Resident pleads for speed calming in Glenwood

GLENWOOD resident, Tony Ball has repeated his appeal for authorities to force motorists to stop at the four-way stop street at the intersection of Brand and Cromwell Roads.

Ball, who contacted Berea Mail last January about this issue, said the problem has worsened. He said some motorists did not even try to slow down at the intersection. He said he had addressed the issue with ward councillor, Nicole Graham, pointing out that it was a highly dangerous spot.

“I feel a suggestion should go before Council that in certain high risk areas, stop streets have a large speed hump erected in line with the area where “STOP” is painted. By virtue of what it is, it will automatically force people to reduce their speed to at best a walking pace. I personally cannot see any reason why this is not a novel, reasonably cost effective and efficient way to stop people ignoring stop signs. Certainly the Cromwell Road/Brand Road intersection is ignored completely and while we have not had too many accidents there, it is by the grace of God and no other reason. I really believe this idea has huge merit and would require no policing once installed,” he said.

Councillor Graham said the matter had been taken up before and officials found that in terms of the prioritisation for funding, the intersection did not qualify for traffic calming as a low number of incidents were recorded there.

“The Rules of Order by-law that dictates the procedure of council says that councillors cannot propose anything before council that contradicts or is not permitted council policy or by-law. This frequently disallows motions or questions that are not in accordance with the Rule of Order by-law so it is quite strictly enforced. The only real option is for Metro Police to enforce. The city won’t spend money re-doing any traffic calming here as the stats don’t require it. Petitions are something to try, but I am wary of encouraging this because the city seldom considers petitions,” she said.

In previous reports on the matter, Carlos Esteves, deputy head of the Road System Management at eThekwini Transport Authority, said that speed humps were installed based on a set of criteria that council approved and the eTA were not in a position to deviate from it. He said the use of speed humps to attempt to enforce stop streets was not endorsed by the policy nor is it favoured. He said Metro Police should be enforcing violations to force motorists to comply.