Street calmedDrakefell Road suffers with speeding traffic, which makes it difficult to cross, and results in cars being damaged by speeding lorries and vans. It also suffers with congestion during the late afternoons and early evenings, which also makes it difficult to cross between the parked cars on the pavement, and the limited gaps left by frustrated drivers.

Residents have commented in the online survey that they are often forced to make dangerous detours into the road, as the pavements are blocked. Mothers with pushchairs have to take their lives in their hands by venturing into the road when the pavements are blocked.

However DRAG is proposing to Lewisham Council that we deal with the problem of speeding traffic, limited opportunities to cross the road safely and blocked pavements, by developing solutions to deal with all these problems at once.
The answer to these problems is – better designed streets. By re-designing the street for residents, we can rebalance the street towards a fairer allocation of the limited space towards residents, making it easier to walk and cycle.
Bike standWe are not calling for a ban on all traffic, we want a better designed street which enables safe parking for cars, 2 metre pavements and traffic calming measures with safe places to cross. This would make a tremendous difference to the way we use the street; drivers would be forced to slow down – to within the 20mph limit. It would not only be safer, it would also reduce noise and vibration. Furthermore, there would be a change in attitudes, where streets are improved, drivers change their behaviour – they would be more respectful if they were forced to notice us.