County ready to go the distance

24 May 2006

Cambridgeshire County Council is to investigate the feasibility of installing speed-over-distance speed cameras on a notorious Fenland road.
The council administers 74 kilometres of Fenland highway running immediately alongside large watercourses, and has spent several years looking at practical measures to reduce the risk of vehicles leaving the road and crashing into the water.
A priority is the Forty Foot Bank, which last year had four fatalities in two accidents. Speed played a role in most of the accidents on the 7.5km Fen route between Chatteris and Ramsey. Where a vehicle ended up in the drain in the last few years, nine out of the 11 were down to motorists losing control.
Speed checks carried out in March showed that at around the mid-point of the road, 82% of drivers were travelling above the 50mph limit. Some were clocked well over 100mph, and one reached 118mph.
The county’s cabinet this week heard the results of an investigation into ways to improve the route after members received petitions with a total of more than 16,000 signatures. Several possibilities have been discussed by the council, including traditional safety barriers, new Varioguard steel barriers, fixed safety cameras, mobile speed cameras, moving the road, and a number of traffic management schemes designed to reduce driver’s speed.
Costs ruled out the barriers, since traditional ones would be around £200,000, with not enough proven benefits, while the Varioguard system, which works by deflecting vehicles, would be £1.4M for the seven kilometres.
Mobile cameras were not considered enough of a deterrent because they were not in place all the time, while fixed cameras would not be able to cover enough of the road’s length to be effective.
As a result, average speed cameras appear to Mark Kemp county director of highways and access, to be the best solution, at a cost of about £200,000.
Kemp said: ‘Average speed cameras are one of the better options we are looking at. We will be able to use them because the law is changing on where they can be sited, but it all depends on whether accident rates in the area continue to rise.
‘If they do not, then funds will be spent on schemes where the accident rate is higher.’ The council’s cabinet backed the report, giving highways officers the green light to work up the scheme, with a view to submitting finalised proposals by October, so that funding can be sought for the 2007/08 financial year.
A ‘major safety campaign’ aimed specifically at drivers likely to use Fenland routes was also agreed.

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County ready to go the distance

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