WARNING - Boring topic ! Local council road speeds

[Cyrus1971]

A decade or so ago my local council (Wokingham, Berks) dropped the speed limit on the whole of the A321 Henley to Wargrave road from a 60mph to a 40mph limit. It was worth doing but I don't think they went far enough and 30 mph is more appropriate in our small section as we are the first of 7 houses on the edge of a village. In fact it is 30 mph about 500 meters further into the village. After 2+ years of effort I got the local council to re-assess the speed limit outside our house as I requested it be dropped to 30mph about 600 meters before the current "Village" area. I failed and they believe the current limit is correct. I have received their technical arguments for this but they are all rather circular and self serving but they have now at least declared and in black and white what they rely on for their conclusions.

As part of that rebuttal they did 1 week of speed survey in the summer for which I have the data set. However at the same time as the pneumatic road speed loggers being set up they also very doggedly put up an illuminating speed monitoring sign about 100 meters away from the pneumatic strips speed logger. You know the type they light up with Green when under the limit and red saying slow down when over the limit. So the whole data set will have been influenced and compromised by the presence of this new sign at that time. None the less speed averages were about 5 mph over the limit in both directions. Peeks were absurdly high with a few 100 mph and above. 1/4 of all cars were 10 mph over the limit. I think these were probably organ donors (sorry Motorcyclists) zipping about like MadMax and thinking they are cool in some way.

I am looking for some genuine insight / experience please on my best next steps to tackle this ? Many thanks.

I realise this is about as interesting a topic as paint drying times for most Pistonheaders. I am not anti-speed. I have had half a dozen Porsches in my time and raced too, nor is this nimbyism. There is a genuine road safety issue here that I wanted them to acknowledge that they do not actually address in their rebuttal. They simply say the limit is OK for XYZ reasons.

Are there professionals who deal with and advise on how to assault the "logic" of local councils on such matters ?

[Cyrus1971]

Bikesalot said:

Cyrus1971 said:

I think these were probably organ donors (sorry Motorcyclists)

I think the bigger issue is using this term...

Fair call, yes it was a bit inflammatory. I am talking about the 100 mph bunch at midnight waking my kids up though. There have been 3 deaths on the road in 15 years and it is only 2.5 miles long. Just not in the same place to put the camera in one position...

[Cyrus1971]

rxe said:

I grew up round there and passed my test in Henley. That road was then a 60 and a perfectly good one at that. Doing 60 over the humpback bridge was the highlight of the drive....

Yes I know that bridge, at 30 you can catch a bit of air !

[Cyrus1971]

phil4 said:

I don't believe you've said why you think 30mph is more appropriate?

There are 7 houses, 4 drives and the visibility splays (for oncoming traffic) is awful from all of them. Plus only 1 pavement exactly 35'' wide. I have been clipped by a bus wing mirror and the road is too dangerous to walk along despite said pavement. The danger is the inevitability of hitting a cyclist or car as one emerges from a drive onto the road. It's a conservation area so I have been told by the council I can't put a mirror up and in fact they take down any that get tried.

[Cyrus1971]

lyonspride said:

Zero point in a 30 limit, most people do 40 in 30 zones, especially on rural roads.

It'd be a total waste of money.

It's a good point but a fatalistic one. If this were the governing thinking on posting limits surely we would not have any ?

[Cyrus1971]

Initforthemoney said:

Thread title delivers.

yup, you were warned. And now you have gone and wasted time reading this too :-)

[Cyrus1971]

donkmeister said:

I sympathise when you have tts doing 100mph+ past your front door, but from the OP it sounds like you bought a house on a 60mph THEN went about campaigning for a lower limit.

If that is the case; should road users be held up (even just -10mph for 600 metres) to increase your enjoyment of your property?

I'm seeing this attitude already on a new development near me where new residents are getting upset about speeders on the 40mph relief road, pushing for speed bumps, which would move traffic onto my (30mph old residential) road to avoid it. I woz 'ere first!

The 60 limit proceeded us buying by years. It was 40 when we bought it. It's not for the enjoyment of my property (which to use your I woz 'ere first approach was built 40 years before the invention of the internal combustion engine) It is genuinely dangerous. I can't quantify that as a word but I can qualify it. 3 times in 3 years I have nudged out in a sensible fashion and cyclysts have swerved in to oncoming on other carriageway, been hit by a bus wing mirror and had several cars going at over the limit slam on the breaks and dramatically stop 5 ft from my drivers door. It has all the ingredients of an accident to come but it seems the formula on setting limits has quite a lot of room for judgement in ti. Judgement that is set at the moment agains lowering unless 3 people get killed in one spot.

What happened to a pro-active approach ?

[Cyrus1971]

meatballs said:

rxe said:

Get one of those bendy mirrors? They work surprisingly well.

Problem is that it isn’t really a village - it’s a collection houses that people have built on fairly busy road. There’s no “centre”, just to odd driveway. Pretty much every road in the country should be s 30 by that logic.

100 is clearly too fast, but those guys will still do 100 whether it is a 30 or a 40. If you’re going 60 over the limit, you might as well make it 70,.

I think he said they've put a mirror up but was taken down as it's a conservation area.

Bendy mirror would be perfect, there is even a telegraph pole to put it on but it's a conservation area and a previous bendy mirror was instructed by the council to be removed. The drive way "design" lets call it is in a 10ft high wall that was built in the 1870's and is also part of the conservation area and a listed building nearby precludes alteration.

[Cyrus1971]

seveb said:

Cyrus1971 said:

I think these were probably organ donors (sorry Motorcyclists) zipping about like MadMax and thinking they are cool in some way.

With this sort of comment I can see your problem. You're a nimby - everybody else has to suffer because you're selfish, as well as a moron. Grow a pair and either move house or deal with the lack of view by cutting your hedge or redesigning your wall so you can see.

Edited by seveb on Monday 26th August 11:01

I have often wondered at the term Nimby used as a pejorative. Personally I see every day that local issues are largely driven by conscientiously raised Nimbys. Millions of local actors are out there in the community quietly dealing with things is in fact something the UK has had for centuries. So I don't see Nimby as a insult, more a reference on the irritation you have with people trying to deal with things that you would not.

Organ donors - well if someone rides a bike at 100 mph in a 40 zone headed into a village then yes. Not just 1 off's either - the data set I have shows over 100 bikes in 1 week at over 70 mph. The noise they make is also a nuisance for about 1 KM around them.

Moron ? Guilty as charged clearly.