The new speed limit of 20 mph has finally arrived in the village. This is part of a national strategy that’s being introduced in a shared policy programme between the SNPSNP The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence or secession from the United Kingdom and for Scotland's membership of the European Union, with a platform based on civic nationalism. government and the Scottish Green party, in which eventually all appropriate roads in built up areas will have a safer speed limit of 20 mph by 2025, and it looks like Strathpeffer is one of the villages that’s in the early adopters list.
Whether this will make the slightest difference to traffic speed through the village remains to be seen, but first signs are not looking too encouraging. I’m basing that on the speed of vehicles being flashed up by the VASVAS Vehicle activated signs (VAS) are a useful and cost-effective road safety intervention. They light up to warn drivers of hazards or to remind them of the speed limit if they are approaching too fast. on the A834 outside my window this morning, many cars, vans and busses are still initially captured doing 40 mph or more as they come into the village from Dingwall, eastbound vehicles are going even faster as they head for the drag strip to Fodderty, thanks to the newly surfaced road
At the moment we have a clearway between Blairninich and Strathpeffer where the speed limit is 60 mph, surely the road traffic planners realise that this is a major problem? Limits of 40 mph, 60 mph and then 20 mph, all in not much more than half a mile. Surely, Blairninich and Fodderty are also to be included in the 20 mph scheme as well?
The only way to stop the endemic speeding of some drivers through the village in my opinion is to copy the approach that’s been taken in Beauly, and introduce a combination of chicanes and speed tables, both of which are very effective ways of calming traffic.
A new traffic survey needs to be taken to gauge the ever increasing number of vehicles that use the A834 as a rat run to get to the west coast rather than using the A835 from Dingwall to Contin, hopefully this new initiative, if properly enforced by Police Scotland, will deter them from doing this.
I do hope that replacing the 30 mph signs with ones for 20 mph (the easy bit) are just the start of it, and the plan is to introduce further traffic calming measures at the approaches to the village that can’t simply be ignored, as they are at present.
Please feel free to comment if you have any strong feelings either way about road safety and speed limits.
I notice that a 20 mph zone has been put in place in Munlochy on the B9161, the village also has chicanes and speed tables to calm speeding traffic.
Why not here in Strathpeffer?
This is the A834 and not a B road, and a too convenient rat-run between Dingwall and Contin, that also includes its own one mile drag strip between Strathpeffer and Fodderty.
Hopefully our local councillors have it all-in-hand and we will see further measures to calm traffic through the village, but being the cynic that I am, I very much doubt it, and the 20 mph speed signs are about all we’ll see from the 20 mph initiative.
They couldn’t even be bothered to paint ‘slow’ on the road before the bends at the eastern approach to the village – well paint’s expensive isn’t it.
I’ve approached the road safety department at Highland council to access the speed data collected by the two data loggers in the VASVAS Vehicle activated signs (VAS) are a useful and cost-effective road safety intervention. They light up to warn drivers of hazards or to remind them of the speed limit if they are approaching too fast. in the village, but so far I’ve just received excuses that their laptop isn’t working.
I can’t believe I’m the only one who interested in calming traffic speeds in the village. I though I’d moved into a village called Strathpeffer, and not a Scottish version of Stepford where everyone is totally disinterested, or maybe it’s just Pleasantville?
20mph blanket limit in strathpeffer is completely unnecessary and not required. People are responsible for their own safety. For example, don’t cross the road on a corner. Don’t pull out on a blind junction, simples really
What about a child who runs out onto the road are they responsible for their own safety?
The greater the impact speed, the greater the chance of death. A pedestrian hit at 30mph has a very significant (one in five) chance of being killed. This rises significantly to a one in three chance if they are hit at 35mph. Even small increases in speed can lead to an increase in impact severity.
What about a universal 5mph speed limit? Then there would be little risk of running anyone down! Seriously who has the right to decide where to draw the line? The most important thing is to keep pedestrians and vehicles separated.
Incidentally, it has just been pointed out to me that there is no warning whatsoever as you enter the village that you are approaching a blind junction (the station car park)
Fixing this might be a good place to start!
The Highland Council have only a limited number of tins of white paint to go round, and so in an effort to save resources they’ve decided to stop painting ‘SLOW’ before dangerous bends or junctions, they reckon this will save them at least 10% the next time they have to reorder.
The other joke is that the team that takes care of our roads in Ward 5, and who work out of Lochcarron (I kid you not), only has a lend of the drain sucking machine for six weeks each year, so it maybe quite a while before the many blocked drains in the village get unblocked.
I’ve also been informed by the Community Council that it’s not possible at the moment to change the two clearway signs on the approach to the village from the east to 40 mph signs which would help a little in reducing vehicle speeds because the Highland Council are strapped for cash at the moment. This is no doubt because the Council have saddled themselves with massive loans in recent years and which they’re now finding it difficult to payback the interest on.
Finally on your point of “keeping vehicles and pedestrians separate” – have you tried to walk up from the station to the square without stepping in the road because of overgrown hedges? Or maybe tried to take a leisurely stroll down to the Castle Leod gates and realised that if you had stumbled and fell into the road as a vehicle was passing at 60 mph or more you would be dead.