Roads Service refuses to reduce speed limit

Local residents recently held a protest calling for action to reduce the limit on the road. However, in a letter to Lisburn City Council, the Roads Service said they had no plans to cut the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph.

In the letter, which was presented at a recent meeting of the Council’s Planning Committee, Traffic Management Principal Engineer Mr Norman Chambers said: “I would advise that speed limits are set with due consideration of the characteristics and nature of the road, collision history and intensity of development. A 30mph limit would normally apply in densely populated residential urban areas or well developed villages.

“One of the main underlying principles of Roads Service’s policy for the setting of speed limits is that the mean vehicle speed should be used as a major determinant when considering local speed limits.

“In order to set a speed limit below the mean speed, we would need to carry out additional measures to ensure that actual vehicle speeds fall to or below the new, reduced, speed limit.

“Halftown Road is considered to be a local distributor road, with a posted speed limit in the vicinity of the Community Hall of 40mph. I can advise that speed readings taken at this location in May 2011 showed that the mean vehicle speed was 37.2mph. In addition, our records show that there has only been one personal injury collision in the vicinity of the hall (involving a car pulling out from the side of the road into an oncoming vehicle) in the period from April 2008 to March 2011.”

He continued: “Typical traffic calming measures on this type of road would take the form of gateway signage. These features have already been provided at this location, although they appear to have had limited effect in reducing actual vehicle speeds. We therefore propose to refresh the existing red carriageway markings and lay additional white speed limit roundel road markings adjacent to the existing upright speed limit signs.

“We consider that more severe measures, such as those involving vertical deflection (road humps) would not be appropriate for this particular road. Our scope to reduce speeds further is therefore limited and it would be unrealistic, because of the character of the road, to expect speeds to be reduced to below 30mph.

“As such our policy on setting speed limits would suggest that the current limit of 40mph is appropriate and therefore we have no plans to reduce it at present,” he concluded.

[email protected]