A41 Speed Survey
Aylesbury Town Council has been taking action to tackle vehicle speeds on one of the town’s busiest roads. The Tring Road (A41) is one of the main routes into Aylesbury, connecting the town with Bicester and Watford. Historically, sections of the A41 were part of Akeman Street, an important road in the infrastructure of Roman Britain.
After complaints from numerous residents about the volume of traffic and its speed, two Aylesbury Town Councillors began a survey of vehicles using the road. Early in the morning, Cllr. Steve Patrick representing Oakfield, and Cllr. Mark Willis from Bedgrove, used a hand held camera which had been lent by Thames Valley Police to record the speeds of vehicles using the A41. The traffic came thick and fast for the councillors who clocked a vehicle every 8 seconds.
The results were then whisked back to the Town Hall, where Project Officer Daniel Parslow crunched the numbers together to make sense of data which had been collected. The results make interesting reading.
The average speed of vehicles driving into Aylesbury was 32.08 mph. Alarmingly 58.92% of all vehicles were speeding, with a van hitting 52 mph! In contrast, vehicles travelling out of town were caught in the commuter rush, with an average speed of 28.59 mph. Still, some motorists were in the mood to take liberties, with well over a quarter of them speeding off to London. Top marks though to the plucky cyclist who managed to keep up the speed with a tough 13 mph pace.
When the data was more closely examined some more interesting patterns emerged. Domestic vehicles, such as cars, outnumbered commercial ones by a power of three to one. However, commercial vehicles were far more likely to be caught in excess with an average speed of 31.10 mph. They were also responsible for the highest recorded speeds.
The results are soon to be presented to the Greater Aylesbury Local Area Forum who will take time to consider and discuss the issue. With the Town Council and the Greater Aylesbury Local Area Forum getting involved, residents can be sure their concerns are being heard.
Reading More
If you would like to read the full data analysis document, it can be downloaded here.
The A41 Speed Survey special projects thumbnail, the above banner, and road sign images are (c) FreeFoto, and are used under Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0.
The map image is (c) Ordance Survey, and is produced from the Ordnance Survey electionmap service.
The photograph of the survey site is (c) Google Maps.