Meeting with Surrey County Councillor Tim Oliver, 20 Sept 2017

30/09/2017 by Editor Leave a Comment

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Issues that matter for Weybridge residents were the topic of a useful meeting between local residents’ groups and the Surrey County Councillor for Weybridge, on 20 September.

Clr Tim Oliver met with representatives of local residents groups in Weybridge, including the Weybridge Society, Portmore Park & District RA and Triangle Residents.

In advance of the meeting, PPDRA circulated a list of Surrey-related things that concern residents of our part of north Weybridge. Most of these were covered constructively in the meeting.

Below we list the PPDRA issues, plus Tim Oliver’s agenda. Summary of some key points covered in discussion to follow.

Summary of PPDRA issues/questions for Weybridge Surrey County Councillor – September 2017

1/ Parking concerns in north Weybridge

Need for effective strategic planning and action on parking (Weybridge-wide, recognising the specific issues of Portmore Park & district, including residents of our increasingly densely populated residential roads near the High Street where most households have no off-street parking, plus shoppers and workers and school runs)
Local reactions to the recent Parking Review, especially Dorchester & Gascoigne Road issues, and lack of action on Grenside Road following our meeting with Margaret Hicks

2/ Traffic flows and speeds in north Weybridge

Keeping speeds low in residential roads
Extending the 20mph limit to the east of Thames Street: Grotto Road, Monument Road etc (region of St James’ School & surrounding residential roads; additional traffic calming, particularly for Grotto & Greenlands Roads?)
Preventing Portmore Park Road / Thames St / Walton Lane becoming a faster & more heavily used rat run
Positive visibility of roundels in existing 20 zone (a few more needed, CIL funding possibility? likewise interactive signs?)
Request for up-to-date figures on traffic flows in Walton Lane/Thames Street and PPR

3/ Any SCC plans to reduce the overall negative impact of traffic on Weybridge?

4/ Safer cycle routes

SCC plans for improving safety of cycling Weybridge (given big spend in other places, and statements of previous Weybridge councillors)?
Particular issue cycling between PPR and Station/Heathside School at Balfour Road and Church Street.

5/ Pavements

Progress of town centre pavement / pedestrian area plans?
Dangerous unevenness on pavements and gradients on drop kerbs (and no way of reporting gradients online)
Continuing issue of missing pavement on one side of Grotto Road, approaching the junction of Thames Street (a crossover of two school runs, with many pedestrians; blind corner for traffic exiting Grotto Road)

6/ Public Footpaths

Excellent to have Broadwater Path FP40!
Gradients/difficult access to parts of FP36 (Grenside Road to River Thames)
Dual use of FP20 (PPR to Minorca) ?
Issues of horse riders on Desborough Island, including churning its unsurfaced perimeter footpath

7/ Road surfaces / potholes

Status of resurfacing vs patching?
Issues of recurrent break-up at high use turning areas (e.g. Elmgrove Road outside Waitrose car park) and bends (e.g. PPR either side ode of traffic islands)
Recurrent dangerous break-up & subsidence around drains (where cyclists have to ride – e.g. in Thames Street))

8/ Impacted gullies causing recurrent road flooding

g. the end of PPR by Balfour Road; Walton Lane (or is that an EBC culvert issue by the canoe club?)

9/ Weybridge Community Hospital

Transport to temporary Walton location (new enhanced bus timetables – is SCC monitoring need /demand/ take–up?)
Rebuilding plans (essential not to lose the local community facility!!!)
Medium term plans?

10/ Town centre improvement initiatives

Weybridge Library building – current plans?
Status of thinking on part-pedestrianisation, e.g. weekend/market day closures at end of Baker Street?
Other positive SCC thinking?

11/ Future housing plans – SCC involvement?

What is the SCC role in the consultation on future housing needs (e.g. in matching plans to infrastructure & community character; some local concerns about the impact of building multiple flats – with transient rentals – on the character of a family residential area)

12/ Possibilities for SCC supporting community & voluntary involvement?

Helping residents take pride in our locality, e.g. through supporting voluntary minor clearing work along public footpaths.

Happily, the PPDRA issues overlapped considerably with the agenda suggested by Tim Oliver:

AGENDA

Introductions

Purpose of the meeting

Library proposals/ walk in centre
Parking review
Park & ride/ Traffic congestion
Streetscape/ High street regeneration
Brooklands business park accessibility
Baker street
War memorial lighting
Road closures information
Road surfaces
Road safety

Future meetings

Weybridge Parking Review – delays and action

15/02/2017 by Editor Leave a Comment

DorchesterRdParking2017-sc The long awaited Weybridge Parking Review decision seems to have been delayed again, and there is no reliable information available about when Surrey County Council will complete the review. But there is now a parallel local initiative to look at the problem.

Residents will recall that the draft SCC Weybridge Parking Review proposals caused a lot of concern locally, so much so that they were sent back for further work. SCC received hundreds of comments, and it seems to be taking a very long time to consider these. We hear that a Surrey County Council meeting to discuss local roads this month was cancelled at short notice. No reason was given, but it coincides with a dire financial position (£120 million shortfall) and budget uncertainty. There are concerns locally that the SCC Weybridge Strategic Parking Review may be cut back or put on hold indefinitely.

Meanwhile the Weybridgetown Business Group and Weybridge Society are collaborating to take a much needed longer term strategic look at Weybridge parking needs and possibilities. You can download a press release announcing the Weybridge Parking Project 2017_18 here.

As part of that voluntary local activity, they are seeking the views of local residents groups.

PPDRA input submitted in January 2016 to the SCC Weybridge Strategic Parking Review is shown below.

Do you think that the comments below are a relevant and fair reflection of Weybridge parking needs in 2017? If you live, work or shop in Weybridge, or are a concerned visitor, please let us know your thoughts.

PPDRA submission to SCC Weybridge Parking Review

January 2016

Portmore Park & District Residents Association (PPDRA) recognises that Weybridge needs adequate parking for residents, shoppers, visitors and workers, if our town is to thrive. We also know that this is a difficult balance to achieve.

The PPDRA committee broadly welcomes the principle of reducing parking restrictions to help increase capacity, where that is possible and desirable, so long as

a good balance of priorities is achieved (especially the balance between parking for residents, shoppers and workers)
safety is kept as a prime consideration.

We welcome the principle of consulting residents of individual roads about the specific needs of their road, especially where residents are being displaced from limited parking spaces in their own road.

PPDRA believes there is a very strong need for more public off-street parking, priced more affordably, and convenient for Weybridge town centre. This is a view which has been widely expressed by local residents in our community meetings and surveys. Cheap or free short stay parking in particular could help the town centre thrive. Affordable long stay off-street parking is also much needed, within reasonable walking distance.

We recognise that allowing on-street parking can have positive outcomes beyond a simple increase in parking capacity, especially in potential rat runs. Traffic speeds in our local residential roads are a major issue. Parked cars can be a positive natural form of traffic calming: for example, Portmore Park Road and Thames Street are unclassified residential roads which without parked cars might become high speed rat runs for through traffic.

Thames Street and Portmore Park Road include schools and a church, which have different parking needs and impacts on the community, meriting additional thought about how best to enable the required mainly short stay parking nearby. PPDRA has met with St George’s Junior School 3 times a year since 2002, liaising on issues including how best to manage school run drop off and pick up parking. We have also discussed parking issues with representatives of Christ The Prince of Peace church and other local groups. We note that Thames Street has recently faced issues of excessive obstruction caused by inconsiderate parking at the upper end between the junction with Grotto Road and Monument Green.

The most serious parking issues locally arise close to Weybridge High Street. The Portmore Park and District area of north Weybridge has a fair density of mainly Victorian homes with no off-street parking. The lack of private off-street parking is a particular issue in roads adjacent to the High Street, where shoppers and town centre workers look to park their cars. The result has been that residents of these roads, returning from a school run or shopping journey, risk finding nowhere to park within walking distance of their home. Hence many living in these roads favour residents’ parking schemes.

PPDRA has long supported the principle that Surrey County Council should consult residents of individual roads about specific residents’ parking schemes for their road.

The PPDRA committee also recognises the need to permit short term shopper and visitor parking in such roads, with a good level of churn, so long as it allows for the needed level of daytime residents’ parking. It is not good to see ‘residents only’ parking zones with few parked cars in daytime, when shoppers can find nowhere to park and when local shops are in need of footfall.

Further from the High Street, many homes in Portmore Park & District have private off-street parking. For roads where there is no issue of residents being displaced from essential on-street parking, as a general principle the majority of the PPDRA committee would favour only minimal restrictions, simply where safety issues demand double yellow lines on dangerous corners. However, we appreciate that there is concern among residents in some roads (particularly Wey Road and Round Oak Road) about potential displacement of parking into their roads if CPZs are introduced elsewhere, and we feel this issue needs careful consideration by Surrey.

We are aware of specific issues in Radnor and Glencoe Roads where there is a very high density of houses and almost no off-street parking, and Church Walk which has very limited parking. Some residents of these and other roads rely on their parking being able to overflow into on-street parking in Portmore Park Road.

PPDRA would be happy to contribute further on any way possible to help support Surrey County Council (and Elmbridge Borough Council) in finding ways to achieve adequate parking for Weybridge residents, shoppers, visitors and workers.

Additional PPDRA comments to Councillors in July 2016, following the release of draft recommendations

POSITIVE POINTS

The review tries to address some important parking issues, and includes consultation with residents of the most immediately affected roads – particularly those close to the High Street, with limited private off-street parking, such as Dorchester Road (where residents rely on being able to park on-street).
It proposes CPZ changes/extension based on the responses of residents of those roads.
It proposes something to help control early evening on-street parking near the town centre (by extending restrictions to 8pm).
It tries to do something to increase daytime short-stay shopper parking (by allowing it in some sections of CPZ roads).
It seeks to address known safety issues around various junctions.

STRATEGIC CONCERNS

The review fails to take a strategic view of Weybridge parking needs, and on-street vs off-street capacity.
It particularly fails to address the issue of public off-street parking shortage in Weybridge.

IMMEDIATE ISSUES

The review ignores roads east of Thames Street (e.g. Grenside Rd, Grotto Road, West Palace Gardens, Old Palace Road), and in particular does not address the issues of Grenside Road parking. (Note that St George’s Junior School staff park 30 or more cars on local roads on school days).
It does not assess the impact of displacement parking from CPZs. Some residents are concerned about displacement parking from new CPZs. PPDRA is aware of considerable disquiet from Round Oak Road & Wey Road, although PPDRA is particularly concerned about displacement into roads where there is limited private off-street parking, where displacement parking leaves residents nowhere to park.
It is not effective enough in increasing short-stay shopper daytime parking capacity (e.g. Oakdale Road daytime spaces count), and such spaces are poorly signed.
It does nothing at all to assist affordable long-stay worker parking.

Local concern at Parking Review recommendations

28/07/2016 by Editor Leave a Comment

The long awaited Weybridge Parking Review recommendations have received mixed reactions locally, and disappointment at what was not covered. Here we give an overview of the parking issues, and draft reactions from PPDRA to the recommendations.

When the Surrey County Council parking team presented its Weybridge Parking Review report of recommendations, and drawings to the Elmbridge local committee at its meeting of 27 June for initial approval, councillors at the meeting reported a lot of concern from local residents

SCC reports that “As a result of concerns expressed by committee members, we are currently considering comments received in response to the publication of these proposals, before deciding on what schemes should be put forward to formal advertisement. We are still aiming to advertise these proposals in September.”

At a public meeting on 14 July organised by Cllr Andrew Davis, PPDRA Chair Miles Macleod was invited to attempt an impartial non-political introduction.

Here are the notes from that introduction:

Weybridge Parking Review – An Introduction from PPDRA

Parking is an increasingly serious problem for our town. Weybridge needs:

Reliable parking for residents
Convenient parking for shoppers & visitors
Affordable parking for workers

The issue is that demand for parking spaces exceeds supply.

Weybridge has a particular problem in roads where Victorian and Edwardian homes have no off-street parking, so residents have to find spaces on-street, in competition with workers and shoppers unless there is a CPZ in their road.

Over the years this has got worse, with:

more cars,
new dwellings without private parking (which Government planning law forces Councils to permit near town centres)
progressively more yellow lines and on-street restrictions which reduce overall capacity

Many residents were pleased when Surrey announced a strategic review, which would try to do something about that.

Those who recalled the last strategic review, some 8 years ago, hoped it would be nothing like that – a plan which caused an outcry because it would have reduced parking capacity dramatically in parts of North Weybridge causing displacement to neighbouring areas.

PPDRA welcomed the new review’s aims. Our view has long been that:

residents in individual roads should be consulted on CPZs, within an overall strategy and consultation with wider community
the Councils — Surrey & Elmbridge — should work together to increase capacity
something major is needed to address the shortage of off-street parking in Weybridge

What was our reaction on seeing the Review recommendations? Well, in some ways very disappointed
– where is the strategic thinking? What about off-street parking? And why were some roads entirely ignored?

But it does have some positive points, in some of the changes proposed.

PPDRA DRAFT reactions to the Weybridge Parking Review 2016 report of recommendations

It has some good points:

Trying to address some important parking issues, and consulting residents of the most immediately affected roads – particularly those close to the High Street, with limited private off-street parking (where residents rely on being able to park on-street)
Proposing CPZ changes/extension based on the responses of residents of those roads
Proposing something to help control early evening on-street parking near the town centre (by extending restrictions to 8pm)
Trying to do something to increase daytime short-stay shopper parking (by allowing it in some sections of CPZ roads)
Addressing known safety issues around various junctions

And bad points:

LONG TERM

Failing to take a strategic view of Weybridge parking needs, and on-street vs off-street capacity
Particularly failing to address the issue of public off-street parking shortage

IMMEDIATE

Ignoring roads east of Thames Street (e.g. Grenside Rd, Grotto Road, West Palace Gardens, Old Palace Road)
Not assessing the impact of displacement parking from CPZs
Not being effective enough in increasing short-stay shopper daytime parking capacity (e.g. Oakdale Road daytime spaces count)
Doing nothing to assist long-stay worker parking

There is a fair overlap between our views and the views from the Weybridge Society, but where we differ is that PPDRA does not think that all changes should be put on hold while the strategic issues are sorted out – there is a parking crisis in some roads near the High Street, which needs urgent action.

Weybridge Parking Review – PPDRA Response

18/01/2016 by Editor Leave a Comment

On 17 January 2016, PPDRA sent the following to the Surrey Highways Parking Strategy & Implementation Team. It draws on extensive local discussion by our committee, input from residents at meetings and via a survey, and discussions with local groups.

PPDRA submission to SCC Weybridge Parking Review

The PPDRA committee broadly welcomes the principle of reducing parking restrictions to help increase capacity, where that is possible and desirable, so long as

a good balance of priorities is achieved (especially the balance between parking for residents, shoppers and workers)
safety is kept as a prime consideration.

PPDRA has long supported the principle that Surrey County Council should consult residents of individual roads about specific residents’ parking schemes for their road.

Weybridge parking review survey announced

23/12/2015 by Editor Leave a Comment

Surrey County Council Parking team have now released information about the Weybridge Parking Review, and are asking stakeholders to give their views in an online survey. Local residents, businesses and others with interest in local parking can contribute to the survey until 17 January, via the link included below.

PPDRA is one of the organisations SCC list as a consultee. Here is the text of the SCC email:

From: Adrian Harris On Behalf Of Parking
Sent: 22 December 2015 12:32
To: Parking
Subject: Weybridge parking review survey

Dear Sir / Madam,

Surrey County Council is currently undertaking a review of parking in Weybridge. This is part of a new approach agreed by the Local Committee for Elmbridge which involves taking a longer term, more strategic and detailed look at parking and not just reacting to problems that have been brought to our attention, which has been the case during reviews in the past few years.

We will focus on the following priorities:
• Provide parking, if possible, where it is needed. This could include removing or amending existing restrictions.
• Dealing with locations where there is a demonstrable safety problem.

At the same time, we will have to be careful to ensure that any schemes do not cause undue displacement and simply move problems elsewhere.

Overall the aim is to try and resolve some of the issues caused by the conflicting needs of different road users, without doing anything to affect the character and vitality of the community.

We are writing to you as a key stakeholder in order to gain some understanding of your priorities and suggestions.

As Highway Authority we are responsible for the parking restrictions and controls on the public highway. Elmbridge Borough Council own and manage the off street car parks in Elmbridge, carry out enforcement of on and off street car parks, and are the planning authority. As such, we will also need to work with them where possible and appropriate to achieve a joined up approach.

We have created a quick survey with some quite ‘broad brush’ questions, to help gather your views. If you could kindly complete the survey, by 17 January 2016 it will be really helpful for us. The link to the survey is available via our webpage below:
https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/parking/parking-whats-happening-in-your-area/parking-news-and-updates-in-elmbridge

Kind regards,

Adrian

Adrian Harris
Engineer
Parking Strategy and Implementation Team
Surrey Highways
Tel: 0300 200 1003

For more information about what we do, please visit our Surrey Highways Website

—————

UPDATE: An announcement of the Weybridge Parking Review has now been posted on the Surrey County Council website, which also gives a link to the results of the Cobham Parking Review in the Elmbridge Local Committee parking report.

Survey 2015: What do you want for Weybridge?

14/10/2015 by Editor Leave a Comment

PPDRA is conducting a survey of local residents’ concerns and wishes for Weybridge, to help us continue to reflect local views.

Our Survey 2015 covers:

Weybridge Town Centre – how to make it more attractive to visit.
Parking – on-street and off-street provision.
Traffic through residential areas – volume and speed, and how to manage it.
Public riversides, green spaces and footpaths – appreciation, concerns and wishes.
Other local concerns.

Survey forms are being distributed with our October 2015 PPDRA Newsletter.
You can also download copy of PPDRA Survey 2015 here.

Portmore Park & District Annual Residents Meeting – 3 Nov 2015

14/10/2015 by Editor Leave a Comment

Residents of north Weybridge are invited to share views at our
Portmore Park & District Residents Annual Meeting
Meet other residents and local councillors
Tuesday 3 November, 7:30 for 8:00 pm
St Charles Borromeo School Hall, Christ The Prince Of Peace (Portmore Way)
7:30 – Chat and light refreshments
8:00 – Hear about and discuss local matters which affect our community
We will also briefly conduct the formal business of the PPDRA AGM

Elmbridge Borough Councillors for Weybridge North, Andrew Davis and Ramon Gray, plan to be at our meeting to listen to and speak with residents. This year Ramon Gray was also elected as Surrey County Councillor for Weybridge (his predecessor Christian Mahne was at last year’s meeting).
We hope also to have a guest to speak about the parking review.
Note that PPDRA and our AGM are always careful not to be party political.

Download our October 2015 PPDRA Newsletter (pdf, 1334KB) here.

You can also download copy of PPDRA Survey 2015 (pdf, 508KB) here.

Weybridge parking review – hope on hold?

27/02/2015 by Editor 1 Comment

People hoping for early action on chronic parking issues which afflict some roads in Weybridge may be disappointed at new plans from Surrey. The idea is sound – a strategic parking review looking at needs as well as restrictions, seeking to free up spaces – but the timing and interim arrangements have left some residents feeling badly let down.

Despite previous talk of Weybridge getting an early review, we have been moved down the queue, behind Cobham. That may mean waiting until 2017 for changes.

Frozen out for now?
Until after the review, Surrey propose not to act on local parking issues unless there is an ‘irrefutable serious road safety implication’. The current system for making numerous changes yearly – to deal with specific local problems soon after they arise – will cease. This would mean proposals to deal with pressing parking issues in Dorchester Road and near the top of Thames Street being left in limbo.

So where does that leave Dorchester Road residents who were given hope of early action when they took a petition to Surrey (see PETITION RESPONSE DORCHESTER ROAD. WEYBRIDGE FOR INFORMATION)? They would love to know.

Consultation
More positively, the SCC ELMBRIDGE PARKING STRATEGY EXECUTIVE FUNCTION REPORT — presented to the Surrey County Council Local Committee on 23 February 2015 — proposes a high level of consultation, using an external consultant to engage with local groups. PPDRA is determined to ensure that local Weybridge views get a good hearing.

There is a strong feeling locally that there is an overall shortage of parking in Weybridge town centre, and better collaboration is needed between Surrey County Council (responsible for on-street parking), Elmbridge Borough Council (responsible for some off-street parking) and businesses (also responsible for some off-street parking).

Surrey County Council Proposals

So what has Surrey proposed? Well, the SCC Elmbridge Parking Strategy Executive Function report prepared by Rikki Hill has a promising start:

Reasons for Recommendations. In the past, reviews of parking have tended to be reactive in nature and concentrated on where parking was not desirable and so should be controlled or restricted. A more strategic approach would allow us to also consider where parking is needed and how those parking needs may be met.

But the analysis suggests a longer than anticipated wait for action on local issues:

2.8 Adopting this new more holistic approach to reviewing parking will mean that it will not be possible to review the whole of Elmbridge at the same time. We would therefore need to review each area within the borough on a rolling programme and it would make sense to start with the Cobham area (including Stoke D’Abernon and Oxshott) as the Cobham Chamber of Commerce have already collected a considerable amount of information about the needs of local businesses and the amount of existing private off street parking spaces.

2.9 Taking into account the number of possible problems that have been brought to our attention in the last couple of years, we should then look at Weybridge, followed by the Moleseys and the Dittons, then Esher, Claygate and Hinchley Wood. We should finish with Walton & Hersham, as this is where there has most recently been a comprehensive review.

2.10 The aim would be to complete the reviews in all the areas within the next three financial years after which we would review our strategy and consider whether to start the process again or adopt a new approach.

2.11 As there may still be parking issues that arise outside of the above programme, where there is an irrefutable serious road safety implication, we would want to continue with a smaller version of the current review system to deal with these.

The parking issue in Dorchester Road probably doesn’t have “an irrefutable serious road safety implication”. A case might be made for safety improvements at the top of Thames Street, but our previous experience of arguing for restrictions on safety grounds — at the end of Grotto Road — was that Surrey County Council really wanted evidence of someone being seriously injured (“anyone can say a road is dangerous, but we need to see evidence”).

The root of the issue north of Weybridge High Street is that parking by non-residents has been squeezed out of adjacent roads by restrictions (including residents-only parking). So Dorchester Road and the top of Thames Street have become the nearest accessible places for town centre workers looking for spaces, leaving some residents with nowhere to park. And now Weybridge has a new supermarket with no on-site staff parking spaces.

Morrisons feature at 2014 PP&DRA AGM

20/11/2014 by Editor Leave a Comment

The big new Morrisons store in Weybridge — the largest retail development the town centre has seen — provoked lively discussion at the 2014 Portmore Park & District RA AGM on 13 November. The manager of the new store, Gary Hunt, took part in a very useful Q&A session, and provided some reassurance about how the store would respond to issues that may arise. The meeting was attended by over 50 local residents, some with strong concerns about the impact on local parking and traffic, given the relatively modest size of the car park and the lack of provision for staff parking, and the issue of abandoned trolleys.

Local councillors for Weybridge, Surrey County Councillor Christian Mahne, and Elmbridge Borough Councillor Andrew Davis (Weybridge North) also attended the meeting, and answered questions on matters that are the responsibility of the Councils.

Other topics covered on the AGM agenda included findings from local traffic flow surveys conducted by PP&DRA.

A new committee for 2015 was elected.

[More to follow]

Speeding traffic – local action needed?

12/08/2014 by Editor Leave a Comment

Speeding traffic has been an issue for many years in Portmore Park, and it remains an issue. Is it time for residents to act again?

Traffic calming was introduced after pressure from local residents and from this Association. It helped slow traffic (there were some serious injury accidents here in the 1990’s, but not since). It was followed eventually by a 20mph limit in the Portmore Park Road / Thames Street area.

But too much traffic still speeds through Portmore Park. The signage is poor, with little to tell drivers they are entering a 20 zone. We want 20 zone signage painted on the road surface, where drivers will see it. And a speed-sensitive sign or two would be even better. We have made this clear to our County Councillor.

Is more evidence needed, to get things acted upon? Surrey County Council looks first at the hard evidence of the number of road casualties. PP&DRA wants to get something done to prevent further road casualties. Better signage is not that expensive. Surrey recently repainted the ‘SLOW’ wording on the road surface, when they could have painted a much more effective ‘20 ZONE‘ road marking for much the same money.

In Greater London, introduction of well signed 20 Zones has seen a 40% reduction in road accident injuries to children. Can Surrey County Council learn from this?

PP&DRA would also like to see the North Weybridge 20 Zone extended. For some reason it stops east of Thames Street, so there is currently no 20 limit around St James’s Junior School, in Monument Road and Grotto Road. Surrey CC has said this is because 20 limits must be self-enforcing, yet Monument Road Road has traffic calming with very steep speed humps.

Can we get something achieved on any of these issues? What is the best way forward? We have have been thinking about doing community speed checks, with radar gun to gather evidence, and with bright yellow jackets to make rat run traffic aware. Worth doing?