KCC Traffic Survey 2024

The Parish Council Highways Group has summarised the data from the files sent to us by Kent Highways. The document below highlights the trends that impact the Parish Council's plans however the data is much as we expected from our experience with Speedwatch.

At the eastern end, there is a significant problem with vehicles speeding out of the village, nearly half were recorded at over the prosecution speed of 35mph and with a maximum recorded speed of 76mph!

In the center, the average speed recorded was 22.5mph. The County policy regarding implementing 20mph limits states "20mph limits are generally only recommended where existing mean speeds are already below 24mph”  This gives us a good starting point to request a 20 mph speed limit.

There was a peak of 866 vehicles an hour passing through the village and this is with only circa 800 houses completed at Whitfield as eventually a further 5000+ will be built. The Parish Council aims to get these limits agreed upon to make it less attractive as a “Rat-run” and stop sat nav's choosing us as the “quickest” route.

At the Western end surprisingly we have over 50% complying with the speed limit and only 13% over the prosecution level so maybe here Speedwatch has made a difference. But there are always some that will ignore it with 7343 vehicles travelling at over 35mph and a speed of 67mph was recorded exiting the village.

One of the other challenges is with the HGVs and their impact on the road especially the tippers servicing the Whitfield development, from the data we can pick out the numbers of movements of >7.5 tons (classes 4-12) of which there were 423 movements during this period, worryingly nearly 20% of these were also doing over 35mph as they came into the village!

We also have some information about Motorbikes too with over half of them doing more than 35mph and a peak speed recorded of 72mph.

Regrettably, the data revealed only 15 bicycle movements were recorded at the Western end during the period so despite the beauty of the ANOB it seems cyclists are voting with their pedals.

The Parish Council will use this data to have an evidence-based discussion with Kent Highways to ask for improvements to the Alkham Valley Road.

ALKHAM VALLEY ROAD, ALKHAM – ATC RESULTS 2022

Please see the traffic survey summary results for the Alkham Valley Road sites. Also, the full results have been posted under an excel format. The surveys were directed and undertaken by KCC Highways team at the behest of Alkham Parish Council (APC).

The resultant survey data will be crucial in helping to determine the best way forward for the current APC Highways Improvement Plan (HIP) when reviewed in March 2022.

KCC Highways Scheme Planning and Delivery Team can only make resources available to review HIP plans on an annual basis. APC submitted traffic improvement and safety priorities are subject to a KCC Highways evidence-based approach to help to prioritise investment in Casualty Reduction Schemes to ascertain if there is any pattern of personal injury crash records for the past three years that could be addressed by engineering methods. KCC Highways also base all speed limits requests on the 2013 Department for Transport (DfT) Circular “Setting Local Speed Limits”.

This guidance is used to evaluate all new requests and KCC Polices stance is that any speed limit introduced outside the DfT guidance may not only be ineffective, but it may leave the Police with the task of carrying out enforcement where previously excess speed did not exist. KCC Police will look for a speed limit to be appropriate and self -enforcing with the use of traffic calming and signage.

In the interim period before review, APC will continue to collect and gather traffic information and data to help support our submitted traffic priorities and present to KCC Highways for investigation and approval. Alkham Speed watch work and gathered data plays an important support role in achieving our overall aim in making Alkham highways as safe as possible for all users.