Good news: Whiteshill flashing speed sign coming soon

At last night's Whiteshill and Ruscombe Parish meeting at the request of the Parish Mark Arnott, a Community Safety officer from Stroud District Council was showing off the newly purshased Interactive speed warning sign. It is for use within the District - initially a few weeks at each site. The interactive sign can download full traffic reports of numbers, speeds etc. It is also adjustable and can display vehicle speed or road speed limit when activated. It cost £3,300 to purchase so the District Council is looking for an initial contribution of £200 from each parish/town council who may want to partake in this partnership approach to speeding concerns.

The Parish approved the spend - only the second parish in the District so far - this move is to be very welcomed as it will provide useful data about traffic speeds that could be used in future to argue for improvements. It is wholly unacceptable that parents cannot let their children go to the playground because speeds on that road are too fast.

I was horrified to learn from John Rogers, chair of the Parish that a third of cars in the survey they did a couple of years ago, were speeding on The Plain (see photo). To me even 30mph is too fast in a residential area - in much of Europe it is standard practice to make them 30 kmh (20mph) zones - at these speeds if accidents occur - and far fewer do - then people who are hit will be much less likely to die or be seriously injured.

The challenge now for the Parish is to identify the best site(s) for this temporary sign - hopefully this will all add weight to the case that will be made again to the County for improvements to our roads.

Another scheme which may be worth exploring is '20 is Plenty'. Bisley Parish are in the process of adopting this - 20mph advisory signs - it means more signs which I am unhappy about - and also doesn't do anything to change road layout etc - but apparently does lead to some slower cars. Personally I would like to see a mandatory 20mph in residential areas - only then will we start to see more people walk and cycle - at the moment it canbe terrifying on some of these lanes - but as noted before a 20 mph is not enough in itself - See Blog on 25th July for more info and discussion.