A speed hump in Sydney’s south-west designed to improve pedestrian safety has confused residents, who think it’s a crossing.
In November last year, Georges River Council installed a speed hump on Belmore Road in Riverwood. But locals began confusing it for a crossing as it’s sandwiched between two bus stops and on the doorstep of several grocery stores.
One local even attempted to prevent people from dangerously crossing the hump by looping wrapping plastic between signage poles at either end.
While the plastic was replaced with orange and yellow mesh sheeting in early January – along with a sign telling pedestrians to use the crossing 60 metres down the road – the hump continues to be used as a crossing.
Residents and workers on the strip told the Herald that the hump has raised safety concerns, particularly since it also sits in front of an NDIS and aged-care facility.
“People think it’s a zebra crossing. It’s a huge risk,” said Saheb Khan, who works at the fruit shop in front of the hump. “Five to 10 people complain about it each day.”
Khan believes the hump should be converted into a crossing after witnessing many pedestrians almost hit by passing vehicles daily.
“It’s poor planning. There wasn’t a speed hump before, and we didn’t have any issues.”
Council received almost $3 million from Transport for NSW to upgrade high-pedestrian areas in Riverwood with more crossings, speed humps and refuge islands – including the speed hump at the corner of Belmore Road and Coleridge Street – as traffic speed dropped to 40km/h.
Permanent fencing for the speed hump has been ordered by the council, who said it will be installed as soon as it arrives.
Mark Coure, NSW opposition spokesman for roads and Riverwood’s state MP, said council’s high-pedestrian planning “could have been done better” and has called for a traffic study to address the suburb’s congestion.
“If you are going to put a speed hump in, you need to have the appropriate safety fencing to ensure that people don’t mistake it for a pedestrian crossing. That’s the nuts and bolts of this,” Coure said.
The council said it investigated whether to convert the speed hump into a crossing or eliminate it but found neither option would benefit the community.
“The speed humps will remain as they help deliver a self-enforcing low-speed environment,” a council spokesperson said.
“This location is not suitable for a zebra crossing because there is an existing signalised pedestrian crossing about 50 metres to the north. Adding a zebra crossing so close would create an extra conflict point between people walking and vehicles and could disrupt traffic flow.”
The council also said it had received one formal complaint and five fix-it requests about the hump being used as a crossing.
Hadi Charbine, a pharmacist on the strip, said the speed hump was installed with good intentions to improve pedestrian safety but had failed.
“It’s in a congested area,” Charbine said. “We have an ageing population with a high multicultural population who don’t speak English. It’s easy for them to mistake it as a crossing.”
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