Crunching the collisions on Streatham High Road

One of the Green Party’s researchers has been digging up some statistics on collisions on Streatham High Road. There are now stats of collisions reported to the police which can be crunched, provided on www.cyclestreets.net. They have data from 2005-2010 inclusive (not 2011 yet).

What we have found is that in this six period there were 575 collisions reported to the police on Streatham High Road (NB these aren’t small knocks, but those warranted serious enough for police involvement).

Of these:

- 53 involved cyclists

- 122 involved pedestrians

- 62 involved ‘fatal’ or ‘serious’ injuries

- The majority were in daylight, with only 163 being after dark.

- The overwhelming majority (498) were in conditions described as “fine and no high winds” as opposed to conditions involving rain, wind or fog.

This means that on average there will be a significant incident every four days, with someone being fatally or seriously injured every month, and two pedestrians being hit every month.

We await the statistics for 2011, but things seem to be getting worse, not better.

If these were shootings or stabbings, we would call it an epidemic. We wouldn’t tolerate it. We would take the necessary steps to deal with it. And there are clear steps that can be taken to tackle the road casualty epidemic on Streatham High Road - such as 20mph speed limits, segregated dutch-style cycle lanes, making crossing times longer, and re-orientating the road hierarchy in favour of pedestrians.

As a first step, Green Party Assembly member Darren Johnson has agreed to ask the London mayor whether he will consider a 20mph limit for the High Road if local people support it.