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Welcome to the Plaxtol Safe Lanes Driver Scheme web page
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If you have not visited before, please take a few moments to read about our scheme, why we need it, how it works and – perhaps most importantly – how you can help. There’s a section on driving in the countryside, too, with advice from the NFU and Brake, the national road safety charity. Alternatively, if you’ve been here before and just want to know what’s new, you can simply click the link on the right to go straight to all the latest.
Thank you.
For a GoogleTM map of Education Locations, click here
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Join the campaign – find us at the Church Fete on 7th June and the School Summer Fayre on 21st June.
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Obviously, speeding is dangerous. It’s antisocial. It makes our streets and lanes less pleasant for everyone, at just the time when we are being encouraged to get out of our cars and walk or cycle more – for our own health and for the health of the environment. We all know this, yet still we drive too fast. So the question becomes: what can we do to remind us? What can we do to make Plaxtol’s streets and lanes safer for everyone?
There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that there is something we can do. The bad news? It’s up to us, as individuals and as a community, to make that change. There is a scheme which will allow everyone, from children to the elderly, on foot, bicycle or horseback, to feel safer on Plaxtol’s lanes. And drivers and their passengers will be safer, too. By drawing our attention to the risks we might encounter and asking us to commit to slower, safer driving, it will allow all of us to enjoy our streets and lanes to the full. We believe Plaxtol people have the vision and community spirit to make it work. If that bad news doesn’t sound too bad after all, read on to find out more.
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Plaxtol has preserved much of its rural nature and sense of peace. But ours is a linear village, which means that all daily activity centres on The Street. Commuters leaving for and returning from work, children being driven – or walking – to and from school or nursery, the bus service, and delivery vehicles of all sizes all get channelled into this long, narrow stretch of road. It’s easy to become “Street-centric” where traffic issues are concerned, but all outlying parts of the parish and the winding lanes which link them are affected just as badly by traffic speed and careless driving.
We’ve always been worried about speeding here. But the ways to beat it have often seemed worse than the problem, threatening to urbanise our village. There are more vehicles on our roads, and many of those vehicles are bigger and more powerful than ever before. Sometimes it seems that speeding and the dangers it brings are just facts of modern life.
But most of us are not prepared to accept that. We grumble about it among ourselves, saying that something should be done. Individuals take action when they can. And in 2004 we had perhaps the strongest, mass indication of unhappiness over this issue, when the results of Plaxtol’s Parish Plan survey were assessed. Almost ninety per cent of respondents were in support of measures to control speeding. Of these, nearly a quarter thought reducing the speed limit would prove effective, whilst even more thought extending the speed restriction zone or adding coloured tarmac and “SLOW” signs on the road surface was the way to go. Thirteen per cent of respondents favoured more road warning signs. |
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Quiet Lanes is a local authority initiative aimed at encouraging people to get out and about in the countryside, but there are worries about the danger of bringing vulnerable road users into closer contact with vehicles on our lanes. The Parish Plan recommended that something should be done to address the ineffectual Quiet Lanes signage and the lack of warnings to drivers where footpaths and bridleways emerge onto the road.
Much traditional traffic calming is best-suited to towns. Many “vertical” measures designed to combat speeding are visually unattractive and of questionable safety value. For example, speed humps can distract drivers from what’s happening on the road ahead, increase vehicle emissions and vehicle noise, present problems on bus routes, and have little effect on many 4x4 vehicles.
Reducing the speed limit to 20mph in our built-up areas might seem a good starting point. But initial approaches to the Highways Authority by the Parish Council found that such a limit could not be imposed without substantive evidence of speeding, requiring a Speedwatch survey conducted by residents armed with speed guns. The users have to be trained, and they have to go out in pairs. The time and effort involved meant that not enough volunteers came forward. What’s more, 20mph zones require regular reinforcement with “vertical” measures such as bollards or chicanes, accompanied by overhead lighting so that they can be seen at night. Clearly, this is not a sympathetic solution for our village.
Frustrated by this stalemate, the problem was assessed afresh.
With an eye to a solution that would work for the parish as a whole, the Parish Council were introduced to a scheme in the village of Mayfield, East Sussex, devised and deployed by concerned local residents who were tired of traffic speeding through their village. It has worked well; residents now report that road conditions are much more pleasant and less dangerous for everyone. It is called the Safe Lanes Driver Scheme.
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How The Scheme Works
The Safe Lanes Driver Scheme is a two-pronged attack comprising driver education and a commitment to safer driving, and addresses the two important areas of concern raised by the Parish Plan.
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Designed to highlight to drivers the risks of encountering other road-users, particularly walkers, horse-riders or cyclists, temporary signs will be placed at specific points on our local lanes – blind bends and places where footpaths or bridleways emerge onto the road might be prime “education locations”. The signage is clear and simple, direct in its message that Plaxtol is a Safe Lanes area, so that even drivers who don’t live here or drive here regularly will have the information they need to drive safely.
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Driver Calming with the Safe Lanes Driver Pledge
This is the Safe Lanes ethos: driver calming, not traffic calming; safe, not just slow.
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Road users are twice as likely to be killed on a rural road as on an urban road. Sharp corners, high hedges or trees, a narrow carriageway, lack of pavements, and the occasional presence of debris all add to the dangers for all road users – drivers, walkers, cyclists and riders.
It is the social responsibility of every road user to do all they can to ensure their own safety, but there is an additional onus of care on drivers, who are essentially in control of a lethal weapon on wheels. Children and dogs can be unpredictable, cyclists may wobble, and horses can be startled easily and for no apparent reason. Yet the perceived absence of other cars on rural roads implies that it is safe to speed, and many drivers either fail to recognize or choose to ignore the risks. Alongside this, the prevalence of commuter traffic and the increase in the use of satellite navigation systems are placing an added burden on our lanes which simply did not exist in the past.
Tips for rural driving from the road safety charity Brake and the NFU include:
¶ Remember the Two Second Rule. When driving behind another vehicle, notice when it passes a stationary object and recite to yourself, “only a fool breaks the two second rule.” If you reach that same object before you have finished reciting the reminder, you are too close to the car in front.
¶ Always try to follow the line of a bend or corner. If you find yourself having to “straight line” a bend, you are probably driving too fast.
¶ Drive around bends, particularly left-hand bends, as though you know there’s a fallen cyclist in your path – that way you won’t be going too fast to avoid any obstacles you do meet. |
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¶ All the dangers of driving in rural areas are heightened at night, and in winter the busiest times on our roads fall in the dark hours of the afternoon and evening.
As part of the Safe Lanes Driver Scheme, we’re asking everyone to “be a star” for Plaxtol – to think about tips like this and apply them when driving, so that all local road users will be safer.
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Of course, the most important thing you can do is take the Safe Lanes Driver Pledge on or after 31st May.
But we’re looking for help in other ways, too.
Safe Lanes is a community-led campaign. That’s why we’d like to know any particular places of concern to you – places where you know an accident has happened, places where you feel unsafe to walk, ride or cycle because of traffic speeds, or just places where you know vehicles go too fast. We’re calling these places Education Locations. Click here to see a GoogleTM map of the locations that have been suggested so far, and please let us know whether you agree or disagree with the suggestions made, or if you have more of your own.
We’d be grateful to receive any other comments, too. Would you be willing to sign the Safe Lanes Driver pledge? Do you have experience of a similar scheme operating elsewhere? Can you spare an hour or two to help out at our Pledge Signings?
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Latest News We are pleased to say that there has already been much positive feedback from Plaxtol residents and people who drive regularly in Plaxtol.
Our Name In The Paper … The Malling Chronicle ran a story about our scheme at the end of January. Mums (and one dad) from the school/nursery brought their children and dogs to join members of the Working Group for a photograph, on a very foggy morning and at very short notice – a big “thank you” to everyone who came along.
Public Meeting On 9 April we gave a talk about the Safe Lanes scheme in the Memorial Hall. This will follow the Parish Council’s Annual Parish Meeting, which members of the public are always invited to attend. Those who came along heard all about the scheme, met members of the Working Group, raised questions of concern to them. Feedback was positive and we are hopeful that this reflects the attitude of as many people as possible in Plaxtol.
Safe Lanes Saturday – 31st May 2008 We launched the Scheme officially on Saturday, 31st May. Members of the Working Group were in The Street and Memorial Hall, handing out leaflets and gathering Pledges. We collected 122 signed Pledges in 4 hours, and everyone who signed got a sticker to display in their car, so keep your eyes open for Safe Lanes Drivers wherever you go! Our signs are appearing around Plaxtol – the prize for spotting them is safer roads for all. |
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The Safe Lanes Working Group
The Working Group currently comprises:
Elaine Webb Gary Starling Haydn Puleston Jones Helen Homard Emma Parker
We would be glad to hear from anyone who’d like to get involved, particularly with publicity and pledge-signing events in the future. The Safe Lanes Driver Scheme is something for the whole community.
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You can e-mail us, or write to
Safe Lanes Working Group Hop Pickers’ Yard Winfield Lane Borough Green Kent TN15 8PX.
We look forward to hearing from you.
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Last updated 2 June, 2008
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© PLAXTOL SAFE LANES WORKING GROUP |
PHOTOGRAPHS © PLAXTOL PARISH PLAN |
