Issue - meetings

ES 20295

A Member highlighted the fact that the Road Safety Policy had still not been published and asked when this would be done. The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking responded that there currently existed fragmented information concerning the policy on the Council website and this needed to be consolidated into a new policy document and a new format. The process was taking longer than had been anticipated, but it was hoped to be completed by the end of July.

A Member observed that the numbers shown in the graph at section 3.9 of the report—'KSI Road Casualties in LB Bromley,’ were figures from 2005 to 2017 which had been back-cast using the new method of reporting that was used from November 2016, yet this back-casting was not noted in the report. The Member commented that if you were to work on a trend line graph for the last five years, i.e.., since the reporting mechanism changed, so 2017 figures up to 2022, (ignoring the pandemic figure in 2020) then the trend line would be observed as a straight line. This would show that KSI road casualties in Bromley had actually plateaued in those five years. The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking agreed with the assumption that the figures had plateaued for that period. The Member felt that pandemic figures should not be included, but the Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking  disagreed with this.

A Member stated that the report highlighted the Council’s own objectives with regard to ‘Making Bromley Even Better.’ This was in respect of projects to enhance walking and cycling infrastructure.’ She said that the report quoted the Making Bromley Even Better’ objective of..“the safety of road users on our streets needs to be enhanced as far as is possible.” But despite these statements, Bromley had the fourth highest rate of cycling KSIs per cycled trip in any London Borough. The Member stated that in terms of mode share, Bromley remained 29^th out of 33 boroughs for walking as a mode of travel in London. It was explained that existing limited road space made cycle routes less safe than would other wise be the case and that segregated cycle routes were preferable. Much money could be spent on a segregated cycle route whilst covering a limited distance as these were expensive to install. The Council felt that one of the best ways to reduce cyclist casualties was to provide road safety and cycle training programmes. 

The Assistant Director for Traffic and Parking clarified that whenever possible, the Council would look at data to identify accident hotspots involving cyclists. The Council would then introduce design improvements when possible to reduce casualties. This was currently being considered with respect to the ‘Chinese Roundabout’ in Beckenham, as approximately half of the accidents there involved cyclists. 

A Member referred to the graph in section 3.10: Road Fatalities LB Bromley. She asked if these fatalities included those who had died 30+ days or more after the collision, deaths  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13