Northcourt Avenue in Reading to get speed humps and 20mph limit
A residential road where drivers have been accused of "playing chicken with kids" and speeding at 70mph is set to get a 20mph limit and speed humps.Neighbours requested traffic calming measures on Northcourt Avenue in Reading, a long road that is home to properties, a doctors surgery and two shops.Supporters of the change claimed drivers reached speeds well over the current 30mph limit.Despite some objections, Reading Borough Council unanimously agreed to approve the measures at the meeting on Wednesday.
In total, 17 speed humps are going to be put in - 15 on the road itself, and two on Wellington Avenue.There will also be speed tables put at the entrances to Northcourt Avenue at Christchurch Road and Cressingham Road.A consultation into the measures received 32 responses - 25 in support and six against.One neighbour wrote: "Traffic on the road is currently dangerous and the speed limit is often ignored with speeds up to 60-70 mph."
According to Crashmap UK, there has been one serious and three slight accidents along Northcourt Avenue between 2019 and 2021.Councillor Andrew Hornsby-Smith, who represents the area, said the plans had received "overwhelming support".He said objections from neighbours who called for either no humps or fewer of them were "ignoring the reality of the accidents, or simply just playing chicken with kids on this relatively straight road"."The spacing of 75m between humps is the most efficient way of slowing cars down without them slowing down and speeding up, creating problems in that way," he said.The £200,000 worth of changes, funded from the community infrastructure levy, will be installed in the summer or winter of this year.
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