4 February (Part 2) - Money is King. Road safety a poor relation
It
was quite impressive that Bexley Council patched the pothole in Brampton Road two days after it was
reported here on 25th January.
As you can see, it is a rough and ready job (Photo 1) and probably won’t survive
the ten or twelve buses an hour that pass over it. A pity that the Council did nothing
about the surface immediately opposite (Photo 2) which is rapidly deteriorating. A stitch in time and all that.
A
little to the North is the section of Brampton Road which Greenwich Council
closed for four weeks last November and caused widespread traffic chaos with
buses diverted as far away as Nuxley Road, Belvedere. It remained nice and smooth until the New Year.
By mid-January the surface was showing signs of wear and now we have a bloody great hole.
What sort of workmanship is tolerated by Greenwich Council? Surely they knew
that it is the major route into Thamesmead and serves around 15 buses an hour.
More than half of them with heavy batteries on board.
I tend not to use Knee Hill any more. In an upwards direction it is plagued by
one of Bexley’s oversized Yellow Money Boxes and down suffers a long queue to
get to Abbey Wood station. The alternative New Road is more ‘interesting’.
Bexley’s parking arrangements require buses to travel up the hill on the wrong
side of the road but I don't mind waiting for them. The drivers have a difficult
job and invariably give a friendly flash as they go by.
It is however potentially dangerous and Bexley Council is once again not
helpful. As one rounds the blind bend at the bottom of the hill (Photo 3 below) one is often
confronted by a bus forced into the middle of the road by the aptly named Andrew Bashford. The carriageway is about three feet wide.
It would appear that Bexley Council rates selling road space above the potential for serious injury. I once saw a car slam into the front of a B11
at that very spot but it was before I owned a smartphone.
New Road handles something between 30 and 36 buses an hour.
Note: Photos taken yesterday. I sent the Brampton Road pothole photo to my driving instructor friend. She says it is worse this morning.