Speed in Kirkby Malzeard: Traffic Survey Results
Peter - peter.kmldpc@gmail.com - 15 Jul 2020
The short story...
The good news is that the data shows that there is ‘officially’ there is no problem with excessive speed in the village, with only 16% of vehicles breaking the 30mph limit. However, this is far from the end of the story - the PC will continue to try to reduce this further and proactively work in other ways to improve road safety in the parish.
We may recognise the fact that most motorists are respecting the posted limits but for those driving with less care: The excuse ‘everyone does it’ is clearly no longer something to hide behind. If 84% can follow the law, everyone can!
Finally, we acknowledge that despite the findings of the data loggers, many residents still have concerns about the speed of traffic. This would suggest that the 30mph limit is itself perhaps too high. The PC will therefore continue its work towards extending the 20mph zone in Kirkby (to cover the Market Cross area and at least a part of Main Street to beyond the Mowbray Court school entrance). For more information on this and other proposals please visit the traffic safety pages of the
Parish Council website (
2020,
2019)
The longer story...
Two traffic data loggers were installed at either end of Kirkby Malzeard between 11/6/20 and 17/6/20. Both loggers were inside the 30mph zone, one at the western end of the village (‘Jane’s House’), and one at the eastern end (‘Geoffrey’s House’).
These measured in total 14,529 instances of vehicle speeds over the 7 days. Of these
- 12,130 measurements (83.5%) were at or under 30mph;
- 2,064 measurements (14.2%) were between 30 and 35mph;
- 298 measurements (2.1%) were between 35 and 40mph;
- 37 measurements (0.25%) were more than 40mph, including 1 idiot clocked at over 50mph
When are people most likely to speed?
People seem to drive a bit faster in the mornings, evenings and during the night.
Despite the graph there is no strong evidence of a problem at night though – there is so little traffic from midnight to 5am, one or two vehicles speeding have skewered the averages.
Where are people most likely to speed?
6% of drivers exceeded the 30mph speed limit at Jane’s house (west end of 30mph zone), but only 0.1% went faster than 40mph. Traffic leaving the village (i.e. westbound) was faster as you might expect.
At the other end of the village things are a bit more brisk, with over a quarter of drivers exceeding the 30mph limit. However as with the other location, the number of drivers exceeding 40mph is quite small, and almost exclusively leaving the village.
Who are people most likely to speed?
In an effort to answer this I looked at when vehicles exceeding the speed limit left the village, and when vehicles exceeding the speed limit entered the village. So for example, between 8am and 9am on an average day 21 vehicles would exceed 30mph whilst leaving the village. The data shows a clear spike in the morning leaving the village, and a similarly sized spike in the evening entering the village.
This would strongly suggest that
they live amongst us! If we do decide to take action, should we think about targeting residents rather than drivers with expensive roadside kit?
