Alan, Jill and Hamish took up residents’ concerns about the constant problem of speeding traffic in the section of Carshalton Road in our neighbourhood/ward.  The A232 Carshalton Road is under the jurisdiction of Transport for London (and not Sutton Council).  TfL’s response was received recently and is copied as below…

I would like to assure you that we take road safety extremely seriously, and whilst we do not have a responsibility to enforce speed limits, we do work alongside the Metropolitan Police who have the legal powers and the primary responsibility for this function.

We have overseen a widespread programme of safety camera installation in London to improve road safety at accident black spots, by enforcing speed limits where speeding is a factor in people being killed or seriously injured. As a result of this programme, a camera was installed in 2008 on Carshalton Road between Highfield Road and Harrow Road. This has been effective in reducing speeding and collisions involving serious injury since its introduction. A recent 3 year road safety study indicated only one collision was attributed to speeding, with the great majority of collisions occurring between turning vehicles at junctions and resulting in slight injury.

Beyond the use of safety cameras our ability to influence vehicle speeds on the TfL Road Network is limited. We have, however, introduced significant lengths of central-hatch marking on Carshalton Road, as well as a number of new pedestrian islands, and these measures have helped to calm traffic.

We have recently received feedback from the Metropolitan Police indicating that they are not aware of a problem with drivers breaking the speed limit on Carshalton Road, although we do appreciate that some drivers may speed along this stretch of carriageway undetected. We will therefore continue to monitor this issue in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police.

I hope that you find this information useful.

Kind regards

David

David Greaves | Correspondence Officer, Managing Director’s Office

TfL Surface Transport, 11th Floor, Zone R3, Palestra, 197 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 8NJ

Tel: 020 3054 3622 | Auto: 83622 | Email: DavidGreaves@tfl.gov.uk