Engineering In Poole

Road Safety Engineering

It is the responsibility of the individual local highway authority road safety engineering teams, who work with the Police and other agencies across Dorset, to achieve a reduction in fatal and serious injuries on our roads. We aim to meet the target engineering measures for casualty reduction figures in the following ways:

Accident prevention is often used as the primary justification for carrying out highway improvement works.
Highway Maintenance Schemes can often be prioritised on the basis of factors such as clusters of skidding accidents, and often maintenance schemes will in themselves enhance road safety by improving the carriageway running surface.
Our Road Safety Data Teams analyse accident records supplied by the Police and proposes measures that address the problems experienced in an area, or along a particular route or junction where collision numbers are higher than would otherwise be expected.
We carry out road safety and non-motorised user audits to ensure that all works affecting the highway are designed with the safety of all road users in mind. These assess accident potential and safety performance, particularly for vulnerable road users.
We continually review our road safety strategies, priorities and policies that make up our Road Safety Plans . These Travel Safety Measures (Chapter 11, page 49 of document) are incorporated within the Local Transport Plan document jointly produced by the local Councils. The third Local Transport Plan was produced in 2011 and covers the period 2011-2026.

Speed limits

Speed is a significant factor in about one third of fatal or serious road accidents in the United Kingdom. This is particularly so in urban areas, where speeding vehicles can adversely affect the quality of life of many communities. Speed limits are introduced to ensure greater road safety.
Measures for influencing the speed of vehicles generally fall into two categories, legislative and physical.
Speed limits fall into the first category whereas traffic calming devices would fall into the second. Comprehensive information on the speed limits that you would expect to come across on the different category of road is given in chart form in Rule 123 of The Highway Code.

Getting a speed limit lowered, raised or extended

If you would like a speed limit to be lowered, raised or extended, please contact the appropriate Local Authority in your area. Your request will normally be assessed based on the nationally agreed criteria, which is due to be revised in the Autumn of 2012.

The police view on a change to a speed limit is important and will be sought. Account should also be taken of the characteristics of the road, such as its alignment, the level of activity alongside the road, the accident record and the degree of severance caused to a community by the speed of vehicles.
In urban areas, speed limits should fit into a rational and easily understood hierarchy if they are to be observed by drivers. Before deciding to change an existing speed limit the Highway Authority must consider all the relevant factors such as:

expected accident savings.
improvement to the environment.
improvement in amenities.
reduction in public anxiety.
improved facilities for vulnerable road users.
delays to traffic.
costs of implementation.
costs of engineering measures and their maintenance.
costs of enforcement, especially where the speed limit is regarded as unreasonable by drivers.

If it is considered that a change in the speed limit is warranted then a new Speed limit Order has to be made. This involves a statutory legal process that can take up to 9 months to complete.
Please note that if the road in question has a system of street lighting on it with no speed limit repeater signs the road is already subject to 30mph and as such the Highway Authority is not permitted to place 30mph repeater signs on it. The system of street lighting in a built up area, whether the lights themselves are working or not, is deemed to be sufficient evidence of a 30mph limit.

For further reading, see Department for Transport - Local Speed Limit Guidance