New 30mph speed limit ‘will make road safer’

CARDIFF council has tried to allay fears over the reduction of a speed limit on one of the city’s busiest roads.

The 40mph limit on Northern Avenue has been cut to 30mph.

The new restrictions will run the length of Northern Avenue from just after the railway bridge before the Caedelyn Road junction, down through Ash Grove and Manor Way.

Signs are being removed and replaced to notify drivers.

Some had expressed concern that there had been no warning of the change in speed limit and feared they had been caught by a speed camera.

The council say that until all the signs show 30mph no-one will be caught and they will soon be putting up temporary signs to alert people to the change.

Enforcement will only begin once all the signs have been changed to 30mph, according to a spokesman.

A new 30mph sign will be installed just after the railway bridge before the Caedelyn Road junction for drivers heading into the city but drivers travelling away from the city centre will no longer see signs as the speed limit will consistently be 40mph.

He also said there are no plans they are aware of to introduce a new camera on the stretch where the speed has changed.

There is a speed camera, northbound, after the railway bridge near the Caedelyn junction.

There is a red light camera after the Caedelyn junction with Northern Avenue but this is a red light camera.

Go Safe do use a mobile speed camera on the Philog, but this is already in a 30mph zone.

On Thursday, a spokesman said that the introduction of the reduced speed limit was “designed to improve road safety following lane-width reduction works and the opening of new bus-priority lanes on this stretch of road”.

When asked for numbers of incidents or accidents which had taken place on the road, the council spokesman said the reduction in speed limits is designed to help prevent accidents.

He said: “The change from 40mph to 30mph on this stretch of road has been put in place to help prevent accidents happening. There is now a new bus lane which buses, taxis and cyclists use. The main lane width has also been reduced. Consequently, reducing the speed to 30mph should make this stretch of road safer for everyone.”

The authority got permission to change the speed limit through a Traffic Regulation Order in 2015.

The authority say that people were notified at that time as a notion of intention was printed in the Echo in 2015 before notices put up at the site giving details of the plans.

People would have had 21 days to respond to those.