How to go about getting speed reduced on a road.

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Sandstone1

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As title. I have to ride on a country road. It's a sixty limit even though it's a twisty country road. I believe it should be a 40 limit max.
Someone was recently killed in a car accident on this road.
I've already contacted the police and local councillors about this with no success.
Anyone managed to get a speed limit reduced?
People frequently speed on this road too. It's really dangerous.
 
Our local Riding association sorted out road out in front of our stables and another narrow lane from national speed limit down to 40 mph. Not sure who the process but they wrote to the transport and council I think.
 
I wish you every luck - I've never had any joy with the 60mph roads round here.

The only authority that can change speed limits is the council responsible for the road. They can do this off their own back or under advice from the police. Speed limits are reduced in conjunction with the number of accidents on the road usually, although there's a road very near me, the A616, that has the nickname 'death bypass' that has never had the speed limit reduced despite several fatalities.

A number of years ago David Cameron's conservative government signed a bill that stipulated that all 60mph roads would be reduced to 50mph within 10 years. I have no idea what happened to this bill - might be worth a google to see if it's still enforceable.

I tried with one particular road near my livery yard a few years ago and the response from the council - "there haven't been enough accidents or fatalities to make this change". They were waiting for people to die before acting!!

To be fair it costs a fortune to change a speed limit, it's not just a case of sticking up new signs. There's road markings, satnavs, street lighting to be taken into consideration but they manage it in some places (usually tourist spots) so why not others.
 
I’ve tried with council as have to cross a busy road that has had numerous car accidents on. They said that they couldn’t do anything and perhaps I don’t cross the road! It’s the only way out of the field! As above, they said not enough fatalities...yet x
 
I havent had to try to reduce a speed limit but I did speak to our local council, and was successful, in asking them to put in warning signs to alert road users to the possibility of horses being ridden along a stretch of road. Our yard is on a horrid twisty B road and slap bang in between 2 bridleway accesses, we are also a rat run between 2 towns. Although drivers dont always take any notice, they would at least give a bit more clout to the defence, if, God forbid, we were involved in an accident. I would say speak to your local council in the first instance.
 
Get your local Parish Council to support you. Reducing speed limits is much harder than getting a new sign put up. The accident record is important. You need to get as much local support as possible.
 
Orangehorse said:
Get your local Parish Council to support you. Reducing speed limits is much harder than getting a new sign put up. The accident record is important. You need to get as much local support as possible.
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I've emailed council for a start. Not thinking it will be easy but going to try.
 
We have tried, and also tried to get traffic calming measures. They say there has to be a minimum of 20 houses to warrant a speed limit of 30mph - and then you will have problems enforcing it with resources at an all time low
 
Are you ear a 30mph limit? We didn't ask for the limit to be changed here, but they extended to village 30's to the other side of us about 7 years ago. There had been a few accidents on the bad bends.

I think there are less than 20 houses, but as it has been added onto the village speed limit obviously there are more than 20 in the whole lot. There are fields between us and the village though.

I have to say I haven't noticed many cars going that much slower!

But, as an upside, we have been told that as we are now within the village limits we are much more likely to get planning permission if we wanted to develop some houses on our field (which we do not currently want) as it would now count as infill housing as there is one house at the other end of the field.
 
Red-1 said:
Are you ear a 30mph limit? We didn't ask for the limit to be changed here, but they extended to village 30's to the other side of us about 7 years ago. There had been a few accidents on the bad bends.

I think there are less than 20 houses, but as it has been added onto the village speed limit obviously there are more than 20 in the whole lot. There are fields between us and the village though.

I have to say I haven't noticed many cars going that much slower!

But, as an upside, we have been told that as we are now within the village limits we are much more likely to get planning permission if we wanted to develop some houses on our field (which we do not currently want) as it would now count as infill housing as there is one house at the other end of the field.
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No. unfortunately not close enough to any of the surronding villages. There are several houses along the road. some with horses.
 
The County Council are in charge of roads, but they do take notice of the Parish Council as they represent local people.
There should be some sort of Council/Police organisation called something like "Safety Awareness" so try trawling through Police website for this. Try your local Councillor too.
 
Sandstone1 said:
So far I've contacted the county council, the police and BHS. Bhs are the only ones to have responded so far.
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How many people ride on this stretch of road, I’m sure it would help if several people were all saying the same thing, not saying it’s the case, but if it’s just you saying you want the road you ride on to be safer then I imagine it’s a lost cause .....
 
bonny said:
How many people ride on this stretch of road, I’m sure it would help if several people were all saying the same thing, not saying it’s the case, but if it’s just you saying you want the road you ride on to be safer then I imagine it’s a lost cause .....
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There are a fair few riders who use it. I will be speaking to them.
 
I would suggest you first get the contact details of all the walkers, riders, carriage drivers and cyclists that use that stretch of the road so that you can refer to known people and numbers.
Start with canvassing the local Parish Councillors for support followed by the district councillors followed by the county councillors and lastly your member of parliament and get them to all support you.
Then go to the press with the story and reason for your campaign and get some photo shoots done.
You could aslo consider getting the road speed limit downgraded as a result of the 'Quiet Road Scheme' provided the right criteria apply.
 
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