The people who plan our traffic schemes sometimes seem to lack a basic understanding of human nature. If motorists will mount the pavement to avoid speed humps (and that, almost unbelievably, has happened in Bradford), then they will certainly seek out detours which have no traffic-calming measures to avoid the minor inconvenience they cause.

That is currently happening in Laisterdyke, where drivers by-passing devices designed to slow them down are speeding down Parsonage Road instead. This is a road which, in addition to rat-running cars, has to put up with buses and heavy lorries cutting between the busy main roads of Sticker Lane and Dick Lane and shoppers' traffic visiting Morrison's supermarket.

Residents have begun a campaign to improve safety in the road after a youngster was spun off his bike after being struck by a passing vehicle. They want road humps to slow down the speeding drivers.

It surely is not too much to ask. It might be a bit of a nuisance to the buses to have to negotiate their way over the humps (and possibly uncomfortable for their passengers). But that seems a small price to pay if it reduces the likelihood of accidents.

Appeals to the better nature of motorists or even speed-limit signs seem unlikely to succeed. A constant police presence to catch the offenders means tying up limited resources. The best answer would seem to be an extension of the sort of calming measures used in the surrounding streets to Parsonage Road, so that is no longer a tempting rat run.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.