Is this Sydney’s worst speed hump?
A speed bump designed to improve pedestrian safety in south-west Sydney has confused residents who thought it was a crossing.
In November last year, Georges River Council installed a speed bump on Belmore Road in Riverwood. However, since it is located between two bus stops and on the doorstep of many markets, local people began to mistake it for a transit point.
One local even tried to stop people from dangerously crossing the mound by wrapping plastic wrap between the signposts at each end.
The plastic was replaced with orange and yellow mesh covering in early January, while the hump continues to be used as a crossing, with a sign telling pedestrians to use the crossing 60 meters down the road.
Residents and workers in the strip said: reporter He said the mound raised safety concerns, particularly as it was located in front of an NDIS and aged care facility.
“People think it’s a pedestrian crossing. It’s a big risk,” said Saheb Khan, who works at the grocery store in front of the mound. “Every day, 5 to 10 people complain about this.”
Khan believes the mound should be converted into a causeway after witnessing scores of pedestrians nearly colliding with passing vehicles every day.
“Bad planning. There have been no speed bumps before and we haven’t had any problems.”
As traffic speeds dropped to 40km/h, the Council received nearly $3 million from Transport for NSW to improve high pedestrian areas in Riverwood with more crossings, speed bumps and refuge islands (including a speed bump at the corner of Belmore Road and Coleridge Street).
Permanent fencing has been ordered by the council for the speed bump and the council has said it will be installed as soon as it arrives.
NSW opposition highways spokesman and Riverwood state MP Mark Coure said the council’s high pedestrian planning “could have been done better” and called for a traffic study to tackle congestion in the suburb.
“If you’re going to put in a speed bump, you need to have proper safety fencing to make sure people don’t mistake it for a crosswalk. That’s the bottom line and the bottom line,” Coure said.
The council said it was investigating whether to convert the speed hump to transit or eliminate it, but found neither option would benefit the community.
“Speed bumps will continue as they help deliver a self-enforced low speed environment,” a council spokesman said.
“This location is not suitable for a pedestrian crossing because there is a signalized pedestrian crossing approximately 50 meters to the north. Adding a pedestrian crossing this close would create an extra point of conflict between people walking and vehicles and could disrupt traffic flow.”
The council also said it had received one formal complaint and five requests for corrections regarding the use of the mound as a crossing point.
Hadi Charbine, a pharmacist down the street, said the speed hump was installed with good intentions to improve pedestrian safety, but it failed.
“It’s in a congested area,” Charbine said. “We have an aging population that doesn’t speak English, a multicultural population. It’s easy for them to think this is a transition.”
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