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Title:	Traffic calming measures to Harefield Road and surrounding areas near to St Mary’s Primary School (Rickmansworth)
Petition Overview:	Residents have long raised concerns about speeding traffic on the stretch of Harefield Road that passes St Mary’s Primary School.Drivers regularly speed both up and down the hill and get into difficulty on the bend and summit. Mopeds are known to race up and down this stretch of road causing danger to the residents and to themselves. Many children walk to school and residents use the narrow pavement to walk to shops, the Aquadrome and bus stops.The Green Party are calling for Hertfordshire County Council to -Reduce the speed limit to 20 m.p.h. through residential roads near to St. Mary's primary school, including Sherfield Avenue and the lower part of Harefield Road from the A404 to Woodcock Hill Cemetery (currently 30 m.p.h).Reduce the speed limit to 40 m.p.h. at the upper part of Harefield Road from Woodcock Hill cemetery to the Rose and Crown (currently 60 m.p.h).Install an interactive, “smiley face”, speed signs on Harefield Road in both directions of travel within the proposed 20 m.p.h zone, north of Stockers Farm Road (travelling uphill) and near Woodcock Hill Cemetery (travelling downhill). Install a parallel crossing for pedestrians and cyclists, with “school” road sign or road paint, on Harefield Road near the entrance to Stockers Farm Road to aid safe access to St Mary's Primary School and the public footpath towards to the Grand Union canal and Aquadrome.
Relevant Area(s):	Not Specified
Opening Date:	20/01/2018
closing Date:	19/03/2018
Signatures:	255
Petitioner Name:	Three Rivers Green Party

In response to national guidance, the Authority has produced, as part of its Local Transport Plan (LTP), the Road Safety Strategy which aims to improve safety for all by minimising the number of collisions and injuries occurring as a result of the transport network. This can be achieved through road safety education and training, safety audits, engineering measures and enforcement. Our Road Safety Unit monitors collisions and prioritises hazardous sites based on collision history. Each year the County Council receives many requests for traffic calming and speed limit reductions, however there are limited resources. To achieve the best value from our limited funds we have to prioritise initiatives that will be taken forward. Focus is given to those areas where existing serious injury accidents, for example, can be readily mitigated through engineering measures; that provide best value for money and provide a measurable level of success.Any request for changes to the speed limit is assessed against the Council’s Speed Management Strategy (SMS) which sets out the current criteria for setting speed limits. It is based on Government guidance published in January 2013, ‘Setting Local Speed Limits’. Speed limits should be evidence-led, self-explanatory and seek to reinforce peoples’ assessment of what is a safe speed to travel. They should encourage self-compliance and not be seen by drivers as being a target speed at which to drive in all circumstances. The key criteria for setting a speed limit are set out in section 2 of the SMS and include: An assessment of the environment must be made to confirm that a speed limit is appropriate for the road. The Hertfordshire Speed Limit Framework will be used to meet this criterion.For 30mph to 70mph limits, the maximum mean speed should not exceed the proposed limit once implemented. Collision data for the last 5 years does not suggest a pattern of excess speed related road traffic accidents. Following previous concerns that were received, mean and 85th percentile speeds were collected in Harefield Road in November 2017, and as a result we have decided to submit Harefield Road for a Speed Limit Review in our annual assessment programme, which will look at the collected data and environment in line with the SMS. County Councillors have a small Locality Budget to spend on issues that benefit local communities, and this year following receipt of the traffic speed and volume survey, funds were earmarked early in 2018 by the current County Councillor to install a Speed Indicator Device (with smiley/sad face) in Harefield Road near to the junction with Stockers Farm Road. An additional socket will also be installed opposite 145 Harefield Road which will allow relocation of signs in the future. The sign at Stockers Farm Road and the additional socket were ordered some time ago and will be installed within the next two monthsAll schools throughout the County are encouraged to produce and maintain active School Travel Plans, and the County Council's Schools Road Safety Officers can offer to support and provide advice to schools in producing such plans. The School Travel Plan is a document that sets out what improvements can be made in terms of pupils' journeys to and from school, with a particular emphasis placed in shifting the mode of travel to more sustainable means, rather than driving. Where plans identify improvements that might be made to the Highway, funding may be attracted from the County Council’s Safer Routes to Schools program of work. Such requests are ranked and prioritised for works delivery within the program. When the County Council receives a request for pedestrian crossing facilities, which fall outside of its core programs of work, initial investigations into the request may be undertaken by means of carrying out Traffic Speed and Volume Surveys, as well as a Manual Pedestrian Count. The data captured from such surveys is analysed to determine if the request meets the criteria for the matter to be considered further. There is no funding available from the County Council's core budgets towards the cost of the surveys. However, the Local County Councillor for the Division in which this request sits, can consider funding the cost of the surveys using the Highway Locality Budget Scheme in a future financial year.

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