Wider pavements an obstruction?
We were in the High Street on Monday when the firefighters were tackling the fire in Montserrat Road. The widened pavements going south from Putney Bridge Road to Montserrat had cars parked on it, no doubt people unable to read their homes in Montserrat. However what struck me, besides those beautiful new pavers being damaged (!), was that traffic can no longer pull in to the side of the road as they used to do to enable emergency vehicles access down the middle of the High Street. As the High Street continues to be a major thoroughfare since there is no other alternative to go from north to south and vice versa, surely this will prove to be an ongoing problem for all emergency vehicles? Also, if cars are forced to pull on to the new wide pavements, this causes a danger to pedestrians (and cyclists) when they have to do so. Did the council engineers really not consider that reducing the road width in favour of pedestrians would impede emergency vehicles in the future or were they over ruled by the Council in their heroic endeavour to reduce vehicular traffic along the High Street?
Lucille Grant ● 1939d8 Comments