26 April (Part 2) - So it’s not just me
For years my route home from points south has been via Gravel Hill, Erith Road
and Long Lane but recently I have taken to branching off into Albion Road if the
traffic lights are favourable and thence via Church Road into
Long Lane. There’s less traffic that way and it may even be shorter but the
downside is three more roundabouts.
Bexley council doesn’t have a lot of luck with roundabouts - no, make that
‘invariably proves incompetent with roundabouts’. There was
Ruxley Corner which no large vehicle could negotiate
without going up the kerb and there was
Wickham Lane which no bus could get around
at all, and then there is the well known ‘horizontal dart board’ at Trinity Place
where drivers and pedestrians have to guess what the rules of the road might be. However the
one I have recently found most ‘interesting’ is the new one outside the Bowling Alley.
I am described by my friends as a rather cautious and probably boring sort of
driver. I have not yet descended into slouching behind the wheel wearing a flat
cap and peering between the spokes of the steering wheel but I do observe speed
limits and try to stay in lane, but I was in for a shock when I first went
around that Albion Road abomination.
On the inside lane at under 20 m.p.h. and with another car just behind me in the
outer lane I was in some danger of hitting the kerb while keeping studiously in
lane, so acute is the bend. I’ve passed by many times since and it’s near impossible to
keep within the inside lane at any speed unlikely to get you rammed up the backside.
Yesterday I took these photos while crossing the road on foot. I didn’t have to wait to
see other drivers finding the roundabout difficult. I took seven
photos and there were fewer than thirty seconds between first and last. Another accident waiting to happen.
