COUNCIL TEXT
As part of Camden Council’s policy to reduce accidents involving personal injury, it is proposed to improve road safety along Tottenham Court Road through the introduction of a series of safety measures designed to reduce the number and severity of accidents.
An Accident Remedial Study, conducted by Hyder Consulting in May 2004, identified all the recorded accidents that occurred in Tottenham Court Road between Russell Street and Warren Street during the previous 3 years. In total there were:
- 129 accidents of which 20 were classed as being serious and 1 being fatal.
Vulnerable road users such as pedestrians (53%), cyclists (9%) and powered 2-wheelers (11%) accounted for approximately three quarters of all recorded accidents. It was also found that accidents on wet roads and accidents in the dark contributed significantly to the total amount of accidents.
You may be aware that anti-skid surfacing (grey road surface) is currently being laid at a number of junctions as it is a simple but effective measure in reducing the risk of wet and skidding accidents.
Other remedial measures identified as a means of tackling the accidents, resulting from the above-mentioned report, are shown in the inside of this leaflet.
The Council would be pleased to hear your views on the proposed measures and details on how to respond to this consultation are given on the back page of this leaflet.
CCC’s response
Question 1:
Do you agree with the proposal for a pedestrian refuge island by Goodge Street Station? (this will provide a safer crossing facility for pedestrians especially as a number of pedestrians cross at this location to access Goodge Street station)
NO
Question 2:
Do you agree with the proposal for raising the existing zebra crossing on Store Street? (this will slow down vehicles therefore allowing pedestrians to cross at the zebra crossing safely)
NO
Question 3:
Do you agree with the proposals for implementing a pedestrian crossing at the three signal junctions? (this will stop all traffic therefore allowing pedestrians to cross all arms of the junctions safely)
NO
Do you have any comments, suggestions or objections on this scheme?
Our objections to the proposal of additional pedestrian crossing facilities in and near Tottenham Court Road (TCR) are based on the fact that we do not believe they are a sufficient measure to deal with the high number of serious injuries and the death that have been recorded. These casualties (we object them being referred to as accidents) must be the result of the driving behaviour that can be observed daily in TCR. TCR is a busy shopping street and is incompatible with the current multi-lanes one-way traffic system. We therefore propose that TCR should be returned to be a two-way street with buses travelling in both directions. This change should be paired with also returning Gower Street to two-way traffic. This would result in lower speeds and calmer traffic on both roads. We would like to stress that the proposed pedestrian facilities would not negatively affect cyclists and that we generally support facilities designed for pedestrians. However we strongly believe that to tackle the danger on TCR more radical solutions are urgently required. It is for this reason that we reject this proposal referred to as a local SAFETY scheme.
