Tuesday 26 January 2010

20mph speed limit set for trial in Whittlesey

At Fenland's Area Joint Committee last week, final agreement was given to a trial 20mph speed limit in the Drybread Road/Teal Road area.   It is quite a large area and needs to be because just introducing a speed limit along Drybread Road would lead to Teal Road becoming a rat run.

I have been trying to get the speed limit outside of the school lowered for a few years - in fact I recall that Alderman Jacobs School tried unsuccessfully to get it included when they joined the Safer Routes to Schools programme a few years ago.

One of the claims of those objecting to the plan  is that at peak times it is impossible to do 20mph around the school.   That is true to a degree, but the nature of schools, and especially extended schools,  means that children are entering and leaving the premises over a much wider time span; because of breakfast clubs and out of school clubs and the like.  Children need to be protected at all of these times.

The evidence says that the very presence of a 20mph limit reduces overall speed and, in the case of accidents, the lower the speed, the lower the chance of a fatality.  Whilst there is not a serious accident record in this area, there have been accidents, including one serious.

I would also point out that there were 750 leaflets distributed around the area and only 12 responses (the Cambs Times are wrong here, there was an update at committee), half of these responses were against the reduced limit).  6 out of 750 is less than one percent.

It will be interesting to see the results of the trial.

3 comments:

  1. Well that was a stupid idea, cars now over take those driving at 20.

    Not sure how they plan to measure the success; they could be bothered to set speed taps before the 20mph limit and they can't be bothered now.

    The fact that this is a commuter village and all the kids are dropped off at schools, makes this the wrong village for a trail anyway.

    I currently commute from this village for 2.5 hours a day rather than claim benifits, if they put the speed limit to 20 mph in all the villages, i'm not comuting for 3 hours a day, i'm going on the doll !

    ReplyDelete
  2. The 20 mph speed limit in and around the Bird's estate has now been 'in force' for some years now. I would like to know if and when it is going to be enforced?
    If the police set up speed traps along Teal Road between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. and issued on the spot fines to speeding motorists they would make an absolute fortune.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your comment, you raise a very valid point. We have tried a number of ways of enforcing, such as trying to get Speedwatch volunteers to monitor speed and getting the police to do more. I will raise the issue with the police again.

    I also accept we need some bigger thinking around this, there is increasing demand for 20mph limits because of the impact on child safety and so issues like enforcement need more thought.

    ReplyDelete