Traffic calming for 5 Mid Ulster villages

Complaints from fed-up residents and local representatives have prompted the move, which will see traffic calming at Riverside Drive, Cookstown; Eglish village; Cloneen, Dungannon; Forth Glen, Cookstown, and Sixtown’s Road, Straw, close to the Gael Scoil.

The details were released at the Northern Ireland Asssembly by Department of Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard in response to a tabled question by the DUP’s Keith Buchanan.

The minister replied that TransportNI’s Local Transport and Safety Measures Draft Programme 2017-2019 included the five traffic calming schemes in the Mid Ulster District Council area.

However, MInister Chris Hazzard warned: “Please note that delivery of schemes at these locations will be dependent on availability of funding and that this draft programme may be subject to change, depending on the assessed priority of new requests for traffic calming.”

Mid Ulster Council has debated the possibility of 20mph speed limits in local residential housing estates with councillors saying that many areas have requested traffic calming measures and when they go ‘door to door’ road safety was always a major issue.

Traffic calming measures include the use of self-enforcing speed reduction measures such as road humps, mini roundabouts, chicanes, central islands and reduced speed limits.

Churchill Insurance says there are now more than 5,900 20mph zones across the UK, which it describes as ‘a good investment’.

The insurer points to research which shows there to be a 1.5% chance of being fatally injured at 20mph.