A warning sign alerting drivers to a “stupid thin road” has been erected after residents near the route grew tired of trouble with traffic jams, drivers consistently using their horns, and regular crashes.
A group of neighbours in the Burley area of Leeds put up the homemade sign on St Anne’s Road, a narrow lane which has become locally infamous, with cars forced to drive on a grass verge to get past parked vehicles.
The sign warns drivers of the “stupid narrow road”, whose width has led both to nuisance noise and damage to cars.
One local said: “There’s constant beeping and constant crashes from the road and that’s not an exaggeration.”
Another neighbour agreed, adding: “Some drivers on the road are very impatient as when you pull into the drive people are trying to pull around you. We have seen things like wing mirrors get clipped off.
“I would like to think the sign makes people a bit more mindful of the fact it’s a very narrow road. It’s difficult when we get deliveries but it is what it is. It’s not changed in the ten years we’ve been here.”
The lane is understood to be used as a cut-through for motorists, and lorry drivers often attempt to navigate the road, leading to further noise and problems for the residents of St Anne’s Lane.
Narrow lanes are a concern for drivers, according to the RAC, which revealed through a study that three in ten motorists go out of their way to avoid tight roads.
More than half of drivers (58 per cent) in a sample group said they find using narrow country roads stressful, stress shared by 76 per cent for drivers who live in urban areas.
Drivers were found to be particularly stressed at the thought of having to reverse out of a lane if they were blocked by a car coming the other way.
The RAC advised: “For any driver less confident with tackling rural lanes the message has to be to plan a journey properly before setting out, and drive at the right speed according to the nature of the road, even if the official limit is 60mph. We’d also advise not becoming too reliant on a car’s sat nav.”