Last week it took me nearly 8 minutes to make the turn from Hillcross Avenue into Martin Way in that time along with nearly 20 other vehicles I was spewing fumes into a children’s nursery.

In Merton this kind of problem is not uncommon. Look at the junction of Grand Drive and Bushey Road or try making a right turn onto the Kingston Road at South Wimbledon tube station. I should point out that I am not speaking solely as a car driver at every one of these junctions buses and cyclists are also held up. Pedestrians risk their lives trying to cross the road.

When the traffic seizes up two things happen. Firstly it quickly spreads to our badly designed town centres. Wimbledon, Morden, Mitcham & Raynes Park are still dominated by non functional one way systems and before long you have widespread gridlock. The second thing to observe is driver behaviour. Frustrated they begin to get restless and start jumping lights or mounting pavements or they start checking their phones. In either case they are engaging in dangerous behaviour that puts all other road users in harms way.

My point is that there is not a single junction in Merton that works. For as long as I can remember we have put up with third rate traffic planning and accepted it as the status quo. I want our aspiring Councillors to say no, it is not good enough, it never has been and it has to change.

More and more we are seeing Borough’s come together and share services. It is time for Merton to say we need to learn from neighbouring Boroughs. It is not just a question of road safety, although we have had two deaths in our town centres in the last month.

We need to look at the effect gridlock has on the local economy. Local shops and businesses need their customers to be able to visit them without being threatened by parking tickets issued by Council employed extortionists. I am not calling for a free for all but for a plan that takes into account more than raising revenue.

Merton has much it could be proud of, its town centres are not high on that list. They need to be so much better managed and the way for this to start is with traffic flow and road safety. We can dream of fantasies like creating a mini Holland but the reality we have to deal with right now is that we have far too much traffic and that our infrastructure at the moment cannot cope. We cannot ignore it and hope it will go away but we can insist that those who are paid to deal with it do a much much better job.

Anyone agree?

Mark Paterson;
Hillcross Avenue, Wimbledon

 

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