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Highgate Hill crossing

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Pelican crossing between Channing Junior School and Cote
 
Look in this photo at how wide the road is and how narrow the pavement is! The balance is not appropriate:
 
  1. it makes it too easy for vehicles to go fast;
  2. too far for pedestrians to cross; and
  3. pedestrians on the Haringey side sometimes need to step into the road to pass.
Our campaign to improve safety on Highgate Hill has generated many responses from members and residents. Here are comments from two about this dangerous pelican crossing between Channing Junior School and Cote restaurant. 
 
Comment from Highgate Hill resident
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“Earlier in the summer, I was crossing the road outside Golders Hill Park on North End Road, when the woman in front of me was run over by a speeding driver, dragging her and her baby daughter across the road, causing potentially fatal injuries. Also severely injured was another woman who tried to step in to save the baby. Her young son witnessed the whole accident and was seriously traumatised by seeing his mother almost killed by a car. This all happened in front of me and my 2 children, aged 2 and 7. It was horrific, truly awful to witness. They are implementing speed cameras there as a result, we need the same. 

It came back to me this weekend as I saw a near miss in Highgate Village around 17.00 when a car sped through the village narrowly missing my husband carrying the shopping as the pedestrian light turned from green to stop but the car decided speeding up was the best choice.

The road is wide and encourages speeding. We have several schools and nurseries on the Hill, from St Josephs to St Michaels and everything in between, Channing Junior and Senior and Highgate School, N Family, Whittington Hospital etc. The list is very sizable in a relatively small area, but there are zero cameras to enforce the 20mph traffic law.  

At all times of day cars travel at very high speeds up and down. Travelling downhill, the cars have greater momentum and therefore they pose a greater danger. Trucks and buses are sometimes doing well in excess of 40mph. On other occasions there are cars overtaking others at higher speeds than that. And at night, it can be worse with speeds that must reach 40 to 50 mph. This is a fully residential area, it should not be a speeding opportunity. 

You may have noticed signs around the area and it’s a very good initiative from both Camden and Islington, this is a real opportunity to make the road from Archway to Highgate Village better. Speed cameras to enforce 20mph, more planting, no heavy vehicles.  Councils across London are trying to make their areas more like villages, Highgate already is one and could be even more so …”

Comment from another nearby resident
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“I promised to send an email about the driving speeds on Highgate Hill (Highgate Society Newsletter January 2024).   I see you have had a lot of reports about this over the Christmas period and our experience exactly echoes that of the person who wrote on 14 December.   For us, when crossing at the lights going towards Cote, the cars were stationary waiting for us on the far side and, as we began to cross, a car going at an enormous speed overtook the stationary cars on our side. As we had begun to cross, we were nearly killed.     There is no doubt that in general over that whole period, as the traffic was so light, no-one was keeping to the 20 mph speed limit
 
As in other parts of north London, this problem is solved by speed cameras and fines;  particularly in respect to Islington.   Perhaps the problem of putting in speed cameras might be the road being shared between Camden and Haringey Councils.
 
I hope this will helpfully add to the views already being aired by members of Highgate Society.”

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