, but it's worth a try.
On 19 Nov 2011 at 5:07pm Mr Forks wrote:
Hmmm, Cars more dangerous than fireworks??!! Quick Argus and Express write a sensationalist piece immediately!
On 21 Nov 2011 at 10:21am Ed Can Do wrote:
Just to play Devil's advocate here for a minute but there seem to have been as many accidents on Southover High Street as there have been on Church Lane and Western Road and yet Southover High Street has speed bumps all down it and a traffic flow that precludes you from doing much more than ten miles an hour at the best of times.
Bearing that in mind, can you really draw any conclusions from this map about the positive effect or otherwise of a reduced speed limit if one of the slowest roads in town is as dangerous as most of the others? Likewise Church Road is a tricky one to get much speed up on as there are parked cars all down one side forcing you to stop and wait a lot, there is a load of traffic from the police HQ that slows people down, there's a lollipop lady outside the school stopping traffic and there are more traffic police driving up and down there on their way to and from the cop shop than any other road in Lewes.
Of course I'm not going to say that driving at speed through town is a good idea but to base an expensive to implement and enforce policy such as a town-wide speed limit on such weak evidence would be irresponsible at best. Have you got any better statistics on the nature and causes of all these injuries, Matt, or are you just assuming they were all caused by excessive speed? It could well be that with a bit more research you might discover that the money you'd spend on a new speed limit would be better spent on more pedestrian crossings and some form of publicity campaign encouraging people to actually use the ones that are already available. You'd also then avoid the problems of decreased air quality caused by people driving aruond slower in a lower gear which produces far more harmful emissions than cruising at a reasonable speed in a higher gear but then you'd already know that, being the Green Party and all that.
On 22 Nov 2011 at 6:53pm Dave wrote:
Reducing the limit with the bumps and bollards has made a difference in Southover, because the accidents before were far, far worse and serious injuries resulted. ESCC agreed to the calming because of the accidents.
The St Pancras exit is dangerous and a mirror would help, or,even better, reverse the one way system by having traffic go down St Pancras and up Potters Lane which has better sight lines at a wider point. I agree about the bottleneck and Rotten Row, you have to wait until the traffic moves going into Lewes, before attempting to exit.
There really should be a crossing point from Waitrose to the bus station and at the railway station. The flashing light warning is a waste of money, ESCC engineers are not an impressive bunch, look at the now faster, more dangerous wider exit from Kingston onto the C7.
On 25 Nov 2011 at 10:24pm The Super K wrote:
Firstly Im Dead against a 20 mph speed limit, but the thing is all these accidents arent caused by drivers!! One hot spot....'Hotspots include Outside Waitrose '
1) There is a pedestrian crossing 30 m down towards boots, there is a safer crossing 30 m up the road. YOU DONT HAVE TO CROSS OUTSIDE WAITROSE.
2) The Buses station is no longer operational so doddery old ladies dont feel the need to cross two lanes of traffic to get to it.
The town is safe, get off your high horse!!!
Wallies!
On 27 Nov 2011 at 1:42am AYATOLLAH HOGMANNY wrote:
The bus station is no longer operational!!!!So where do the Brighton buses etc go then....a mirage!!!!