Fighting the Zeitgeist
Living in Kew is wonderful. Half of it is gorgeous gardens, plus we have a cute village, the Thames and the District Line. Richmond Council can basically ignore us because we’re little (only around 12,000 residents) and quiet – it’s a place that sleeps at night. We do, however, have a massive problem running round down the belly of the place. Sandycombe Road is a speeding horror show. Cars, vans, buses, motorbikes, lorries and every other sort of motorised vehicle fly down this mostly straight stretch at around 40 mph. The legal sign- posted speed limit is 20mph. But the only time that happens is if there’s a traffic jam (which commonly occurs between the Avenue and Lawn Crescent). Even the two pedestrian crosswalks are regularly ignored by motorists.
When I look at the faces of the speeders, which I do regularly driving their bulbous Porsches, swollen Mercedes and other giant e-SUVs, they have pretty miserable looks on their faces. Speeding doesn’t provide a dopamine hit; it’s just the default setting when there are no speed cameras around. Why do I care? Because I walk my granddaughter to and from school every weekday. As do hundreds of other children, parents and carers who walk to and from Queen’s, Kew College, Unicorn, Broomfield and Kew Montessori down the pavements of Sandycombe Road. It really seems that the general attitude of the speeders of Sandycombe toward the pedestrians as well as other drivers is a Malcolm Tucker adage: NomFup – Not my F’ing Problem. It’s more than sad because these Sherman tanks are dangerous for those of us who have to walk beside them.
The council have said that there are no problems in Kew because no one has died in a car crash on Sandycombe. Yes, that’s the criteria, apparently, for them to consider a speed camera. They do, however, send a chap round on a scooter to every street in Kew every day in order to ticket law-breaking parked cars. Reckless driving vehicles get a free pass. It’s like a party organised by Ayn Rand and Elon Musk has given a Tesla to Nietzsche as starter car of the race. The police, apparently, are busy with other crimes.
There’s no question that Kew Gardens, pinnacle of the botanical world, is the heart (and lungs) of Kew. The brain (and memories) are undoubtedly the National Archives. The face and stomach are oh-so-cute Kew Village; Kew Road is the artery; Mortlake Road the main vein and Sandycombe Road – well, that’s become the back passage.
