Campaign by residents leads to speed limit review on notorious Hampshire road

6:30am Wednesday 14th November 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Bethan Phillips, Reporter

Campaigners have won their fight for a speed limit review on Alan Drayton Way Campaigners have won their fight for a speed limit review on Alan Drayton Way

THE speed limit on a notorious Hampshire road will be reviewed following a major campaign.

Almost 1,000 residents signed a petition demanding that Alan Drayton Way and Fair Oak Road, in Bishopstoke, were made safer.

Accidents happen regularly on Alan Drayton Way, according to campaigners, and dozens of youngsters cross it every day to get to Stoke Park junior and infant schools.

Lead campaigner Natalie Stanfield had the problem brought home to her when a car crashed through her back garden from the road, destroying a playhouse.

Luckily her children were not playing in the wooden building at the time – but the collision was the start of her mission to get the speed limit changed from 40mph to 30mph.

Now Hampshire County Council has agreed to include the road in their county-wide programme for changing speed limits next year.

It is a move welcomed by Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne, who has backed the campaign.

He said: “The speed limit along this road needs to be changed – only in the last few weeks there have been three accidents, one involving a child being hit.

“Thankfully she suffered no injuries, but having seen the way traffic hurtles down Alan Drayton Way, the county must take action quickly to reduce the speed limit and make the road safer.

“Natalie and other residents who live along this road should not have to put up with this constant danger on their doorstep.

“Hopefully now the county have admitted there is a problem, we will get some action on this.”

Comments(15)

SotonNorth says...
7:08am Wed 14 Nov 12

The 40mph limit on Alan Drayton Way seems perfectly sensible. It's a road with no property frontages, and places where pedestrians would want to cross the road are limited. It is a cross between a bypass and a distributor road. Pedestrians are well catered for with a mixture of traffic islands, signal controlled crossings and subways. Is this not a knee-jerk reaction influenced by NIMBYism? And I'm sure Chris Huhne would back the campaign, trying to chase votes after his scandals. How many of these people are actually traffic management or road safety consultants?

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hulla baloo says...
7:57am Wed 14 Nov 12

Chris Hune agreeing to speed limits. Whatever next.

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elvisimo says...
8:07am Wed 14 Nov 12

SotonNorth wrote:
The 40mph limit on Alan Drayton Way seems perfectly sensible. It's a road with no property frontages, and places where pedestrians would want to cross the road are limited. It is a cross between a bypass and a distributor road. Pedestrians are well catered for with a mixture of traffic islands, signal controlled crossings and subways. Is this not a knee-jerk reaction influenced by NIMBYism? And I'm sure Chris Huhne would back the campaign, trying to chase votes after his scandals. How many of these people are actually traffic management or road safety consultants?
presume the issue is the number of accidents. Not NIMBYism - the road exists and has done for a very long time. Judging by how many motorists treat speed limits, you can imaging how many stick to the 40 mph.

30 mph and speed cameras should do the trick.

I doubt many of the people are "consultants" so therefore I supose they should be ignored. After all - the councils are always right.

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MGRA says...
8:54am Wed 14 Nov 12

the road is dangerous. its an accident of many factors making it so. the dubious Huhne comment's obviously aside, I would think 30 on that stretch is sensible, give whats at either end. Its not going to impact really on journey times. Personally I would change the speed limit to 20mph on about 1/3 of all urban roads and most sub-urban should be 30mph. People do not understand how dangerous cars are at 40mph.

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huckit P says...
9:01am Wed 14 Nov 12

Cars are no more dangerous at 40 than they are at 30 or 20. It is only when people walk out in front of them that any danger becomes evident.
I also think that 30mph on this particular stretch of road is not right. 40 is perfectly sensible and as a previous comment indicated there are plenty of central refuges and places for pedestrians to cross.
If this is followed through would we now be calling for all roads where pedestrians cross to be reduced to 30 or 20mph?

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cyclejim says...
9:20am Wed 14 Nov 12

If every car traveled along this road at 40mph or below there wouldn't be so much of an issue. It's not the limit that's the problem.

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one in a million says...
10:50am Wed 14 Nov 12

I would have thought Botley Road by the school campus would be more of a priority?

Its quiet scary the speeds people do here when there are young children in the close vicinity and then add heavy lorries to the mix!

Trouble is there is never a speed camera to be seen and its only a matter o

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jade25 says...
10:51am Wed 14 Nov 12

Agreed that this road is'nt dangerous
if motorist actually stuck to the speed limit! This road has designated crossings for which the people can cross safely. Not sure what people are moaning about, but 30mph seems reasonable.

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bazzeroz says...
11:13am Wed 14 Nov 12

Absolutely NOTHING wrong with 40mph on this road. If people are speeding do the sensible thing (and I never thought I'd hear myself saying this) and install 'safety' cameras!

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Tom Redpath says...
12:02pm Wed 14 Nov 12

Speed guns , like the 30 mph roads round here enjoy , keep us alert . Alan Drayton Way is an anachronism ; 10 mph extra , for a few hundred yards , makes little difference to journey time & merely lets you get to the back of the Eastleigh queue earlier . Better driving is the answer

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Ginger_cyclist says...
12:23pm Wed 14 Nov 12

I see people bringing up traffic islands and such but what most don't realise is that a raised "pedestrian refuge" won't do jack if a car crashes at 30 or more and goes towards that "refuge", even if there's street furniture there, I have lamposts that have been knocked over a bit by vehicles going at 30, what would a 2tonne or more lump of metal doing 40 to 60mph going to do to a lampost? Probably bring it down on any pedestrians near by, also there is the fact that in a collision with street furniture, the vehicle would wrap round it and there would also be shrapnel that could injure a person, if it was a van or a truck that crashed, any pedestrian in it's way, even if they're on a traffic island surrounded by street furniture, they would be lucky to escape with their lives as a goods vehicle, especially a truck weighing 7.5tonnes or more at 30, 40 or 50mph would just plow straight through everything, so a 20 to 30 limit would be good for such a road.

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Zeo says...
1:06pm Wed 14 Nov 12

That road is a Mobile Speed Camera zone so why not just put a speed van there on different days and times. At the end of the day it's a minority that are causing this and they should be caught.

There are crossings at both ends and a subway about halfway up, maybe you should teach kids and adults on how to use these instead of changing the speed limit.

Also if this current 40MPH zone becomes a 30MPH what's going to stop people from then rat running at high speeds down the old main Fair Oak Road?

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Mr E says...
2:30pm Wed 14 Nov 12

a reduction to 30 Mph is only the start.
The car haters want 20 mph limits just about everywhere.

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jennys says...
10:15pm Wed 14 Nov 12

This road is perfectly safe if pedestrians use the proper crossing places i/e the underpass, the 2 pelican crossings and the traffic islands in less than a half a mile stretch,. You constantly see adults with children coming from the school running across the road. It is their fault, leave the motorist alone. I have had 3 kids and 4 grandchildren and have always made sure that they cross in the allocated places.

Chris Huhme supports, pot and kettle springs to mind.

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jennys says...
10:16pm Wed 14 Nov 12

This road is perfectly safe if pedestrians use the proper crossing places i/e the underpass, the 2 pelican crossings and the traffic islands in less than a half a mile stretch,. You constantly see adults with children coming from the school running across the road. It is their fault, leave the motorist alone. I have had 3 kids and 4 grandchildren and have always made sure that they cross in the allocated places.

Chris Huhme supports, pot and kettle springs to mind.

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