On Monday I met with Transport for London (TfL) along with the local Conservative London Assembly Member, Steve O’Connell, to discuss the A217/A232 crossroads.
I am often contacted by residents who have witnessed, or even been involved in, near misses or scrapes when turning right from Cheam Road or High Street onto the A217. This is caused by confusion as to whether cars should cross on the inside or outside of each other. In contrast, when you turn right from the A217 onto the A232, the lights are phased to there is no oncoming traffic, allowing cars to turn safely without obstruction.
We discussed potential scenarios for resolving this problem, such as phasing the lights in the other direction, putting new signage on the traffic lights at Cheam Road and High Street demonstrating how to turn at this junction, or removing the white lines that guide cars turning right from the A217 onto the A232, which are arguably unnecessary as the phased lights do this job anyway, and replacing them with guiding lines to assist drivers turning right onto the A217.
TfL has agreed to go away and look at these options and feed back to myself and Steve O’Connell. We will be sure to keep residents updated.
About time something was done. It needs to be set as a filter light with guiding lines. If it’s not made clear then it will remain a problem.
Quite agree Pam. The filter lights work well enough for traffic coming off the A217. And yes there are Idiots who don’t “Read” the road and turn at the wrong angle which causes more chaos, I have seen several near misuses and one nasty T-bone collision.
Whilst I don’t doubt there is a problem a large part of it is people’s inability to follow the Highway Code or lack of a basic knowledge of how to drive. You might want to look at the A217 junction with Sutton Common Road as well – sometimes in the mornings there are cars 3 abreast as people won’t obey the rules of the road. Only a matter of time before there is a serious accident here as well.
I’ve said for years that they need to install a filter light. At the moment it’s run the gauntlet. If a big van or lorry wishing to turn right is opposing you, you can’t see and have to edge out so slowly. I drive a car and ride a motorbike. It’s terrifying turning right from Cheam road onto st dunstans hill on my motorbike.
Quite agree! I had a close call last week on my motorbike there. A small van waved to say he was happy for me to cross in front of him but as I edged forward as you pointed out, I saw the roof of a car speeding up along the inside to get the changing light, I stopped quickly but the bike stalled and I had to fight to keep it upright. Fortunalty all was ok. But that junction is in serious URGENT need of modernising…..
Other issues that TfL might consider / that should be raised with them:
1. Currently no pedestrian crossing across the A232 at that crossroads.
2. Poor pedestrian crossings across A217 near the junction – Cheam crossroads to Church Hill Rd crossings is too far without lights, especially with a park which attracts children/families/dog walkers etc. Not to mention all the school runs that involve crossing the A217.
3. Junction between A217 and Lumley Road. Horrendous, regular accidents. Since I wrote to you about this I have witnessed a car go into the back of another car right in front of me (I was on foot) and had somebody crash into the back of me. It’s only a matter of time before there’s a serious accident. It needs lights or no right turn at that junction either on or off the A217.
4. Crossroads in Cheam Village, cars turning right from A2043 to A232 in either direction. They frequently don’t or can’t make it through before the lights change meaning cars drive through the pedestrian crossing when the green man is on pretty much every time.
5. Loading bay on A232 outside Tasha’s tearoom. TfL need to look at their footage properly before issuing PCNs. I have had 3 when dropping heavy bags at charity shops in Cheam and had to contest each (successfully). Onus should not be on me to do this however; TfL need to consider their footage properly and only issue in cases where there the bay is being used inappropriately.
6. Finally I wrote to TfL asking under FOI various questions about accidents on A217 and around that junction. I never received a response – not even to explain why they considered my FOI request to be exempt. I haven’t got round to writing again but anything you can do to help on my behalf would be appreciated.
Thank you.
I contacted Paul regarding the Gander green / A217 crossroads issues . He said he would look into it but asked if I could write to TFL too . My reply from TFL is they can’t do anything as the main priority is to keep the traffic flowing along the Main A217 which is more benificial . I hope more can be done this time round because the build up of traffic in both sides of Gander green Lane has got worse !!
That junction is the bane of my life. So dangerous because you can rarely see what’s coming from the other direction. Impatient drivers all pile in the middle and then no-one can go anywhere either. Would love to see something done about it, and before someone’s severely injured 🤕