-
Surbiton Crescent
Surbiton Crescent traffic restrictions to be made permanent
The controversial Surbiton Crescent traffic restrictions are set to be made permanent, after councillors voted in favour at a residents committee meeting last night.
Surbiton Crescent is on two of the cycle routes in the council’s £30 million ‘mini-Holland’ Go Cycle programme: Surbiton to Kingston and Kingston to Tolworth. Installed in September, the trial scheme was implemented to determine the effect to traffic flows.
Surveys were carried out in February, and a comparison was made between the results and data collected from before the restrictions were implemented. Traffic volume in Surbiton Crescent was halved, from 377 to 185 vehicles per hour, with most of the displaced traffic being reassigned to Surbiton Road and Maple Road. There was no significant increase in volume on adjacent residential roads Anglesea Road, Palace road and Uxbridge Road.
Since the introduction of temporary bollards and signage in September 2016, the scheme has caused outrage because of the number of fines issued. More than 40,000 tickets – worth £130 a time, reduced to £65 if paid within two weeks – were issued in six months for violations of the restrictions.
At the meeting, council officer Owen Bentley said in the last four weeks there have still been 100 violations per day, though this is less than 2 per cent of the traffic that was once going through the road. He said the scheme was part of a ‘modal shift’ towards cycling and away from motorised transport, which would help the borough deal with the 30 per cent population increase expected by 2030.
The committee also decided there may now be changes, such as improved signage, after the restriction is made permanent. Objectors have until 5pm on Wednesday June 28 to call in the decision for review.
By posting content on Surbiton.com, you agree to adhere to the following guidelines.
- Your username and password must only be used by you, keep them safe. If a posting is made using your username and password it will be considered to have been posted by you. If you have a friend who wants to use our site and post messages on the site, show them how to register.
- Be courteous at all times, inciting racial hatred, posting abusive, obscene, threatening, harassing, defamatory, libellous or sexually explicit material or any material that is found to be offensive is not acceptable and we may suspend your username and password.
- Retaliating to offensive posts causes more problems for other users on the discussion boards. Just report such messages to us using the Feedback link which is available at the top of every page or the 'report this' link associated with individual postings. We will act on every report we receive.
- Please respect other people's work and do not post material that infringes copyright.
- Do not post information that you know to be confidential or sensitive or otherwise in breach of the law. You should only post material that you know to be public knowledge. If you have any doubts do not post it on the site.
- Never attempt to gain unauthorised access to any area of the site. This is known as hacking and is illegal.
- Content posted represents the opinions of the author, and does not represent the opinions of Surbiton.com or its affiliates and has not been approved or issued by Surbiton.com. You should be aware that the other participants are strangers to you and may make statements which may be misleading, deceptive or wrong.
- Spoofing or posing as another user is unacceptable. Anonymous users' postings should always be considered with suspicion.
- Help keep Surbiton.com a safe place for information and opinion. Please alert us of any anti-social behaviour as described above.
Surbiton.com 1998 - 2024
Comments
Perhaps the dear leader of the council will now ensure that all cyclists found NOT using the cycle lanes provided or deciding to designate the pavements as cycle paths,will similarly be hit with £130/65 fines,somehow I doubt it.
It is so much easier to clobber the motorist.
We council tax payers could of course enjoy a dividend from the usurious charges,around £2.6 million since Sep 16 on this stretch of "road" along which we are refused permission to drive.
It is not under the control of the council to hit cyclists with fines for using the road - the right to do that is enshrined with in the Highway Code. It is totally out of date, but until it is changed, they cannot be charged.
The Portsmouth Road cycle lane is a disaster for all road users in my opinion. Cyclists seem to feel free to use the pavement and the riverside path as well as the road and the cycle path, so there is no escape for pedestrians. Worse still, the cyclists who do use the cycle lane seem to recognise the zebra crossings even less than the motorists do on that stretch.
Motorists are forced to use a major road that is nowhere wide enough for the volume and type of traffic.
It is not even that good for cyclists themselves. The ones that cycle properly are further vilified by other road users because they are lumped in with the ones abusing the system.
Can someone explain this hypocrisy please?
We regularly attend Surbiton Farmers Market, Saturday mornings, roads reasonably quiet. The traffic warden is there every time, watching like a hawk and pouncing on anyone who parks illegally - even tho the signs outside the school are very confusing, but he's always there
The powers that be, have, in their wisdom (?), closed Surbiton Crescent to traffic ex buses forcing all traffic to remain on Maple Road and therefore busy.
This afternoon there were 3 Westway buses parked on Maple Road outside Surbiton High School parked on double yellow lines restricting traffic to one lane and causing congestion. I pointed out the yellow lines to one of the drivers and they said they were directed to park there by the School and to take it up with them. At least 20 munutes later, returning, there were still 2, or another 2 parking on said double yellow lines.
No traffic wardens to be seen and no traffic on Surbiton Crescent.
Ludicrous dangerous and selfish.
Totally agree with you on this. The school should not be allowed to tell coaches to park illegally, and the wardens should be issuing tickets to stop it happening.
The school has been too greedy in it's expansion plans leaving no place for the coaches to park on school property.
I have been in contact with the council before, but the school seems to have a lot of power and no action is taken.
Post new comment