Public meeting on road safety in Dundonald Ward

Following the crash on the 30th September in which a schoolboy was seriously injured while cycling on Merton Hall Road, the local Councillors for the Dundonald Ward have called a public meeting. This will be held on Wednesday the 11th November from 7:00-8:30pm at the Wimbledon Chase Primary School.

Rat running motor vehicles have been a growing problem in this area, as identified by the LCC in the 2014 local elections. The wards asks were as follows:

Prevent rat running and introduce ‘home zones’ in the Dundonald Park area The Dundonald Park area is a quiet residential area, which is used as a rat run to Wimbledon town Centre from Lower Downs Rd and Kingston Rd. This could be avoided by placing 2 or 3 bollards in the area to prevent through traffic.

The three local Councillors, Suzanne Grocott, Michael Bull and David Dean all pledged their support to the campaign. Dundonald Ward space4cycling campaign, 2014 local elections

Unfortunately since 2014 there has been no decline in traffic, instead the empirical evidence from our members who are local to the area suggests that it has worsened.

In addition to traffic running from Toynbee Rd through to Wimbledon Town Centre (point A to G), some drivers are also using the area to jump the queue of traffic on the Kingston Rd in the morning (point C to D or F).

The solutions should address both the volume and speed of traffic.  In looking at the roads through Dundonald, many appear to be built to facilitate rather than discourage fast rat running motor vehicles.

Compare these to Manorgate Rd, which is a home zone in neighbouring Kingston.  This road still suffers from a large amount of through traffic, but speeds are significantly lowered by the use of parking bays which alternate, and features in the road which reduce the line of sight of drivers but not of pedestrians.

Specific routes may also be "filtered" so that access is still possible, but through traffic apart from those on foot and bicycle is prevented.  This could be useful on Henfield Rd, which should be protected as the safe alternative route to the Kingston Road for cycling.

Road closed to through traffic with bollards

Representatives of the Merton Cycling Campaign will be in attending the meeting.

Recommended reading: Types of filtered permeability and its effects
Media coverage of injured schoolboy: Wimbledon Guardian, Evening Standard