I’m sick of cars crashing on my street… so I’ve made my own sign

A LOCAL sick and tired of crashes occurring on their road says the council won’t do anything about it so they put up their own sign.

The homemade sign which reads “stupid thin road” was erected on St Anne’s Lane in the Burley area of Leeds in an attempt to reduce the number of traffic jams and accidents.

2

Motorists are often forced to drive on the grass verge in order to get past one another and one resident has claimed “you see a car crash twice a week”.

The business owner, who has not been named, told The Yorkshire Evening Post: “When you’re going down it’s scary. It gets jammed at rush hour. There’s constant beeping and constant crashes from the road. That’s not an exaggeration.”

Another neighbour agreed, adding: “Some drivers on the road are very impatient as when you pull into the drive people are trying to pull around you. We have seen things like wing mirrors get clipped off.

“I would like to think the sign makes people a bit more mindful of the fact it’s a very narrow road. It’s difficult when we get deliveries but it is what it is. It’s not changed in the ten years we’ve been here.”

Another neighbour said that drivers on the road are “very impatient” as “when you pull into the drive people are trying to pull round you”.

She claimed that drivers are using the road as a cut-through and unsuitable vehicles like lorries also use it which adds to the problems.

The woman said: “We have seen things like wing mirrors get clipped off. It’s a bit frustrating but not a huge problem.”

Asked if there had been any attempt to alert the council to the issues and possibly widen the road, she said: “To be honest I wouldn’t want it widening. I just think it needs to be controlled more.”

When asked if she thought the sign has had any impact on drivers, she said: “I would like to think it makes people a bit more mindful of the fact it’s a very narrow road. It’s difficult when we get deliveries but it is what it is. It’s not changed in the 10 years we’ve been here.”

However, not all residents seem bothered about the road, with another neighbour downplaying the severity of it, saying: “It’s fine.”

According to an RAC study, narrow lanes are a concern for drivers, with three in 10 motorists saying they go out of their way to avoid tight roads.

More than half of drivers (58 per cent) in a sample group said they find using narrow country roads stressful, stress shared by 76 per cent for drivers who live in urban areas.

The RAC said:  “For any driver less confident with tackling rural lanes the message has to be to plan a journey properly before setting out, and drive at the right speed according to the nature of the road, even if the official limit is 60mph. We’d also advise not becoming too reliant on a car’s sat nav.”

2