Kingswells Community Council

Why is There a Need For Traffic Calming

Currently, the roads around Kingswells are grid locked around peak times in the morning and evening. As a result there is some ‘rat running' down Fairley Road to avoid the lights at the Park and Ride. Speed checks on Fairley Road have recorded speeds of 36 mph.

The proposed traffic calming is an attempt to deal with a problem that will go away when the AWPR is built, or when the North leg is built if this is sooner. The bumps will be here forever. They will become a plague in the lives of those who live in Old Kingswells - including all the new developments

What Causes The Problems with Grid Locked Traffic

Kingwells Roundabout is not free flowing. The traffic on the A944 is quite rightly given priority. This leaves huge queues at the roundabout. To make matters worse for Kingswells residents the main access to the Kingswells Roundabout is by way of the traffic lights at the Park and Ride. The lights are phased to give priority to the traffic by-passing Kingswells. This makes exiting Kingswells difficult, and time consuming.

In the Bigger Picture What are The Options?

We need an overall strategy with 3 components:

1. The roundabout

2. The P&R lights

3. And lastly the traffic calming on Fairley Road.

There are plans to improve the queuing onto the Kingswells roundabout by opening the middle lane to traffic approaching the roundabout. This will improve the flow of traffic across the roundabout. ACC is currently looking for funding for this.

The lights at the P&R require to be phased better to allow folks out of Kingswells. The lights stay on red for an awful long time. When they go green you join a queue extending all the way back to the lights.

If addressing 1 and 2 does not improve things sufficiently then there is a case for traffic calming on Fairley Road.

Confusion Over Speed Limit

There appears to be some confusion over the speed limit that is being broken. The advisory speed limit is 20 mph. This was introduced when the school was being used. The continued justification for the 20's Plenty limit is questionable. The speed limit that is currently being broken is the 20 mph, and not the official 30 mph.

Traffic Calming

Current Proposal

The current proposal includes a mandatory 20 mph limit enforced with the use of speed cushions. The Roads Dept say they need the speed bumps to enforce the limits.

This affects the end of the Lang Stracht, Fairley Road and Edmond Gardens.

Why are there bumps in Edmond Gardens?

Is it the residents who break the speed limits?

Possible Alternative Option 1:

A mandatory 20 mph, and a Press Release explaining the problem and highlighting the 6pt penalty for breaking 20 limit instead of the usual 3 pts may be enough. Reinforce this with some proactive prosecutions.

Possible Alternative Option 2:

Go with mandatory 20mph and no bumps. If we need bumps then we should go with the style that is more of a ramp that cars go up-on-and-over - that would be better then these cushions that damage you car - even when going slow. Any bumps should be removed when they are no longer needed.

The ISSUES

The main issue is that if we do not accept the proposed traffic calming then we may lose out. The funding will be given to the next community identifying a need.

The solutions to solving the problem of rat running are being introduced in the wrong order. We should deal with the root cause first, and then there may be no requirement to provide traffic calming.

What Do You Need To Do?

You need to advise Peter Stephen of your views as soon as possible.

You can write to Peter at Towns House, Aberdeen

You can use the web at http://kwells.org., or post a letter in the KCC post box next to the notice board.