# How would you conduct this traffic survey?



## Globalti (21 Mar 2009)

Our street is 950m long and runs parallel to the main A road where there's a junction with lights. Consequently it gets used as a rat run by drivers who race through at speed to avoid the lights. Lancashire Police aren't interested and when they do come down it's always during the quiet, middle part ofthe day. It is restricted to "access only" but of course many people ignore this as it's almost unenforceable. Residents have been campaigning for 30 years for speed humps but because we are at about number 95 in Lancashire's league table of 100 dangerous streets with all of one accident involving a pedestrian, we have zero chance of getting the £52,000 they estimate it would cost to put in speed humps. Streets in the inner parts of Blackburn have 10 to 15 accidents in the last 3 years so they get all the traffic calming, which creates bad feeling because they are in the Asian or white working class areas.

I would like to continue the campaign by measuring the average speeds and frequency of cars cutting through at peak times, which I think would make good headlines. I thought of setting up a camera at each end, with the timers synchronised and taking timed photos of cars as they enter and leave the street. I also thought of taking two laptops and simply logging the vehicle numbers and makes & colours as they enter and exit the street then comparing the timings later, calculating the average speeds of those who drove right through. Doing it this way would require nimble fingers on the keyboard because they come though in groups sometimes (lights further down the main road) and the measurement of the entry and exit times would be hard to manage.

We have a neighbour who is a civil enginer and has a measuring wheel so that we can eliminate any doubt as to the exact length of the street from junction to junction.

What do you think? Any pitfalls you can see? Any suggestions?


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## downfader (21 Mar 2009)

I beleive you can buy or hire the hand held speed guns the police use and record plates and speeds from that. Might be better looking into that and finding a strategic place to anchor it where the drivers wont see you than sitting with a laptop.

Not far from here two local residents had similar concerns and did a survey (with council help iirc). They sat by the road in hiviz monitoring cars with the cable speed measuring devices (you know the ones that snake a loop around the road where drivers go over it)

I dont think speed bumps solve anything, around here they speed up like lunatics in between them. Good luck!


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## jonesy (21 Mar 2009)

downfader said:


> ...
> 
> I dont think speed bumps solve anything, around here they speed up like lunatics in between them. Good luck!



I'm not in love with them either, but the evidence is that they do make a difference:

http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/r...troduction_of_traffic_calming_in_villages.htm


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## downfader (21 Mar 2009)

jonesy said:


> I'm not in love with them either, but the evidence is that they do make a difference:
> 
> http://www.trl.co.uk/online_store/r...troduction_of_traffic_calming_in_villages.htm



Perhaps it is indeed personal experience with them. Some around here are like riding over the edge of a brick or kerb.


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## Globalti (21 Mar 2009)

The point here is that we think speed humps will make a difference because drivers already know they are breaking the law and any doubt in their minds about the safety or efficiency of this deters them and they stay on the main road. We got a chicane last year when a small bridge was rebuilt and this has made a small difference. The main annoyance is the drivers who race through very fast.


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## thomas (23 Mar 2009)

downfader said:


> I dont think speed bumps solve anything, around here they speed up like lunatics in between them. Good luck!



In a lot of places local residents have complained because they just hear cars revving when going past their house.


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## zimzum42 (23 Mar 2009)

Get everyone together and all of you park in such a way as to make it a little more difficult to speed down the road?


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## downfader (23 Mar 2009)

zimzum42 said:


> Get everyone together and all of you park in such a way as to make it a little more difficult to speed down the road?



we did that one ours and it resulted in peoples wing mirrors being knocked off.  The "car chicane" can work though but it needs planning.


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## Globalti (25 Mar 2009)

Considered all that but there are always those who object because there's a small local bus and they worry that it won't be able to get through, along with ambulances, fire engines, the local farmer....


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## downfader (25 Mar 2009)

Rigid Raider said:


> Considered all that but there are always those who object because there's a small local bus and they worry that it won't be able to get through, along with ambulances, fire engines, the local farmer....



Thats very true. The local council here arranged all the parking as such on one of our roads as they thought it would calm traffic. Sadly it did exactly what you worry about and ambulances and fire engines cant get through. This is outside a hospital too.


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## HLaB (25 Mar 2009)

downfader said:


> I dont think speed bumps solve anything, around here they speed up like lunatics in between them. Good luck!



Years ago when I was in Hospital some tw@t got rushed in in the middle of the night, he openly boasted about being a joy rider and that he treated speed bumps as ramps, it didn't bother him the cars were nicked; he then bugard of before breakfast without telling the nurses that he was going


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## D-Rider (28 Mar 2009)

I remember hearing about people setting up fake speed cameras at the end of their garden.... Did a quick google and it comes up with a few examples. Here's one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/2539949.stm


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## Twenty Inch (31 Mar 2009)

A strategically placed bag of hard concrete, or similar rubble, in the tyre track?


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## ComedyPilot (4 Apr 2009)

A simple spreadsheet with time of day, type of vehicle, direction of travel, did they stop in the street (access) or go back out (rat-running) should suffice.

Do it with the help of other residents across a 7 day week, AM, midday, PM and night. Then submit it to your council, and threaten them with going to the papers.

What you will have are hard facts of the volume of vehicle movements on your street, their intentions (access or rat-running). Also, measure out a 50m section and film it, you can then do the maths about how long it takes a vehicle to pass the two marks when travelling below the speed limit, and can then evidence this also if speeds seem high on rat-runners. 

Councils won't act on verbal supposition and hearsay. Well documented facts are harder to ignore.

PM me if you need help. I am currently working with my local parish councill to highlight a road safety issue, which East Yorkshire council are not listening to.


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## mr_cellophane (27 Apr 2009)

Are speed humps the only/best solution ?
How about turning the road into a one way (I assume the traffic only "rat runs" one way)
or
Block one end and turn it into a cul-de-sac.

These suggestions might not be acceptable to all residents, but would be cheaper than humps and therefore more likely to get council approval.


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## Will1985 (27 Apr 2009)

Park cars staggered on either side so the rat runners have to slow down?


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## sheddy (11 May 2009)

Some novel ideas on http://www.roadwitch.org.uk/


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