At least one person was injured at the junction of Disraeli Road and Putney High Street at around midday yesterday after a collision involving a scooter and pedestrian at the traffic island on the box junction.
Police closed part of the High Street for about an hour before clearing out at approximately 1:30pm. The box junction is covered by cameras, which should have captured the incident.
Police on the scene confirmed to Putney.news that the collision was considered minor and the rider was treated at the scene.
Local resident Mick Stone, who photographed the scene, summed up the mood: “How many more accidents are we going to see before something is done?”
The junction has a long history of problems. The junction used to have a left turn out of Disraeli Road onto the High Street but that was ended 47 years ago after several incidents of cars hitting pedestrians. There are now calls to reinstate the left turn in order to ease the severe congestion that has hit the back roads of Putney following the redesign of Putney Bridge junction.
There was an accident last year involving a pedestrian and a car on the other side of junction when the pedestrian failed to notice the crossover traffic and walked into the road.
There is another issue too: the junction has a contraflow bicycle system that sees bikes cross from Norroy Road over Putney High Street to Disraeli, while cars go from Disraeli over to Norroy, or join Putney High Street. It is not popular with cyclists who feel unsafe both crossing the High Street against traffic and heading into Disraeli where a huge set of bike racks block their exit, pushing them into traffic.
There are growing calls to remove the bike racks altogether. Not only do they get into the way of cyclists but also prevent a left turn for cars and are barely used. In a review of the racks last month, we revealed that barely a sixth of the 64 spaces are actually used by cyclists: the rest are empty, filled with abandoned bikes, or used by one enterprising local as a holding station for his repair business. The racks have also been a target of thieves, readers told us.
After pressure from Putney.news and repeat follow-ups from local councillor Ethan Brooks, the council tagged the abandoned bike wheels and chassis – and then took nearly a month past their own clearance deadline to remove them.
At the same time as the council finally removed the abandoned bikes, it tagged another three that haven’t moved in months and have been slowly degrading on the stands. Those bikes now have a clearance deadline on 25 February – at which point it should be possible to finally see how frequently the 64 bike rack spaces are used.
Our estimate is that between 4 and 8 racks are in regular use – opening the way to remove them altogether, add a few smaller Sheffield stands and make the junction safer for everyone – cars, pedestrians, cyclists and now scooter riders.
Were you a witness to the accident at Disraeli Road Thursday? Contact us at news@putney.news.
Correction: 20 Feb, 6pm: We originally reported that the Disraeli left-turn onto Putney High Street was ended ‘roughly 20 years ago’. One reader has since let us know it was 47 years ago this year. They have good reason for knowing.
