Sharing ideas
Town Councillor Dominic Harper says, "I’m not able to attend the meeting as I have a planning committee meeting at the same time but would like to make a few comments, as a resident of Deal for the past two and a half years and as a cyclist, pedestrian and car driver, which I’m happy for you to share:"
- On the Albert Road plan, the junction of the proposed path with Southwall Road and Church Lane doesn’t make clear any details - this is a difficult junction, with cars often going quite fast along Church Lane and to and from the recycling centre
- As a pedestrian, I find the pavements sometimes quite narrow, especially on London Road near the railway bridge. Drivers sometimes seem to hurry to get through the lights on the east side of the bridge, which can make it risky for cars coming out of Mill Road or pedestrians trying to cross. I’ve also seen cars pulling out on the wrong side of the central island near the bus stop by the Fire Station (and close to the police station!), to get past a bus, potentially hazardous for any pedestrians choosing to cross here.
- For similar reasons, cycling eastbound on London Road here also feels risky - the road is narrow and of course cyclists tend to slow down going uphill.
- There are several roads that have quite fast traffic (often above 30mph) and pinch points due to road narrowness and car parking, for example along Middle Deal Road and Albert Road, which I don’t particularly like to cycle along (and I’ve cycle/commuted in Central London for five years).
- There is a section of Middle Deal Road with signs directing cyclists on to the footpath which seems pointless. I’ve never seen anyone using it as such and it could lead to people stepping out of their front doors into the path of a cyclist.
- As a pedestrian along Beach Street/Prince of Wales terrace, getting from the town to the beach is often difficult in the summer especially, with a near constant stream of vehicles and very few protected opportunities to cross the road.
- Western Road, Golf Road, Gilford Road and Victoria Road suffer from fast traffic problems.
- Around the High St/Middle St area I find cycling relatively fine, due to the narrowness and busyness of the streets, cars tend to go quite slowly.
- Many of the problems above could be eased by a 20mph limit. I don’t hold out much hope of this being enforced by traffic police but there are many other ways of achieving this, by change of road surface, layout, bumps etc, as I’ve seen in other parts of this country and abroad.
- I believe that traffic calming measures such as this would be of great benefit to residents and visitors to Deal and make our environment much more pleasant.