Saturday, March 31, 2012
Death threat
I have not been on my Horton Lane circuit for a couple of weeks now, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, but I understand from a loud front page lead in our free newspaper that the Lane has become the venue for bikers, said to be tearing up and down the Lane at more than 100mph, threatening life & limb both of themselves and of others. One resident, who lives rather further away from the Lane that we do, reports that the peace and tranquillity of his back garden has been destroyed, a report which is going it a bit. It is true that we hear noisy cars, probably from Horton Lane, from time to time from our back garden, but it is not like living at Hounslow - where I remember once being quite startled by the size, height and frequency of aircraft landing over Hounslow Central tube station. Plenty of houses around too. But not noisy bikes.
Second point, calling anyone a resident is stretching things a bit. There is very little housing on the Lane proper, although there are indeed estates on both sides, accessed through access roads which terminate at the belowsaid roundabouts.
Third point, given that the Lane is between 2 and 3km long, has roundabouts at each end and four or five intermediate roundabouts (depending on how exactly you count the goings on at the Chessington Road junction), I would not have thought that it was terribly well suited to boy racers or bikers, although it is popular with clutches of cyclists, particularly at weekends and I have been known to cycle the Lane myself. My understanding was that, in the olden days anyway, bikers used to use the nearby A3. I remember being rather struck by one such explaining that when you are doing 100mph down the A3 it is rather like driving at a more sensible speed, but on the wrong side of the road, with all the traffic coming at you. Not a game for me.
Our local MP, Chris Grayling (Conservative), is reported to think that there is a big case for both installing a speed camera and a stronger police presence. A catch with the former might be that, all things considered, Horton Lane is not a particularly busy road and I do not suppose that a speed camera would pay for itself very quickly. What are we going to give up to pay for it? Curiously though, Horton Lane is much more important than Longmead Road in the Surrey Roads scheme of things, despite my guess that the latter carries a lot more traffic, a lot of it heavy traffic serving the industrial estate there. Councillor Stevens (Labour) also had a think, but did not come to any conclusion. He did not see an immediate case for anything in particular and thought that another meeting would be a good idea - which is, I guess, about where I am.
Second point, calling anyone a resident is stretching things a bit. There is very little housing on the Lane proper, although there are indeed estates on both sides, accessed through access roads which terminate at the belowsaid roundabouts.
Third point, given that the Lane is between 2 and 3km long, has roundabouts at each end and four or five intermediate roundabouts (depending on how exactly you count the goings on at the Chessington Road junction), I would not have thought that it was terribly well suited to boy racers or bikers, although it is popular with clutches of cyclists, particularly at weekends and I have been known to cycle the Lane myself. My understanding was that, in the olden days anyway, bikers used to use the nearby A3. I remember being rather struck by one such explaining that when you are doing 100mph down the A3 it is rather like driving at a more sensible speed, but on the wrong side of the road, with all the traffic coming at you. Not a game for me.
Our local MP, Chris Grayling (Conservative), is reported to think that there is a big case for both installing a speed camera and a stronger police presence. A catch with the former might be that, all things considered, Horton Lane is not a particularly busy road and I do not suppose that a speed camera would pay for itself very quickly. What are we going to give up to pay for it? Curiously though, Horton Lane is much more important than Longmead Road in the Surrey Roads scheme of things, despite my guess that the latter carries a lot more traffic, a lot of it heavy traffic serving the industrial estate there. Councillor Stevens (Labour) also had a think, but did not come to any conclusion. He did not see an immediate case for anything in particular and thought that another meeting would be a good idea - which is, I guess, about where I am.
# posted by Jim @ 6:09 AM 
