What is Community Speed Watch (CSW)?
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Rushton CSW Group
Our CSW group works under the auspices of Staffordshire Police and as part of the Staffordshire Safer Roads Partnership.
Our principle aim is not, believe it or not, to get motorists into trouble for speeding but rather, through a regular visible presence by the roadside, to remind motorists of the speed restrictions operating in our village and to encourage them to respect our village environment and slow down.
The group has determined in conjunction with our local police, that the two main ‘Hot-Spots’ in Rushton are the Old Road, heading towards Leek and the Main road (A523) as it exits the village heading towards Macclesfield from the speed cameras onwards. SO…. this is where we are currently concentrating our efforts.
The group has collected a significant amount of information on traffic flow through the village at various times of the day, both weekdays and weekends, over the past couple of months and we think you’ll be surprised by our findings (see below). The stats we have compiled so far show that, on a day by day basis, between 1500 – 1700 hrs around 1000 cars pass through the village. However during 1700 – 1900 hrs this number rises to anything from 1400 -1500 vehicles, particularly on weekdays. It was also noted that 2/3 of the vehicles are using the Old Road, usually without indicating and often rapidly accelerating, as opposed to the main A523 thus making the Sugar Street/Old Road/A523 junction extremely dangerous.
Over the coming months, we will be compiling traffic flow data for all of the roads coming into and out of the village and will be providing that information to SMDC, Highways and the Police in order to encourage the ‘powers that be’ to take a new look at these roads, their speed restrictions and other traffic management issues.
All residents of the Parish of Rushton are very away of just how dangerous the roads around us are, with many of them being commuter ‘rat-runs’, and we hope to cause a serious re-evaluation of the speed restrictions and traffic management measures in and around the village based on traffic volume and more importantly…… safety.
Some of our findings
(1) Location – Old Road
On a weekday between 1900 & 2100
275 vehicles in total – including: 1 X UPS 7.5T, 3 x Tractors all with trailers
176 vehicles traveling towards Leek, 99 vehicles traveling towards Macclesfield
51 vehicles speed between 40-46 mph, mainly going up the hill towards Leek
22 vehicles with recorded speeds of between 47-57 mph all going towards Leek
26.55% of all vehicles observed were in excess of 40 mph
8% of the vehicles were in excess of 46 mph
3.6% of the vehicles were in excess of 50mph
We have also noted that the majority of the vehicles will cross the central white line when traveling towards Leek at the first right hand bend on the Old Road. Is this due to speed and the camber of the road? Any vehicle that is transit van size or larger will be at least 2-3 feet over the line.
In this case the only option that a vehicle coming down the hill has is to slow down or stop and give way. Given that essential farm traffic has to use this road, overall this is a very dangerous situation for road users and residents alike.