ROAD SAFETY
Almost half of the cars travelling on Rutherglen’s Richmond Drive every week day are speeding, as the volume of traffic on the residential street rockets.
A recent traffic survey shows in excess of 4000 cars travel along the street Monday to Friday in a bid to get to the M74 and Stonelaw High School.
On average 1764, 44 per cent, of those cars are breaking the 30mph speed limit.
But South Lanarkshire Council says no traffic measures are required because the average speed of 32.8mph is not “excessive”.
Results of the traffic survey, carried by the council, also show the volume of traffic has increased substantially in the past four years.
The weekday average number of cars on the road has risen by 78 per cent from 2398 in 2013 to 4272.
Of those cars, 85 per cent did not exceed 32.9 mph.
Residents say Richmond Drive is along the speedy route East Kilbride commuters use to get on to the M74.
James Aitken, who lives on Richmond Drive and who has long been campaigning for measures to reduce and slow the flow of traffic there, said the statistics support his argument that action is needed.
He said: “My concern is about safety, there is a school at the top of my street. It’s the speed and volume of cars that concerns me.
“Even I was surprised by the volume of traffic, there’s 30,000 cars a week. To see that 40 per cent are speeding, that to me says there’s an issue.”
But he added: “The gist of it is the council has said the matter is closed, that there is no issue here because of the criteria they have.
“The council are satisfied that 4000+ cars a day are on that road, of which almost half are speeding.”