Organisation
Drymen Community Development Trust
Amount awarded
£20,143
Completed
2024
Uploaded to Knowledge Centre
11 December 2024
For some time, community surveys undertaken by Drymen Community Development Trust (DCDT) have indicated a strong wish in the community for slower traffic and a safe pedestrian crossing in the centre of Drymen, a village in Stirling County, Scotland. DCDT was aware of the Community Corners project undertaken by TRL in Bristol, where street furniture had been introduced to several streets to reduce excessive speeding. It was thought that this could be an appropriate solution for the centre of Drymen.
The Drymen trial was funded by The Road Safety Trust. DCDT commissioned TP&E to design a temporary layout for a Road Safety Trial (RST). The layout consisted of white lines and planters to narrow a wide section of road and a junction, and provide a temporary crossing. The design was supported by Drymen Community Council (DCC) and approved by an independent road safety auditor and Stirling Council. It was also shared with the community online and at community engagement events, where there was agreement to proceed.
A 20 mph limit was introduced in the village in January 20231 , and the RST was installed in June 2023, although the crossing markings were initially omitted, and were not installed until September 2023. A detailed timeline of the project is provided in the relevant report section below. There was a strong negative reaction from a minority of the community, and from people who lived just outside Drymen but regularly drove into it.
As a result, it was agreed that Drymen Community Council would undertake an independent survey to determine whether to end the trial early. The survey covered Drymen itself, but also some areas outside the DCDT and DCC boundary where Drymen is felt to be their “hub” village.
The survey was completed by 460 people, (Drymen has a population of approximately 800 people). 51.3% voted to end the trial early and 48.7% voted to continue the trial. As a result, the trial was removed in January 2024, a month or two earlier than initially envisaged.
As the trial was removed early, it was not possible to undertake traffic monitoring at similar times of year to gather before-trial and after-trial data under the same environmental conditions. However, five sessions of traffic monitoring were undertaken and the data analysed by an independent consultant, Systra. The data showed that:
• At Site 1, to the south of the village square, there was very little change to traffic speeds. This location is quite constrained by junctions and parked cars, and had a mean speed of about 20 mph even before the introduction of the 20 mph limit and then the RST.
• At Site 2, traffic monitoring showed that the introduction of the 20 mph limit significantly reduced mean traffic speeds from between 24-25 mph to approximately 22 mph. The introduction of the RST initially reduced speeds by a further 1 mph, although this effect appeared to be temporary.
Overall, Systra were unable to allocate any changes in traffic speed specifically to the Road Safety Trial.
To read the full report, visit The Road Safety Trust website:
https://www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk/small-grants-awarded/drymen-speed-reduction