Cambridgeshire County Council has approved traffic calming measures on a residential road
New traffic calming measures will be installed on a town road after “frequent close calls” from cars cutting the corner. Cambridgeshire County Council has proposed adding two sets of speed cushions to a residential street in March to “promote lower traffic speeds and improve road safety”.
A traffic island would also be added to the west end of Norwood Avenue with the cushions opposite numbers 20 and 21 and opposite numbers 7 and 12.
A resident objected to the speed cushions as the road is “barely 200m long” and “the ability for vehicles to achieve more than the maximum 30mph is extremely limited”. In more than three decades of living there, they said they “cannot think of any cases” where an accident was caused by someone driving at 30mph or more.
They also added that “traffic pads and bumps of any sort” would “increase noise and pollution through vehicles decelerating and accelerating at the restrictions”.
But, the resident expressed their support for the traffic island as the “wide mouth of the road” makes it “very easy” for cars to enter “at a speed above what is considered safe as well as cutting the corner”. They said there were “several incidents” of cars losing control and hitting the wall of number 21 or the trees outside.
They said: “There are frequent close calls from vehicles cutting the corner. Adding the island will require vehicles to negotiate the junction correctly and therefore with less speed.
“This speed reduction also has a knock on effect of reducing the ability of said vehicles to accelerate beyond the 30mph limit.” They asked for the island to be installed but the speed pads to be left “for the foreseeable future”.
Council officers said the island’s impact would be “typically localised” on its own. It has been combined with speed pads “to provide a more effective traffic calming solution over a greater length of road”.
They added: “Regarding noise and vibration, these are generally associated with vehicles traversing traffic calming measures at excessive speeds.
“The proposed design, including narrowing with the island, is intended to encourage lower vehicle speeds and smoother vehicle movements, which should help to minimise such effects.”
The proposed traffic calming measures were approved by the council.
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