The Isle of Wight Council is looking to dramatically cut speed limits on the main Newport to Sandown road, including 20mph limits in Arreton and Lake. Under the proposals, Blackwater Road will become 50mph, dropping to 40mph near the junction with Merstone Lane. It will then continue at 40mph past the biomass plant through to Arreton, into the existing 30mph limit. However, it is intended that during school opening and closing times, a temporary 20mph limit will be introduced between Arreton Barns and the community hall. This will be the same outside Broadlea Primary in Lake too. Further towards Apse Heath, the 50mph limit through Branstone will be revoked and replaced with a 40mph limit outside the new development, which leads into the relatively new 30mph limit into Apse Heath. Outside Sandown Airport, the Council wishes to revoke the 40mph limit and replace it with a 30mph limit, effectively extending the 30mph zone to the entrance to the airport. Today’s news is all part of a £2.1million project to improve safety on the A3056. The money was awarded from the Department for Transport’s Safer Roads Fund. It is unclear if the speed limit changes will utilise all of the money, or whether there will be other improvements not yet disclosed. The Council says that the proposed 40mph limits mentioned above are as a result of significant concerns over the number and severity of accidents. Island Echo doesn’t recognise the proposed sections as accident blackspots, having covered breaking news in the area for over 13 years. A consultation on the proposals has been launched and continued until 29th March. Details can be found on the Council’s Traffic Regulation Order Consultation page at https://www.iow.gov.uk/council-and-councillors/consultations-and-engagement/traffic-regulation-order-consultations/a3056-traffic-regulation-order-consultation/.
GRINDING TO A HALT! COUNCIL LOOKS TO CUT SPEED LIMITS BETWEEN NEWPORT AND LAKE
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Unless speed cameras or traffic calming measures are put in place
Island Numpty’s will ignore the rules.
When I was living in Pompey rules were much stricter than the
rules on the Island.
Move back to Portsmouth then. No one asked you to live here sticking you nose in!
I knew a backward Caulkhead would make this comment
I came to the island because it needs people like myself with
Brains, not Brawn!
Go back to your Carrot field, Numpty.
Have you got brains? If you had you wouldn’t be so rude, Townie.
You might find that the majority of issues with cars and safety are alcohol and/or drug usage as well as speeding (already travelling faster than the legal limit) so I’m not sure how reducing the speed limits is going to impact those that are already contravening the road traffic act
If you can’t drive after 5 pints you can’t drive
Far better to use the money to repair the potholes which are even more dangerous than excessive speed as motorists swerve to try to avoid them.
I thought there were already temporary 20 MPH speed limits outside the schools.
Not enforced limits, as such. Sign has to have a red circle around it for it to be an enforceable / legal speed limit.
ill expect they will put up bigger signs..got to throw away 2.1 million somewhere.
I suspect the road safety issue between Morrison’s and the Apse Heath 30 zone is due to the Scooter fatality a couple of years ago.
Deaths add weight to these things even if fender benders are rare in that area.
This road is slowly but surely being reduced to 30mph from Lake to Coppins! Slowly and randomly in the hop that no-one notices.
Perhaps if they put a census camera in to check for insurance and mot’s they might get better safety results by getting the idiots off the road!
No! The scooter death was because the rider thought he was still in Germany so drove on the wrong side of the road. It’s so easy to do….
As with speed camera positioning the actual cause of the death is ignored. For example, one of the speed cameras in Shanklin was justified by two fatalities – one occurred a few hundred yards down the road due to a heart attack and the other on the beach. Neither were caused by excessive speed.
The spot chosen was, however, ideally situated to mask the camera from approaching cars to maximise income.
It would be interesting to see if the speed change locations are similarly optimal for maximising speed camera income. As the article points out, they certainly aren’t accident blackspots.
Cause of death would go down as COVID anyway if you’ve had it recently.
What an absolute load of rubbish scrap speed limits except by schools, this will put paid to old dodderers
crawling along at 10mph with there foot on the brake.
I agree, but suggest you take up English grammar at evening classes..( Old git/fart with an ST3 🙂 )
I thought the major accident hot spots were the middle road, and the Brading Downs Knighton junction.
Then not forgetting the road off Brading Downs towards Ashey, Beaper Shute, the main road from Godshill to Whitwell, also Stroud wood road. Come to think of it most of the Island roads….
The normal speed past Arreton School at opening and closing times is already10 – 0 mph as parents in cars block both carriageways frequently back to the Merstone junstion and to Horringford Crossing!
No police to enforce it. You reduce the speed of a road you reduce it’s capacity. In doing that you’ll make the traffic heavier giving more chance of accident. The speed limits are not the issue, it’s the drivers.
It’s Staplers Road Newport they should have lower speed limits for, cars are being raved by idiots both ways for most of the day.
Those idiots don’t adhere to the existing speed limits, so there’s little point in inconveniencing the vast majority of law- abiding drivers by getting them to drive even slower, when the idiots will carry on just as they do now.
Whatever the speed limit is, you will always get the one driving behind you right up your arse and in the middle of the road trying to see round you waiting their chance to get past.
Do you get a lot of drivers trying to get past you? Waiting for a chance to do it safely, driving nearer the centre of the road for better vision. For safety again. I do agree that being too close is not to be advised.
I have a rear view dashcam. It’s screen is built into the mirror so it can easily be seen by tailgaters.
The screen is normally off until I tap the screen. You should see how the ‘spanners drop back when they realise they are going to end up on YouTube.
What’s behind you is less important than the child you’re about to send to heaven. Eyes front you sanctimonious road captain.
Yes, exactly. Slow down just before a speed camera. they may overtake you and get nicked or turn left just as they pass if you can, or at least indicate just before they start to pass.. Lost cause!!
If they put these restrictions in the first thing they need to do is put a roundabout at the top of Arretton otherwise no one will get a chance to get up to the wonderful traffic lights at The Hare and Hounds.
More anti-car social engineering in the name of ‘safety’ as part of the council’s crusade to ‘save the planet’ from climate change and push people out of their vehicles – no accidents can be attributed to having speed limits at their current level and modern cars are so much better designed from a safety aspect, so why have the council and island roads spent the last decade systematically lowering limits and coating the island in double yellow lines, always with the same excuse of ‘safety’, whilst the drug driving(far worse and commonplace now than drink driving) is on the rise, as are people driving underage, without licenses or insurance, all of them far more likely to cause accidents and also totally ignore speed limits ?
Totally agree, if they try and copy other parts of the UK , firstly you need a competant and regular and relaiable alternative transport system, the island has none of these things.
What’s the point of ”Save the Planet”? There’s loads of paranoid power mad war mongering bastards just waiting their chance to blow half of it up!
Totally agree. We are in grave danger of going down the slippery slope of the blanket 20mph nonsense in Wales.
some of us want to actually get to our destinations before dying of old age in the car, due to pedestrian driving speeds. There is no need to reduce the speed limits, just because old incompetents cant cope and half the new drivers are dopey.
‘Island Echo doesn’t recognise the proposed sections as accident blackspots’
No, and you can see on a map that there’s not any more accidents on the Blackwater Valley road, for instance, or the road through Arreton, than many other roads on the Island, or indeed nationwide. CrashMap is one source, but there’s others, too where you can view every accident.
But, for some reason the Council have been handed £2.1 million, and they’re determined to spend (or waste) it.
I’ve been asking Island Road for 5 years to look at the speed of 50 mph along the Newport Road between Allendale and the tiny bridge before Godshill. Been given lots of excuses as to why it can’t be done! So those residents living on that stretch of road take risks every time they try to leave their own driveways. Thanks for listening Island Roads .
2.1 million on 2 dozen speed signs? Where is the rest of that money destined for? Not sorting the road that’ll be for sure…
Absolutely stupid again.
No evidence that breaking a speed limit causes any accidents.
As a regular driver on these roads, I get stuck behind the usual numpties driving below the speed limits, unaware of the road conditions or how to drive. I see many close shaves caused by too slow driving by ancient pensioners who seems to like taking their dogs out in the rush hour, clogging up the roads, oblivious to the workers trying to get somewhere.
That’s bull. Plenty of evidence that speeding is a component in most accidents and plenty of evidence that speeding is a major contributor to rates of injury and death when they do occur.
Do you really think the drivers of the frequent off-road excursions and rollovers were obeying speed limits?
Another money-making tactic (in way of speeding fines) in my opinion. There’s nothing wrong with the speed limits along these roads and not many accidents by normal / good drivers. I understand outside of schools, but otherwise leave it alone for Christ sake… The island can’t go any slower or we’ll all be going backwards! If you can’t drive at the speed limit then you shouldn’t be driving at all. Surely the council have got bigger fish to fry.
Absolutely time to make a maximum of 40 mph on the island with 20 mph through built up areas/towns and villages. Of course it would not be popular but may save lives and provide some revenue.
May save lives, and may bring in extra revenue. So if it doesn’t save lives, or bring in extra revenue, will it revert back to current speed limits? Twat!
The council are only doing this so they can make more money out of us.
Thank goodness for Cruise control
Absolute waste of money.
Councils pay for signal.
Police refuse to enforce 20 zones. –they say it should be self enforcing. Eg Road humps . These will never be put on main roads
Show me an Island driver who understands
Roundabouts or speed limits!
As per usual, our council totally miss the point. Nobody seems to have noticed that this road is the main trunk road between Lake and Newport. Due to increased usage the road itself is no longer fit for purpose in its current form. It needs upgrading to cope with the demands placed upon it. Reducing speed limits will just make the road more congested and up driver frustration which will probably lead to more accidents not fewer!
I will be quite happy to put up a dozen speed signs and circle some markings on the road for £1.2 million that will save u a bit off money
Your trying to undercut someone and do it for half price, make sure you make it out of cardboard so it doesn’t last and needs doing again so you can get more money like the waste on the floating bridge
If you want to make the roads safer take the air bags out of cars and attach a machete to centre of the steering wheel nobody will drive over 3mph
Another clipboard exercise. Why not make it 10mph all the way with someone walking in front with a red flag. It already takes eons stuck behind someone whose only speed is 30 mph to get anywhere. Then they usually crash into a lamp post.
2.1 million pounds to change a few signs wow iow council must think we are stupid on that road there’s probably about 8 speed signs on each side of the road from Arrington barns to lake it don’t coat 100 grand to make a sign where is our money going iow council
AHH I know why now,it takes 8 men/ women to do 1 post at at time they have to have 5 off them playing games on there phone,2 smoking and the other 1 looking down a hole waiting for a mole to appear
Extending Arretons 30 zone to the Arreton Downend junction wouldn’t be a bad idea, no reason for it to be NSL, itt might help with traffic flow ay peak times.
If the Council really wanted to make the roads safer, they would have Island Roads repairing the surfaces and cleaning out the drains and gullies.
Good for them!!!! Idiot drivers not taking care.
What’s the next step, someone walking in front of cars with a red flag?
Perhaps they don’t realise how much damage is caused to an engine when running at low or very low speeds. A cars engine cannot function efficiently at 20 or 30 all the time. It’s not designed to, OK for a few hundred yards but it will create excessive carbon deposits within which amounts to more pollution, especially with commercial transport.
The whole idea is stupid and won’t reduce accidents. Look what’s happening in Wales. Unless you drive electric which I don’t and won’t, all it will be is a Cash Cow. Watch the speed cameras appear as proof. Load of bloody idiots in charge?
Madness, if a speed limit other than the national was to be imposed from blackwater to gore cross then 50 is fair. Arreton should be a 40, who ever authorised that road to be a 30 took a back hander. That 40 all the way to the farm shop entrance. The rest into lake is fine. A roundabout at gore cross would solve alot of traffic issues from Downend.
What about doing away with the 40mph between Newport and Northwood with 30 instead. Trying to get out of the side roads is murder AND bring back the cameras. You would make a lot of money. Young drivers and the van drivers don’t recognise speed signs
Bring back the horse and cart then for older drivers like yourself to cope with then
You old drivers don’t recognise speed signs either considering you’re always doing 20 below. Maybe young drivers wouldn’t have to go so fast if they didn’t have old farts like you forcing an overtake.
3 of the worst offenders on the Island for breaking speed limits
Isle of Wight Distribution vans are being driven wrecklessly at speed.
Taxis are also being driven at speed and the majority of builders vans.
There does not seem to be enough law on the island to cope with the
amount of speeding vehicles.
More Speed cameras need to be installed islandwide.
£2.1 million for no more than a dozen road signs if they go ahead with this hair brain scheme, no wonder our Council tax is misspent. Sounds to me certain Councillors have golden loo seats
Here come the congestion charges
Ye carry on make no difference..
The island standard of driving is appalling, how the majority of people here passed their tests is beyond me, must be significantly easier than that of the mainland.
Going 30/40 in a 60 when it’s clear and safe to do 60 shows pure incompetence, my instructor never allowed driving like this.
I overtake 4 cars per day driving far too slow just between Sandown/Newport alone & have done for years, never an incident. Slow/incompetent drivers are the real danger, slow drivers that pull out right infront of you last second when nothing is behind you especially.
Raise the driving standards, don’t lower the speed limits for these smooth brains.
A road is a road and I will personally drive how i feel fit . This road can easily handle a ton twenty no probs. Put up whatever speed limits you like never take notice of any of them anyway. I feel the need for speed beep beep see you laterz.
£2.1million project..funny they find money for this that dose’nt need to happen..why?? ive driven that road many times no issuse traffic keeps speed down to 40/30 most times .so why spend money.
Shame they won’t cut council tax!!!!
Cut every other corner…….