Wheel

At the end of the street I live on is a fairly major road, the A298. The A298 itself is a rather short piece of A road from New Malden to somewhere east of Raynes Park. We’re not directly connected to the main road for cars - you can’t drive onto Bushy Road and I am not sure you ever could. It doesn’t look like the roadways were ever connected. But there is a path and you can walk across the gap.  This is the start of my morning walk each weekday. I take a route down the main road and then return via the quieter streets.  

In last year’s lockdown there was quite a bit of chatter on the street WhatsApp group about the noise from the main road. At the first lockdown, when traffic almost disappeared for a few weeks, it was strangely quiet which made the gradual return of the traffic more noticeable.   The initial volumes of returning traffic were low enough to make this short stretch of road a bit of a race track as drivers sped away from the traffic lights with no vehicles ahead of them to slow them down. There were some complaints because the noise of the boy racers is definitely very different from the continual drone of a higher volume of traffic.  

I don’t think we’re back at pre-lockdown traffic levels but it is noticeably busier than the last lockdown. And, just occasionally, there are bits they have clearly come off speeding vehicles.

I wonder how long this will lurk in the bushes?