Hundreds of new homes are being built in the area next to a busy road
(Image: Google )
A noisy “racing track” road is keeping families living nearby up all night sparking fresh calls for new 30mph limits. The stretch of road is often used by drivers to race down given its design, but the loud noise of fast cars has caused concerns about the devastating impact on local residents.
The A4018 runs from the centre of Bristol through the north of the city, past Cribbs Causeway and to the M5 motorway. The section in Bristol has been plagued by roadworks recently, which are due to last two years clogging up traffic, while the South Gloucestershire section has the opposite problem.
Where the road runs past new housing estates such as Berwick Green, the speed limit is 40mph and has the ideal conditions for drivers pretending to be at a drag race. These are often the same inconsiderate drivers who modify their exhaust pipes to make them much louder.
Arujit Roy lives next to the road and urged South Gloucestershire Council to clamp down on the issue. He told a full council meeting on Wednesday, July 16, that councillors should consider lowering the speed limit so that his family and many others don’t have to endure noisy cars.
He said: “This section of the road is a very straight dual carriageway. It has three separate traffic light junctions in between the two roundabouts, with each section maybe 200 metres. This makes it particularly prone to motorcycle racers and supercars who like to use it as a racing track.
“It’s particularly disruptive as they accelerate in short bursts between the traffic lights. The speed limit is currently 40mph which gives them plenty of opportunity to accelerate to the next traffic light. The police are also reluctant to enforce this as they seem to prefer very large breaches of speeding, like going at 50 in a 30mph zone, as that attracts more severe penalties.
“With it being a four-lane road, the volume of cars going at 40mph, even if they weren’t speeding, has a compound effect on traffic noise which would be significantly less at 30mph. Traffic noise has severe debilitating effects on the long-term health of residents, including on mental health, sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression.”
Arujit Roy(Image: South Gloucestershire Council)
He added that lowering the limit from 40mph to 30mph in the short section of the road would barely reduce travel times. Many new homes have recently been built next to the road, with plans for hundreds more over the next few years, as well as a large new care home.
This adds to the number of people whose health will be damaged by the traffic noise on the 40mph section of the road. As well as damaging health, research also shows that drivers who modify their cars to make them louder score highly on scales showing psychopathy and sadism — showing a disregard for other people and even getting pleasure out of upsetting them.
Mr Roy added: “It’s inexplicable to keep the speed limit at 40mph when it is so disruptive to what is now a dense residential area, when we know that other sections are already being changed to 30mph. The solution to exponential growth of traffic going into Bristol is not faster speed limits, but better public transport and cycle lanes to encourage more to commute using them.”