By Jill Stocks
Horsforth town councillors will be in various locations across Horsforth over the next seven days with a mobile speed indicator.
After monitoring speeding on Broadway on Thursday with the device, borrowed from Leeds City Council, they will be using it in other speeding hotspots across Horsforth over the next week.
The indicator is being loaned to the town council as part of Leeds Vision Zero 2040, a strategy aiming to achieve no serious injuries or road deaths on roads in Leeds by 2040.
Councillor Helen Hayden is Leeds City Council’s executive member for infrastructure and climate.
She said: “Road crashes kill people, devastate families and ruin health. They destroy lives, hopes, futures. The toll on victims and their loved ones is inconceivable.
“Around the world, cities are pioneering a ‘Vision Zero’ approach to road danger. This is the ethical position that no one should die or suffer serious injury from using roads.
“Leeds is the first in West Yorkshire to adopt this, and the Leeds Safe Roads Vision Zero 2040 is our own ambition to eliminate fatal and serious road injuries from our city within the next 18 years.”
Councillor Ray Jones (Lab, Horsforth) will be one of those doing a stint with the device over the next week.
He said: “I am pleased that we have a full week to use the mobile speed indicator. We will be using it at known places where speeding takes place.
“Hopefully this will remind motorists to keep the correct speed limit.”
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Regarding speeding on Horsforth”s roads , this not limited to Broadway. The St Margaret’s, which has a 20MPH limit and on the route to several schools needs urgent monitoring. I spoke to one motorist who couldn’t understand my frustration: ” I wasn’t speeding, I was only doing 30 mph” , she said.
It was nearer 50!
Carrying out speed aware monitoring will only slow motorists briefly. As soon as the monitoring is gone it will be business as normal. People speed past permanent monitors without consequence so do they work? I think not, and speed cameras don’t catch speeding motorists, think about it. The the only proper deterrent is to bring back traffic police or should I say more of them. But that’s only an opinion and not the perfect solution as there are too many cars on the road it will take various methods.