Stop rat runners on our streets before someone gets hurt," says Sheffield residents

The Star, Sheffield

Residents on the streets off Hunters Bar say their neighbourhood has become a rat run plagued with speeding, hazardous parking and road rage.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon Sheffield, it's Alistair from the Sheffield Star. I'm speaking to you from Hunter

00:03House Road in Hunter's Bar. Rosen's asked me to come down here and speak to them about a persistent

00:07rat run issue they're having in this area. This road behind me as you can see is absolutely

00:11chocked to the block with parking. A situation where if cars are coming down and a car is going

00:15up at the same time, both of them have to play sort of chicken at that point and see who will

00:19reverse at any one time. And it's been leading to a lot of aggression and road rage in the area where

00:23say around school time and that there is several schools nearby. It can lead to a situation where

00:27the whole area is absolutely gridlocked with cars but even on just a passing moment you have

00:31situations where cars are just having standoffs up and down this very steep hill and seeing who

00:35will reverse to let the other one pass. I came down here to speak to residents about the issue

00:39and ask what they want to see done about it. Well I think our main problem in the mornings is when

00:45people are coming down the road and using it as a rat run to get to the high school, take the

00:49children to the high school or get to work. So we've constantly got a lot of pressure of traffic

00:54in the morning coming down which then hits traffic coming up. But our main concern really

01:00is about children getting to school safely and being able to walk with their parents or on their

01:05own because for them and older it is not safe. What do you see? At this junction particularly

01:11there are people coming down the road, big queues, couldn't have cars parked, lots of cars parking

01:17on double yellow lines so children having to negotiate getting around cars and keeping on

01:22the pavement. Sometimes they can't even go on the pavement because the cars are parked there.

01:28That's the problem and for safety and really we just feel it's like an accident waiting to happen.

01:34Sure. Plus the fact you think the biggest issue as well is the emissions that these cars give off

01:39because they're pretty big cars and they're idling engines as they're queuing down the road

01:45and that's not good for children walking to school to inhale all that so that's a big issue.

01:50Sounds like a recipe for a lot of road rage as well. What do you see in that sense?

01:53Oh plenty. I think we've all had experience of that. We're just seeing it now as someone's come

01:59up the road quite rightly to come up the road and then being met by a van coming down the road

02:06and there's been a head-to-head outside my house for the last 30 minutes with cars backed up behind

02:12and people getting very aggressive. So yeah a lot of aggression and nastiness. People, not people

02:18on the road of course not we're all neighbours, but people using the road as a rat run,

02:24not abiding by sort of or giving way to people or being courteous or just being bloody minded

02:32basically. What's the solution you want to see? I think the big solution it's quite simple just

02:37make the road one way. Stop people coming down the road, block it off at the bottom or one way

02:43so people can come up and that would cut out people using it as a rat run, using it as a car

02:49park, it would cut out the emissions, children would be able to walk safely to school. I mean

02:55even the older children might be able to walk to school on their own because we live in a lovely

03:00community here with lots of families and the school is you know part of that community and

03:05perhaps needs to do a bit more in supporting the local families in being able to live their lives

03:13normally without all this stuff from cars and people driving through just because they can't.

03:19It's not a new idea though you've been after the solution for quite some time though I mean how

03:22long you've been dealing with this and how long you've been proposing this? I've been dealing

03:26with it for 24 years I've been here. We've done no end of campaigning, we've done petitions,

03:32no end of petitions, we've been to see councillors, we've had meetings in the town hall.

03:39It's funny always around about election time you always get a lot of people knocking on your door

03:44saying what can we do for you in this community because they want you to vote for them and then

03:50you'll say oh yeah could you help us with the roads and stuff and the parking and so on and

03:56and it all gets very you know heightened and busy and we all get our hopes up and think something's

04:02going to happen and then it never does so 24 years of that really it's not good enough from

04:08the council really.

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