Update on Speeding Problems on the A386 Through Mary Tavy

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Those of you that attended the public meeting held on the 26th November or anyone who read the report of the meeting might be wondering what’s happening so here is a brief update:

There was a lot of interest at the meeting in replacing our old 30mph “Slow Down” warning signs (know as Vehicle Advisory Signs or VAS) with new signs that recorded data such as time, traffic flow and vehicle speeds – this despite feedback from the police and DCC Highways that they don’t accept 3rd party data. Shortly after the meeting we got some data from DCC Highways from a covert radar device they had set up in the village for a week (the Parish Council wasn’t informed they’d done this until after the event but we think the device was fixed to the VAS post near Down’s Garage). We found the Highways’ results somewhat surprising as they showed a mean speed of around 28mph and an 85%ile speed of around 33mph (the 85%ile is the speed value that 85% of traffic is at or below…i.e. only 15% of traffic is doing more than 33mph).

We (the Parish Council) thought these figures were lower than many people believe are the real vehicle speeds but we are conscious that if we went ahead and spent a significant proportion of the parish budget on new VAS signs and then found the Highways figures were true, we could be seen to have wasted the money. In light of this we decided to gather some of our own information by renting a radar device. We started taking measurements on the 16th January and finished today (7th Feb). The device (called a Speedspy) gathered data 24 hours a day from 4 positions on the A386 in the village. We decided not to advertise the fact the unit was here until the data collection was finished so that it didn’t affect people’s driving habits.

We should have the data back from the Speedspy in a couple of weeks. Once it’s been analysed, we feel we will be better placed to decide whether we should spend part of the parish council budget on new VAS signs.

We’ll keep everyone updated on progress as and when we can.