Traffic Nuisance
Northchapel speed campaigner Garry Duguid is carrying on his one-man fight to slow traffic through the village after declaring West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is failing to solve the problem.
Speeding traffic along the busy A383 through Northchapel has long concerned villagers.
Last year police and highways officers faced them at a public meeting and promised measures to ease the problem.
Now, said Mr Duguid, parish councillors have said they do not intend to pursue the issue.
But, he claimed the county council's answer to the problem - replacing the fixed 30mph signs at either end of the village with vehicle-activated displays and repainting the red road markings - did not go far enough. He asked for a greater police presence along the road, but has drawn a blank.
"Basically what was said was officers are attending Northchapel more frequently, but there are insufficient resources available to make much difference," he said.
He has also written with detailed evidence of speeding to WSCC but claims he has had no response.
However, Mr Duguid says nearly 8,000 cars go through Northchapel every day and at various monitored points through the village between 92 and 43 per cent break the speed limit.
He said the situation could only get worse with the figure set to rise by more than 12 per cent in the next four years.
"The police will not release figures but anecdotal evidence suggests only 30 to 60 speeding tickets are issued every two weeks."
In his latest letter to WSCC calling for further action, Mr Duguid claimed red road markings would make no difference to traffic speed.
"Comparison of data taken before and after the introduction of road markings and roundels in 2004 shows no reduction of traffic speed in Northchapel," he said.
Unless backed up by a visible police presence, fixed signage becomes so much wallpaper and is consequently ignored."
He claimed that the only effective solution would be to bring in speed cameras and prosecute for speeding offences.
Mr Duguid would also like to see home-owners who suffer traffic noise to have their council tax cut.
"Without fiscal pressure on the local authority there is no compulsion to do anything to combat speeding. My wife and I live a "one up, two down" existence in our four-bedroom house because traffic noise makes the use of rooms facing the road impossible much of the time. Yet we are paying band F council tax," he told WSCC's highways councillor Derek Whittington.
This article was first published in Midhurst and Petworth Observer on July 16th 2009, and is reproduced in full by kind permission.
Traffic facts and figures
Traffic speeding through the village
The following chart shows traffic volume at various times throughout the day together with the speed of the traffic. Note that a staggaring 82% of traffic is speeding (shown in red) and that a substantial portion is going over 40mph.
Traffic problem - no improvement so far
The following table shows that between 2005 and 2008, no significant improvement has been made. Note that MAS (mean average speed) doesn't look so bad but this includes traffic that is under 30mph - for example, just pulling out of Pipers Lane. The more important figure is the 85%ile (the speed at which 85% of all traffic goes below). For example, it shows that 15% of all traffic passing by Pipers Lane is travelling in excess of 35mph.
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