Review of Road Safety in Bromley
Bromley Council presented a formal document 'Comprehensive Review of Road Safety in LB Bromley' to the Environment and Community Services Committee meeting on 29 June - you can read the report here.
During the debate, Liberal Democrat Councillor Chloe-Jane Ross told the portfolio holder that his report failed to provide any aspirational goals. “You are depriving an entire generation of children of lifetime habits of walking and cycling - habits formed during their early years - by failing to make our roads feel safe.”
She also highlighted the lack of focus on speed of traffic which is a concern of so many people in the borough. A reduced speed limit and enforcement of existing speed limits would be transformational. The local Police Superintendent has been involved in conversations with the Lib Dem Councillors about traffic speed and road safety, and had reported to a separate Committee the day before saying that speed and driver behaviour is one of his top priorities in Bromley. He has undertaken to work closely with the Officers at Bromley Council - and continue to liaise with local Councillors - to see what the police can do to complement the work already being done.
In brief, the report presented to the Environment Committee claimed that there had been good progress on road safety since 2005 with the number of killed and seriously injured people (KSI) reducing from 237 to 103 in 2022. However, KSIs have fallen everywhere over those decades due in some part to the safer design of cars. The data also fails to take into account of a change in the methods of collecting the data, the impact of the two years of the pandemic when motor and pedestrian traffic reduced, and it fails to highlight the Council’s failure to meet its own KSI target - it’s own target is 73 for 2022, whereas the actual figure was 101. Looking at the statistics it's clear that the number of KSIs since 2011 has largely plateaued.
While KSI data is a good indicator of danger spots it is not the only factor. For example, someone who has a heart attack and dies while driving counts as a KSI, whereas patterns of less serious accidents are ignored. We have highlighted several areas in the borough that need particular attention, for example Homesdale Road in Bromley where there have been 19 accidents that involved emergency services since 2019, with 6 in the last 7 months. Yet this location does not feature anywhere on the council’s priority plan. Local residents’ views about the danger spots in their areas, where they regularly see dangerous driving and near-misses are also ignored. The report also fails to highlight just how dangerous Bromley is for pedestrians and cyclists who suffer serious accidents disproportionately to the number of accidents.
There is good work being done across the borough, including a programme of education in schools, and of course there are finite resources (although one might question why it isn’t possible to divert some of the millions they receive in parking income and yellow box enforcement to road safety). The Officers and Portfolio Holder continually repeat the mantra that they must “spend every pound wisely” - which of course we agree with - but we challenge the basis for the decisions on spending those pounds. We ask the Portfolio holder and Oficers to reflect on the failure to meet their own targets for road safety in the borough and look for a different approach.