“Extremely intimidating and unsafe” junction and impatient drivers stopping children cycling to school and forcing them into cars, students, teachers, and parents say, after 11 collisions in five years
Currently, despite featuring two lanes of traffic in all four directions and being used by four different bus routes, Kenton Road only has a pelican crossing on one section,reports. Traffic also filters into one particular section of the road from three different directions, a situation one teacher at nearby St. Gregory’s Catholic Science College says makes it “an extremely intimidating crossing for able bodied adults, let alone the elderly, those with disabilities, or for children”.
“This is incredibly difficult, particularly for pupils in the lower years who are repeatedly subjected to the dreaded wrath of a driver’s horn.” > Mum compares school run to “going into battle” as Sustrans calls for School Streets to be introduced in Northern Ireland “Only two per cent of our pupils cycle to school. However, a further 17 per cent say this would be their preferred mode of transport were it safer for them to do so.”
In response, council leader Muhammed Butt said: “I have to be honest, we used to receive about £3.5m for the local improvement projects that TfL used to fund. At the moment, we receive in the region of £1.5m to £2m and trying to prioritise all the different competing demands and requests that come in across the borough as well.
> Parents angry that children are being taught to cycle in middle of lane and other “risky behaviour” by cycling instructors, says Bikeability