Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
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by Lib Dem team on 21 July, 2014
The Lib Dem team will soon be delivering a letter about speeding to every house along Styal Road.
We’ve printed a map on the back of the letter (which you can see below) showing Styal Road with the location of all accidents reported to the police over the last five years, plus signs and other safety additions.
The issue of speeding on Styal Road has been regularly raised with us. A couple of months ago we wrote to let residents know we were looking at options. We’ve now investigated further and need your help to identify where the most dangerous locations on the road are.
Styal Road is a “district distributor” – a type of main road. That means it isn’t suitable for speed humps or chicanes. The main options we have are rumble strips and additional signs getting people to slow down.
We would like your thoughts on where the biggest problems are and what should be done to help.
13 Comments
According to the attached plan in the last 5 years there have been 9 slight injuries and 2 serious injuries. If you average them out over 5 years then the injury figures for this road are very low. No info is available as to when these incidents occurred, did they all occur in one year? Was anything done to the road after any incident resurfacing etc? Was speed was a factor in those incidents? Nothing is stated as to weather conditions, time of incident day/night. Type of vehicle, No. of vehicles involved. It is no good producing a map showing incidents without the relevant information to asses the causes etc. It is also ridiculous just to write to those households fronting Styal Road, what about all the estates that back on to the road and other households in Gatley that use the road on a daily basis. This is a bit like voting you ask everybody, not just the people you want to ask!!
The pavement along Styal road is narrow and a popular route for walkers and joggers. The hedgerows should be maintained as a priority to prevent pedestrians from having to step out into the road.
The problem is the road itself – it is a throwback to the Victorian age and was only designed for local traffic – not a major route to the airport. The romans had the right idea – build ’em straight!
The council could always compulsory purchase a few dozen properties and build a new wide straighter road designed for todays’ traffic. Wouldn’t cost much.
Totally agree with Bruce, road needs to be wider and residents reversing out onto the road from their homes does not help.
Bruce is right that Styal road is one of many hundreds of thousands of roads across the country that we certainly wouldn’t build that way if we were doing it today, and we’re left trying to deal with the consequences of a Victorian road being used for modern levels of traffic.
Buying up properties and rebuilding the road would cost millions so isn’t a viable option at the moment, but I’m keen to hear the ideas people have.
Speed indicators please. I haven’t found any difficulty.driving along this road but when I cycled it was difficult be ause of the speed of cars coming round the bends in the road. I really dislike rumble strips but perhaps they would serve a purpose on the road as it approaches the turn off for Gatley.
I agree with Carolyn. I think speed indicators would be a deterrent to speeders. They could be sited between Styal Grove and Yewtree Grove and between Simondsway and Lomond Rd.
Also, I strongly suggest a double white line at least between Hollyhedge Rd and Firs Rd and possibly between Yewtree Grove and Elmsleigh Rd where overtaking is most hazardous.
The suggestion to compulsorily purchase houses to straighten the road is selfish in the extreme. Local drivers obeying the 30mph speed limit have no difficulty in negotiating the bends safely and through traffic should not expect to break the limit. It certainly should not be considered a major route to the airport, there being others already in existence and planned.
Just recently, there has been a big increase in the passage of 12-wheeled lorries on this local road which I believe should be re-routed.
I agree that the hedges should be cut back so that the full width of the pavement is available to pedestrians.
jfjb – my comment regarding compulsory purchase was a joke
PLEASE no rumble strips!
Our house vibrates whenever a wagon goes past so rumble strips would be horrendous for us.
Speed indicator signs sound like the best idea to me.
When they light up, it’s instinctive to take your foot off the accelerator. Speed cameras would be better because people have no choice but to slow down but I know we’re unlikely to get these.
I’d also oppose anything that could bring traffic to a stand, ie. lights or a mini roundabout at the Hollyhedge junction.
When they did the gas works & we had temporary lights along Styal Road, we had to listen to the thumping bass of everyone’s car radios as they queued outside our house!
Iain,
The map you have included is confusing. You have said the map shows all accidents reported to the police. It seems to show only accidents resulting in injury and the severity of the injury although I acknowledge that these might be the only accidents reported to the police (incidentally a recent accident we were involved in on styal road that was not reported to the police but that the police were aware of is not on the map!)
I recall you previously provided a link to stockport’s accident blackspots but I have not been able to readily access this to check styal road. Another source of accident data can be found from crashmap.co.uk; it shows a lot more happening on styal road in comparison to map you have provided.
For me the worse parts of styal road are (i) the traffic light junction of styal road and finney lane and (ii) the junctions at west drive/south drive. At finney lane I’d like to see red light cameras and a yellow box to penalise and deter inconsiderate drivers. There’s not much that can be done about the road layout at the junctions of west drive/south drive, where fast moving oncoming traffic is obscured but good road markings and signage would help.
In general the multiple junctions along the eastern side of the road have the effect of moderating the average traffic speed. I note the recent speed surveys being undertaken on styal road, can you advise the locations of these?
A few days ago I noticed an excellent – although temporary – speeding deterrent. It consisted of a policeman pointing a camera directly at my car as I made my (30 mph) way along Styal Road.
Many thanks for all the comments. We’re now working on collating these, plus those from the leaflet we delivered to Styal Road and the roads off.
A couple of people asked about the GM crash database (which shows when accidents happened) – it’s here http://www.gmtu.gov.uk/gmaccidents/default.aspx#