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Short cut to danger
• I HAVE received a consultation document about “improvements” to Dalmeny Road, Tufnell Park. The “improvements” involve getting rid of an existing barrier and replacing it with a nine-foot cycleway.This leaves a very open route for cyclists, mopeds and motorbikes.
I fail to see how this is an improvement for residents. It gives them no extra benefits. Indeed, it makes the street more dangerous.
This is a quiet residential street, with families with young children. Dalmeny Park is also popular and widely used by parents with young children, precisely because of the lack of cars, mopeds and motorbikes.
Any easing of access by removing the current barrier will prove a danger to children.
Cyclists currently using the barrier are already a nuisance and a danger, particularly during the longer summer evenings. Cyclists freewheel down the hill, after the barrier, sometimes using the pavement and rarely using bells to warn pedestrians or children attempting to cross the road.
Leaving the park after 6pm in the summer can be difficult, as cyclists stream down on either side of the road and on the pavement. It has taken me and the children up to 10 minutes to safely cross the road to my house.
The new proposals would mean that cyclists would not have to dismount and could go through the cycle path at an even greater speed, with a straight freewheel from the top of the hill.
Widening the cycle access will encourage mopeds and motorcylists to go through the barrier. Indeed, since the old barrier has been demolished there has been a marked increase in mopeds going through.
The new proposals will make access by motorcycles easier, providing a back route to the City and Camden for motorbike and cycle couriers, who have no respect for pedestrians.
Dalmeny Road lies on the “muggers’ rat-run” from Tufnell Park to Camden and King’s Cross and there have been a number of bag snatches and muggings by cyclists.
Changing the current closure will surely not help St George’s ward crime statistics drop from the current position of 15th highest in the London ward crime figures.
This part of Dalmeny Road is used as a safe walking route by less-able residents and their carers. If the barrier is removed I have a concern for their safety and wellbeing. An increase in noise and traffic will be stressful for some of them, on what is now a nice, safe, quiet walk for all.
Why can’t cyclists be routed via Huddleston Road (where there isn’t a park) and taken down St George’s Avenue to pick up Dalmeny Road from there.
ELIZABETH CASE
Dalmeny Road, N7
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