Thursday, June 2, 2011

Morden Road Crash (another one)

Some errant motorist has managed to demolish no less than 3 pieces of roadside furniture on the Morden Road, SW19. You can also see part of a silver bumper that's been thrown into the pub car park, and various bits of bodywork in the gutter. This road, assisted by TfL is doing its best to hold its position in the list of Merton’s most dangerous streets. No mention of the crash in the press, so it’s likely we’ll never know what happened; however from the angle at which the poles are bent it looks like they were hit by a vehicle that crossed the carriageway from the other lane. While this is likely at the extreme end of the dangerous driving spectrum, you don’t have to stand for long at the side of Morden Road before you witness speeding vehicles weaving between lanes and undertaking other drivers. Such drivers won’t be looking out for cyclists or pedestrians, you can bank on that. However, TfL’s approach to the management of roads like this one is to tolerate all manner of bad behaviour if it’ll help traffic flow. They don’t seem to understand that smashes don’t help the flow much, and in aggregate account for massive costs across the economony due to the delays caused, as well as significant demands on police time clearing up the mess.

Of course, if you’re on foot or on a bike, your journey time doesn’t matter. TfL have neglected to provide a pedestrian crossing at the junction of Dorset Road and Morden Road, despite there being a clear desire line. I saw a woman on a bike attempting to cross the road at that point today, and it took several minutes before a gap in the traffic allowed her to cross.

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