VOLUME ‘NEEDS
Concerns as ‘250,000 vehicles recorded on street in one month’
PICTURE this: you live on a residential street and a quarter of a million car and HGV journeys are made in a single month just beyond your doorstep. That’s about 8,333 cars every day, and around 347 cars every hour. It sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it?
But for those who live and work on Pen-y-Wain Road in Roath, Cardiff, this number actually isn’t too surprising – in fact, it’s the reality. A low-cost sensor called a Telraam, supplied by WeCount - an EU-funded project that enables concerned citizens to count traffic – logged a whopping 225,204 cars and 26,084 HGVs on the street last June.
It focuses on the portion of the road between Shirley Road, which leads into it, and Mackintosh Place, which turns off it.
“It was kind of a shock, but not a total shock to me,” said general assistant Stuart Thomas, 46, about the recent statistics. He has lived in his house just at the junction which joins Shirley Road to Pen-y-Wain Road for a year.
Stuart’s housemate Paul Michael, 43, describes the road as rat run for commuters into town and delivery services for restaurants and takeaways nearby. He’s been living in the house for four years - but possibly not for much longer.
“With Roath Park and the town centre, it’s a perfect location. But I would definitely not be staying here long term because the amount of pollution is insane,” he claimed.
“The amount of thick black dust I have to wipe up – I think, ‘What am I still doing here?’” he added.
The noise pollution is also unbearable for Paul, who is currently studying in college.
“I’ve got earplugs. I literally put them in in the evening, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get any kip at all. I’ve got a bag of them and I go through bags of them,” he said.
“I try to keep the windows closed as often as possible. I’ve even enquired about an air conditioning unit for the next week, so I can keep my windows closed but to have some cool air for the warm weekend. That’s the extent you have to go to.”
Paul and Stuart’s accounts are echoed by Tom Edgar, whose house on Shirley Road where he’s lived for 20 years is also right next to the junction.
Standing outside his house, he complains that “it’s got louder and louder to the extent that I can’t think of a time even in the middle of the night when I can’t hear traffic going past the windows.”
According to Tom’s observations – which are in line with the data picked up by the sensor – the majority of the cars driving onto Pen-y-Wain Road veer off into Mackintosh Place, but there is less traffic next to Roath Park Primary School which lies further down the road.
“What I’m noticing is a lot of the cars are not local. They’re not stopping necessarily to park here, to stay here. They are literally using it as a rat run,” he said.
Also concerned by the speed of drivers, he points to the junction: “We’ve had instances where it’s taken us 15 minutes just to get across this junction because people are flying round. And they do come round this corner particularly quickly without necessarily looking.”
Tony Attoe-butt, 49, Tom’s neighbour who lives opposite him, has noticed the same problem. “People don’t obey the 20 miles per hour. It’s a complete joke – anywhere around here,” he said, adding, “When it’s quiet, you get people charging by.”
While Tony admits he’s not too worried about his own safety and is “used to it”, the volume and speed of traffic is a particular concern for Veerawali Kaur further down Pen-yWain Road, whose children go to the local school. She said she’s been careful to teach her kids road safety because the cars “don’t want to stop”.
Meanwhile, across from Veerawali, Hellene, 35, and her friend are sitting outside Hellene’s house, apparently transfixed by the unrelenting flow of vehicles. For Hellene, the sound of the HGVs at the crack of dawn is the most bothersome aspect.
“Early mornings are the issue. They start from like six o’clock onwards - you can hear them on the speed bumps,” she said, adding: “It rattles the bedroom - you can feel when a big vehicle is going past.”
For husband and wife Nigel and Alison, who own Cafe 73 on the street, the volume of traffic has benefits.
“It’s probably good for our business because we’re on a busy corner,” admitted Nigel. But he also observed that “the traffic at five o’clock is horrendous” and that “people don’t know where to park around here”.
“We’ve had quite a few people say they often pass by and have been meaning to come here for ages and they see us open, but parking is a big problem,” added Alison.
Also worried about the safety of the roundabout, Nigel points out his cafe window: “You just have to turn round and watch the traffic - the amount of accidents we’ve nearly seen on that junction!”
Professor Enda Hayes from the University of the West of England is the coordinator of WeCount in Cardiff. He’s delivered over 90 sensors around Cardiff alone.
“Pen-y-Wain Road has been one of the more stable sensors over the last few months. And Roath is probably the area where we have the most sensors in Cardiff. The community in Roath have been really eager to get engaged and get involved,” he said.
“Pen-y-Wain is one of the heaviest traffic roads in that area. You’ve got Pen-y-Wain Road, Shirley Road, Allensbank Road, Albany Road and City Road - they seem to be the ones that have the highest volume of traffic in that area. For Albany Road, for City Road, for Allensbank Road - maybe that’s kind of expected. But Pen-y-Wain Road and Shirley Road really aren’t big roads where you would expect this volume of traffic.”
WeCount has recently supplied Roath Park Primary School at the bottom of the road with a Telraam sensor. Deputy head teacher Lewis Fitzgerald currently works with parents and children to promote active travel to and from school, and the school has seen a significant increase in children walking or riding their bike to school.
But concerned by the change he’s seen in the volume and size of vehicles on the road in the last three years, head teacher Jonathan Keohane explained they are taking their active travel efforts to the next level.
“What we want to do is use the sensor to see how many of those quarter of a million cars are travelling all the way down Pen-y-Wain Road and how many are leaving at Mackintosh Place and using that as a cut-through. Our ideal dream as a school is to have the road outside the school closed off - just for pedestrians.”
In response to concerns raised by those living and working on and near Pen-y-Wain Road, a spokesperson for Cardiff Council said: “This area is in a 20mph zone with speed and traffic calming measures in place all of the way down the road on both Pen-y-Wain Road and Monthermer Road to reduce vehicles speeding.
“The figure of 250,000 vehicles over a month equates to 400 vehicles per hour in each direction, which isn’t dissimilar to similar roads across Cardiff. Prior to the pandemic, in 2014, Pen-y-Wain Road carried 290,000 vehicles, so as of last month the traffic had returned to 85% of pre-pandemic levels, similar to traffic patterns across Cardiff as a whole.
“In terms of the issues with speeding, the WeCount data does not corroborate the claims made - with 85% of percentile speeds within the 20mph speed limit, although they state themselves that there can be a 10% discrepancy in their speed surveys.
“Speeding is a criminal offence and causes a danger to other motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Speed kills – so we ask all motorists to slow down when driving on Cardiff’s road network.
“The majority of residential areas south of the A48 are 20mph limit areas already, but in light of Welsh Government’s plans to set 20mph as the default position in law in Wales, further 20mph limit areas will be piloted in other areas of the city later this summer so that traffic and speed monitoring can take place.
“Our aim is to make all residential streets in the city as safe as possible by implementing more 20mph restrictions to reduce traffic speeds, and encourage active travel by installing more cycleways and improving the pavements.
“On Pen-y-Wain Road, to ensure children can cross the road safely, a raised zebra crossing is in place outside Roath Park Primary School, with speed cushions in place on either side of the crossing to slow traffic down.
“A traffic enforcement camera is in place on Werfa Street to enforce against vehicles waiting or parking on yellow zigzag lines outside the school. Parking on zigzag lines causes an obstruction, especially to school children that are walking to school.
“Traffic enforcement also takes place both late at night and early in the morning to ensure cars do not park on the corner of junctions in the area, which has been an issue as it causes problems for all road users.
“In terms of the claims on air quality, the council does take a risk-assessed approach to air quality monitoring across the city and the closest monitoring station to Pen-y-Wain Road is on Mackintosh Place. Despite this, monitoring data is available from Defra.
“Using the grid reference that correlates to the residential properties on Pen-y-Wain Street, the levels of NO2, as an annual average show levels of 15.6 μg/m3, while the levels of particulate matter (PM10) are 14.6 μg/m3. The legal limit for both NO2 and PM 10 is 40 μg/m3 as an annual average.
“It is worth noting the WeCount data collection tool is still a relatively new system and does not necessarily provide robust data for transport planning. We are a partner in this project and will be using the findings, alongside our own traffic surveys and monitoring to strengthen our understanding of the network.
“The council is distinctly aware of the issues caused by the amount of private car journeys in the city, and has an ambitious 10-year vision to completely change our transport network through our Transport White Paper.”