Zebra crossing Florence/Tollington

yagamuffin

The refuge sounds like a good idea but I'm not sure the road is wide enough. (the one on Fonthill Road outside Ariana's seems to work well).

The other option is to raise the crossing (like an extended speed bump) and add rumble strips.

andy

Not more speedbumps please. Why not do the Drachten 'less is more' thing and take some of the street markings away? <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11/traffic_lights.php>;

Donna

If only they'd put a camera up, and just warn motorists that if they go through the crossing they'll be caught. That might even make the council some extra dosh in fines.

dion

Lynne Featherstone wrote to the council and their response is below: Thank you for your email sent on 1st April, regarding road safety issues in Upper Tollington Park, the contents of which have been noted. I sympathise with your concerns and can assure you that the council regards road safety, particularly pedestrian safety, as a high priority and actively promotes road safety measures across the borough to reduce vehicle speeds, the number of road traffic accidents and to enhance the environment for all road users. We have previously received emails calling for the zebra crossing to be upgraded to a puffin crossing, which would offer greater safety to pedestrians as they are more modern versions of pelican crossings. At present we are unable to carry out further investigation into the crossing upgrade because of financial restraints, low collision rates and our current works programming as explained below. There has been 1 recorded personal injury accident at the junction of Upper Tollington Park with Florence Road and Woodstock Road in the past 3 years. This accident involved a vehicles colliding with the rear of a motorcycle. The causal factors attributed by the Police were ‘Following too close’ and ‘Failed to look properly’. There are no recorded accidents involving pedestrians or excessive speed at this location. We have also purchased two vehicle activated signs to be installed along Upper Tollington Park. An investigation is currently underway to find suitable locations that offer the greatest road safety benefit. These signs should be installed sometime in May. The process for seeking funding from TfL funded projects through the Local Implementation Plan (LIP) has changed and we will now receive general funding allocations for Neighbourhoods and Corridors. We have identified our study areas for 2010/2011 and the Upper Tollington Park area is not included, however we will be formulating our Transport Strategy and a three year implementation plan over the next 9 months and I would all residents to be involved with the consultation on this which is due to start in June. We are concerned about reports of speeding in the road and have requested the Police undertake speed enforcement. Haringey recently purchased 3 new laser speed guns that have been passed to the Safer Neighbourhoods teams to enable enforcement to be undertaken on Borough roads. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

Ali

The LibCon cuts are coming so nothing much will happen, gives the council a great excuse. I guess the council could restrict the Parking bit more to there is a clearer line of view and the speed light thing would also help

twinspark

Bring back the Lollipop twice a day - there was a Lollipop person stationed on the Tolly/Florence zebra for years due to proximity with SG primary. Not sure who was responsible for cutting that but the school used to have a very engaged and feisty governorship,PSA surprised they let it go. The cost of Lollipop reinstatement is less than the 75k to add Puffin signal etc. At least it will calm things for school run Eves & weekends you'd still get boy racers though on the rat run between Green Lanes and Fonthill or Holloway. I had fun there cycling out of Florence Road when a herbert jumped the Zebra took me straight out and over his bonnet my bike was nicely concertina'd like a circus prop. that was a Saturday morning on the way to football, still made kick-off but haven't cycled since.

Ali

Was that more than 3 years ago as the Council obviously don’t know about it ?

yagamuffin

The cost of Lollipop reinstatement is less than the 75k ????

I should bloody well hope so! How much does some get paid to stand in the road for a couple of hours every school day?

Donna

two cars just whizzed past me on the crossing as I walked home. I actually find it quite scary!

vickym

Junction of Upper Tollington Park and Victoria Road is particularly dangerous. I live opposite and have seen so many crashes there over the last four and a half years. I have to come out of Victoria Rd on to UTP every day and you can't see whether cars are coming in either direction, but particularly from the right. I wrote to Haringey Council about it a little while ago and this is what they said:
Thank you for your email expressing your concern regarding road safety along Upper Tollington Park and Victoria Road.



I sympathise with your concern and can assure you that the council regards road safety as a high priority and actively promotes road safety measures across the borough to reduce vehicle speeds, the number of road traffic accidents and to enhance the environment for all road users.



As you will be aware, the junction of Victoria Road and Upper Tollington Park currently has double yellow line waiting restrictions to prevent obstructive parking. In view of your concerns however I will visit the junction to confirm if the existing restrictions are of sufficient length to provide suitable visibility for motorists emerging from Victoria Road onto Upper Tollington Park.



With regards to your report of speeding, we acknowledge that this is a problem on a number of roads in the borough. Working in partnership with the Police we have purchased 3 new laser speed guns to enable the Police Safer Neighbourhoods Teams to carry out speed enforcement initiatives at identified locations. I will add Upper Tollington Park to our list of locations. I am also pleased to inform you that Upper Tollington Park has been identified for the introduction of two vehicle activated signs to further encourage speed reduction. An investigation is currently underway to find suitable locations that offer the greatest road safety benefit and the signs will be installed by the end of May.

It's now the end of May and I can't see any signs.....

ADGS

Technically, they could still have them erected over the bank holiday weekend...

helen

and there's another smash. Dad and 2 kids attempting the crossing and looking carefully (good for them), car stops and is shunted onto the crossing by van behind it.
Personally I think a raised crossing is the surely the way forward - it will educate everyone coming up and down the road to start to slow down or take out there own sumps. i don't think warning signs are really going to cut it...

dion

and maybe a half island in the middle, like the one at the top of Ferme Park Road on the brow of the hill helen - was that smash today?

marko

It's usually at exactly that point which impatient idiots in cars overtake me when cycling down there.

A half-island and raised crossing would do wonders.

helen

@dion - yes it was at 4.45pm on tues. the thing about the occassional monitoring by the police/haringey is it doesn't account for all the smaller incidents, smashes and near misses. they're just counting major casualties which is exactly what we're all trying to avoid

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David

I might design some fake road signs. Something like _"If you don't slow down I'm going to kill you in the face before you reach Nando's."_

leiba1

I was crossing there a few years ago and had a near miss. The first car stopped and I checked for traffic coming the other way. There was a car coming but it had plenty of time to stop so I started to cross. I was about halfway across when something made me wary so I watched this car and it did indeed accelerate to get across the crossing before I did. I had to stop in the centre of the road or be hit by this car. Silly driver. The car that had stopped to let me cross this side of the road was a marked police car! The look of surprise on the policemens faces said it all, they couldn't believe he'd done it either. They turned and caught up with him up the road.
I do stop for pedestrians at that crossing (and others) when I'm driving but unfortunately being on a small motorbike some drivers behind me tend to ignore my reason for stopping and overtake despite the fact that I'm 'claiming my lane'. On some occassions I've felt that it might be safer for the pedestrians if I don't stop as they might start to cross only to be met by one of these people that only have wheels for brains.
Another thing.
Why do they seem to drive faster and more carelessly when it's raining? Do they think their cars will shrink in the wet? (like their brains)

sincers

I'm not a fan of traffic islands - people who drive fast treat them like a chicane. I live near the one half way down fpr and I hear vehicles speeding up when they get to them! they also seem to increase noise levels. Very few pedestrians actually use them, not to mention, they take out much needed parking space at the side of the road. Pedestrian raised areas seem to make more sense. Whats really needed is a change in culture in traffic planning towards pedestrians and cycling and away from cars.

hooofck

Very nearly mown down by mini-cab driver while pushing my one year old across in a pushchair last week. Very very scary. He screeched to a halt just in time and when I told him he might want to slow down a bit he shouted back 'Fuck you, I gave way didn't I?'

I'm not over wary of traffic at all normally but honestly, it really is frightening using this crossing when you have kids with you. Near misses seem to happan all the time.

I think part of the problem is that the crossing is in the middle of a very gentle S bend and with the parked cars, drivers can't see pedestrians until quite late. But it doesn't help when they are doing 40mph.

I normally disapprove of speed bumps, speed cameras etc (our road is really quiet and only about 100 yards long but still had 3 totally unecessary speed bumps fitted recently) but in this case I think something like that really has to be done.

slats

I like David's sign idea, we should have a SG.org caption competition..

My entry is 'Slow down you ****s'

Short but sweet.

Rona

Great idea. So who's going to do the signs and put them up then. Perhaps we can shame the Council by putting our own signs up before they do.

neilf

<p>Like this?</p>

<a href="http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/sign-generator/simple.asp?text=SLOW+DOWN+YOU+C**T&align=Center&align2=Middle&fontsize=24&font=signage&color=black&transparency=255&color2=orange&watermark=&move=0&move2=&parody=&rotate=&allow=6080&left=&right=&up=&down=&pic=Center-Lane&x=87&y=60&w=168&h=129">http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/sign-generator/simple.asp?text=SLOW+DOWN+YOU+C**T&align=Center&align2=Middle&fontsize=24&font=signage&color=black&transparency=255&color2=orange&watermark=&move=0&move2=&parody=&rotate=&allow=6080&left=&right=&up=&down=&pic=Center-Lane&x=87&y=60&w=168&h=129</a>;

magicP

Brilliant. Having the full word might surprise people enough to make them slow down though.

ADGS

On the one hand, there's never any excuse for asterisks - if you're going to use the word, use it, and if not, don't. On the other, use a swear word and some nincompoops are going to get distracted by the bad language issue; it would be used as an excuse for removal of the sign. Something damning but inarguably non-obscene would be better.

The other problem is that, if it's a permanent sign as against one of the speed-activated ones, it's also going to be insulting drivers who are not doing anything wrong, and personally, that sort of thing inspires me to misbehave out of sheer spite. "You called me dog before you had a cause..."

Ian

You could put the sign in the middle of the road in a way that it flips down as you drive over it...

tomthemac

has everyone inc council traffic guys forgotten the fatal accident about 24 months ago on UTP after street party at vic terrace?? http://www.thecnj.com/islington/2008/032808/news032808_07.html...? very sad - admittedly not at the zebra but still reckless driving on that stretch of road - something must be done i hate crossing there drivers esp the minicabbers just arent bothered - ive got 3 kids and trying to teach them road sense and skills on bikes / foot/ car etc is bad enough if people just ignore the rules in front of them... rant rant!

twinspark

Someone did put up their own traffic calming signs a while back at junctions of SGR and Stapleton Hall Road and SGR/Upper Tolly.
I think they were fined £800. The accident at Victoria terrace was horrible boy-racer stuff. Interesting to see a street party there being advertised elsewhere on this site.

Ali

Had a speeding people carrier problem here again this morning while taking the kids to school. It was coming from the SGR direction accelerating towards the crossing and if I had not happened to have a High Vis cycle jacket on I am not sure he would not have seen me and the kids. The driver was not too pleased when I told him off for speeding, remarkably he was a spitting image of a young Colonel Muammar Gaddafi not that that is particularly relevant

Ali

seems like we are about to get a Lynne campaign http://www.hornseyjournal.co.uk/content/haringey/hornseyjournal/news/story.aspx?brand=HCEJOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshcej&itemid=WeED09 Jun 2010 15:25:11:847