On behalf of the residents of a block of flats at 100/1 Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow I was contacted by a lady with a fairly unusual request – to help get some “sleeping policemen” installed in a road. The reason was that opposite their house on the main thoroughfare there is a bus stop. And to get from the house to the stop you have to cross a narrow road which runs right past the entrance to the building. But the people who live there risk being run over every time they cross the road. According to the lady who wrote to me, there have been several cases of pedestrians being knocked down in this section of the road.
The local authorities (Prospekt Vernadskogo local administration and Western Administrative District prefecture) are aware of this problem. Following numerous complaints from the residents the prefect finally came to look into it and agreed that there was a need for speed bumps on the road. That was 18 months ago, and still nothing has been done, so the residents decided to seek help elsewhere…
I sent in a formal request to the Prefect of the Western Administrative District, Yu.M.Alpatov, asking for his help in getting “sleeping policemen” installed on the road next to the building so that pedestrians can cross the street in safety. The residents’ petition was reviewed by the Prefecture together with the Prospect Vernadsky district authorities and was referred to the appropriate office – the Road Safety Inspectorate for the Western District – for a decision on whether the speed bumps were necessary. According to the Inspectorate, the decision was positive and the Prospekt Vernadsky location will be included in the speed bump programme for 2009.