Legal Traffic Calming?

[Turvey]

Outline of the dilemma.

 

We bought a building plot on a short straight bit of road(3 houses each side) with one end of the road joining up with another road. The other road has been built with 'traffic calming' including pinch-points and curves, but ours is straight with no calming features. Some nights the local boy and girl racers are using the full length of the road as a race-track/time trial type of road and are being a bit of a pain. Part of the outline planning for the area included blocking off the other end of the road(where we live) when the houses were built, basically making it a cul-de-sac.

 

The meeting to decide what is going to happen is next month but we have been told that the option they are looking at is temporary bollards as they are worried about the the amount of traffic that will start using other routes and may have to open up our road again at a later date! Needless to say we are not impressed with the idea of the road being opened up again if we get used to the relative peace of a closed road.

 

So to the idea behind the heading. What 'legal' measures could we take to introduce traffic calming? I've thought about buying a cheap car with MOT and taxing it and leaving it on the road in a strategic place to encourage people to slow down. Could I leave a caravan on the road?

 

I know the police are aware of the situation but at night there are only a couple of coppers on and quite a large area to cover. 

 

So, any ideas? Or do we just suck it up and put up with it? Or move?   

[Stoney871]

Caravans can't be parked on public roads unhitched as they aren't taxed or insured for the road as standalone vehicles.

TBH, there's not a lot you can do as it's a public road with no restrictions for use by road legal vehicles.

You could start recording registrations/volume of 'misbehaving' vehicles as evidence of the need for calming measures and present the figures to your local force and the council as you see fit.

If there is a school/playground or suchlike nearby you could argue that traffic calming is essential to maintain pedestrian safety.

Sent from my SM-G930F

[GMX]

12 hours ago, Stoney871 said:

If there is a school/playground or suchlike nearby you could argue that traffic calming is essential to maintain pedestrian safety.

In various suburbs round here, residents have managed to get the council to put in traffic calming measures by stressing that the volume of young families using the nearby schools. parks and playgrounds. In addition to pinch points and chicanes, they created several cul de sacs along what were rat runs by placing islands half way along.  The council has also imposed a 20mph speed limit, in zones, where there is school, playground or recreation park

[Turvey]

On 16/08/2016 at 11:43 PM, Stoney871 said:

Caravans can't be parked on public roads unhitched as they aren't taxed or insured for the road as standalone vehicles.

TBH, there's not a lot you can do as it's a public road with no restrictions for use by road legal vehicles.

You could start recording registrations/volume of 'misbehaving' vehicles as evidence of the need for calming measures and present the figures to your local force and the council as you see fit.

If there is a school/playground or suchlike nearby you could argue that traffic calming is essential to maintain pedestrian safety.

Sent from my SM-G930F

I did kinda think when I was typing it that parking a caravan was probably not legal. 

 

Getting registrations is a difficult one as it's usually night-time and we get woken up by revving engines and dump-valves going off! I have thought about setting a camera up and may, if need be, park the car on the road with the dashcam recording. 

 

There's no school nearby but kids do play out on the streets at times, so could be an argument if need be. 

On 17/08/2016 at 0:15 PM, GMX said:

In various suburbs round here, residents have managed to get the council to put in traffic calming measures by stressing that the volume of young families using the nearby schools. parks and playgrounds. In addition to pinch points and chicanes, they created several cul de sacs along what were rat runs by placing islands half way along.  The council has also imposed a 20mph speed limit, in zones, where there is school, playground or recreation park

Yep, that's what's happened here. The road has become a rat-run as well as a racetrack. Hopefully with the top of our road sealed off it will make using the other road too much of a hassle to use for shortcuts and speeding and we will return to a nice quiet area again.

 

Thanks for your input and thoughts.

 

P.S I would put up a pic of a map of the area but the roads aren't available on Google maps yet 

[TomsFocus]

I don't think calming works anyway, it just causes extra congestion with more noise and fumes as cars have to brake then accelerate!

Parking a car there would be a bad idea as well.  Some of the residents do that here, they have garages and huge driveways so it's clearly done to inconvenience drivers on a fairly busy main road.  I always make sure to give it a few extra revs when passing those cars...

[Turvey]

UPDATE:

 

The top of our road has now been narrowed AND 4 bollards have been installed!   It was only done this week but already we have noticed a distinct drop in the amount, and speed, of traffic going by.....with the exception of one local resident! SHE lives nearly opposite us but on a road at right angles to us and she seems to live her life according to the mantra quoted by Colin Macrae, If In Doubt, FLAT OUT!!! 

 

Before the road was bollarded she would drive past our house at a rate of knots and turn into her road and reverse into her drive. We thought that with the road being closed she would start coming into her road from the other end, easier AND quicker for her..........or so we thought! She now goes into her house by using 3 junctions in this little scheme instead of just the one, doesn't slow down for any of them and still manages to go by our house at a rate of knots 

 

This, being the first Saturday that it's been closed, I can see being not much quieter than normal as the boy racers won't know about it but hopefully word will soon get around and they'll figure out it's not worth the hassle coming up this way. 

 

Last night Mrs T heard a squeal of brakes and looked out of the window. There was a small car(Fiesta I think) nearly wrapped itself around the bollards! As yet there is NO signage informing motorists about the closing up of the road which, I suppose, could leave the council or developer(depending whether the council have adopted the road yet or not) open for claims if someone were to hit it? As I was typing this a 'sporty' Corsa, big fat tyres, lowered suspension and a loud exhaust nearly did the same thing!!! Think I'll point the Focus up the road and leave the dashcam running to catch any incidents   

[GaryPL]

Sounds like you have had a good result. I would be watching (and hoping) that some of these turds do crash! And with any luck, get hurt when writing off their cars! :)

[jmurray01]

1 hour ago, GaryPL said:

Sounds like you have had a good result. I would be watching (and hoping) that some of these turds do crash! And with any luck, get hurt when writing off their cars! :)

Hear hear!!

[Turvey]

Been speaking to our next door neighbours today(nice neighbours who live right beside the junction, not Colin Macrae!) and they, like us, are delighted about the new setup. They've also been watching cars coming up and having to reverse, with the exception of one car they saw squeezing by the bollards, on to the pavement and onto the main road!!! 

[Turvey]

Ohh! It's all kicking off on Facers!!! 

 

Colin Macrae wannabe is NOT happy! She's going to the council tomorrow to 'get things sorted'  

[Zico]

If the road is part of a development then it's highly unlikely that the road is adopted. If that is the case then the Highway Authority will do nothing.

As I've only just came across this thread a whole lot later, I would have suggested this:

http://www.marwoodgroup.co.uk/services/roads-and-fencing/1-metre-traffic-road-separator/