20 Mph Speed Trap in Nappy Valley Side Street - With Ulterior Motive??? Post Reply

[Denwand]

I came upon a 20mph speed trap in NV last week whilst walking the dog.

One policeman, one special constable and a council worker holding a speed gun.

Now I'm all for stopping speed-demons in suburban residential streets but something was very odd about this trap.

They were positioned on a crossroad of a well-known "rat-run" where local traffic avoids the main-road jams to get onto Trinity Road BUT the road they were targeting has the highest speed-bump (and the nearest to the speed gun) that I know of in Wandsworth. It is so high that drivers who know it crawl over it at no more than 10mph and drivers who don't soon bash their cars underneath with a loud crunch. The scrapes and gouges of the tarmac stand as a testimony as to how savage it is.

I asked one of the team why they had picked that road - "in response to resident's complaints about speeding" was all they would say.

I was flummoxed as I have know these two roads for decades and not only is the speed bump they chose the highest but both roads have bumps much higher than average that keep the traffic down to below 15mph at the very most.

So I wondered why they bothered to police the 20mph limit at that particular spot - there wasn't a snowball in hell's chance of catching anyone over the limit.

Did they

A) Do it to appease local residents whose real issue is the morning rat-run past their door but who feel they will get more sympathy if they invent a "speeding" problem?

or

B) Do the Police do it to show the public they are "cracking down" on 20mph speeders - but in reality don't want the hassle of catching them and would rather warn them off rather than catch them.

I ask this because there are plenty of roads I could point them towards where they could catch every other car exceeding 20mph if they wanted to...

I'm confused!

[SW12Pops]

This may be a stupid question but do you think they knew?

We had something similar in SW12 but they did pick a place well known for speeders.

Perhaps they just weren't aware? (seems unlikely but you never know!)

[Denwand]

You have a point SW!2POPS but they must have twigged after 30 minutes without a "tug" that they were in the wrong place - but maybe they initiated it in good faith.

I think it's probably the case the the Council felt duty bound to set a trap there if they had concerns from a couple of neighbours about "speeding" - even if they knew that rat-running was the real concern.

[jon_events]

When I did this FOI request in November, the highway engineers at the council are none the wiser about the speeding on local streets or the data collected from these speedwatch events:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... ng-1074736

I put in a Mayoral question in light of their response and was brushed off too.

[mumbelievable]

I asked the policeman why they were doing these speed traps last week, the response was because local residents and Wandsworth councillors wanted them to do it. Not because they did.

The police inferred there was much better uses of their time catching criminals/illegal drivers and I felt their presence was just a PR stunt, as they had to do it.

the new 20mph zones has cost the London council tax payer over £750,000 in wandsworth alone, what a complete waste of money.

[NVHusband]

Agreed with the theme to this post.

What's the point of spending money implementing a 20mph limit but (1). Fail to enforce it or (2). Enforce it incorrectly.

I am happy to point the council to my street, where the 20mph is never complied with and used as a shortcut to avoid Battersea Rise.

It is worth pointing out that my street has a primary school on it, and I have never seen the speed limit enforced.

What a waste of taxpayer money.

[Davy Krug]

If there is a 20 mph speed limit in place, it must be there for a very good reason. I wish the police were out enforcing this more often