19 June (Part 3) - Bexley Council, tormenting bus drivers every day
There
are places where double yellow lines are essential in order to maintain traffic
flow. The need will often be obvious to everyone. However a decision to install a single
yellow line can never be quite as clear cut. When should the restrictions be
enforced for example, it requires an element of brain power, something for which
Bexley Council is not renowned.
At some time within the past year the ninety degree bend where Gayton Road meets
Florence Road in Belvedere was remodelled for moderately good reasons and both
roads became even narrower. Unfortunately no one was bright enough to consider the consequences.
The ‘outside’ of the bend is adorned with only a single yellow line. Except for
ten hours a week it is perfectly legal to park there. Every ten minutes a 244
bus goes by. The scene depicted here is a regular occurrence. The bus cannot get
around without either going up the pavement - left of the picture - and this one didn’t, or partake
in a reversing manoeuvre, which is what is happening here. At busy times
reversing is not always possible.
I wonder how long that will be allowed to go on for. Don’t hold your breath.
300 yards away a not totally different situation exists on Abbey Road and it has
been like it since 2009 and
featured here before. It caused
a nasty accident in 2011 and sometimes
Bexley Council unlawfully tickets cars parked there.
Once upon a time the residents’ parking bays extended to where the double yellow
line now is but along came Bexley Council and installed a pedestrian refuge.
Nothing wrong with that but once again there was an almost total lack of
foresight. The parking bays were redrawn so as not to obstruct the road but no
one filled in the gap with double yellow lines.
When commuters park there as they do every weekday, it brings buses to a near standstill. Maybe that is the idea.