Warnham road safety initiative
Help us campaign for safer roads in your community
Warnham road safety initiative
Help us campaign for safer roads in your community
About Morty's Law
What are we trying to achieve?
The result of road layout changes in our area, and the use of GPS applications to "assist" drivers in avoiding traffic, has been a massive increase in "rat run" traffic through the village. Associated with this has been an upsurge in speeding, property damage, noise & air pollution and most importantly - risk to life.
The impact speaks for itself. If you haven't already seen the West Sussex County Times article on Sophie Pett-Gallacher's cat Morty, from Friday Street, you can view it here:
We have named this initiative "Morty's Law" in his memory.
What is the solution?
There is a solution; the implementation of "no-through-route" Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) in the village. These result in satnav algorithms like Google directing traffic away from the core of the village, thereby reducing "rat runs".
These zones are also denoted by signage, which you may have seen elsewhere in the country. This signage deters non-satnav users from using the core roads as through routes. For more information on the logic behind how this benefits the community as a whole, not just the core roads with TRO restrictions - read on!
Enforcement of all TROs (including speed limits and width restrictions etc.) is a secondary challenge to deal with. No TRO means no rule to enforce.
You support enforcement of the existing TROs in the village, notably the speed limits, by getting involved in the Community Speedwatch initiative via www.communityspeedwatch.org
How will it work?
Warnham's core & feeder road system
Red - the 9 "feeder" roads into the core of the village
Blue - the 6 "core" roads which are required to connect any of the feeder roads to another, creating a "rat run".
The Morty's Law initiative centres around the introduction of "no-through-route" Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) on the 6 core (blue) roads in the parish. This creates the same impact as having TROs on all 16 feeder (red) and core (blue) roads, but via a more concise and logical application of the rules. This model has been endorsed at County Council level and is acknowledged to stand a much higher chance of success with West Sussex Highways than a model that includes all 16 roads.
The 6-road logic benefits the community as a whole, by making the entire of the parish a no-through-route via a cost and administratively efficient initiative.
West Sussex Highways and West Sussex County Council have the powers to implement such TRO's, but their implementation is not guaranteed, and requires residents to initiate the process via an online application. The effect that "no-through-route" TRO's have had elsewhere in the country in combatting the "rat run" phenomenon has been profound. Though this "rat run" traffic is not all satnav driven, a sizeable majority of drivers observed so far in Warnham have been using a GPS application of one sort or another which has directed them through the village. Most appear oblivious to their actual location, or the impact they are having on our community.
The application process requires support from Warnham Parish Council, the West Sussex County Councillor for our area and support from residents.
We have launched an online survey in order to collate support from the community.
The 6 "core" road logic
This logic benefits the parish as a whole, by ensuring no entry or exit point to/from the village can be connected to another, allowing it to be used as a through route. "No-through-route" Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO's - signage above) placed strategically on the core roads will benefit the entire community as a result.
Analysis shows that the 6-road logic yields the same result (in terms of making rat running through the village impossible for satnav and non satnav users) as an approach involving no-through-route TROs on all 16 roads in the parish.
Nothing in this initiative will prevent residents accessing their properties, or village amenities. It will also not prevent deliveries, public transport and emergency services vehicles or visitors to properties or village amenities. This is because any no-through-route TRO will carry the same "except for access" exemption as the current width restriction TROs in the village (see above).
Nothing in this initiative will prevent construction or residential traffic accessing sites within the curtilage of the parish, because they will be subject to the same "except for access" exemption
Signage can be installed on the feeder roads to warn drivers that a "no-through-route" zone exists in the village. This signage does not require TROs on those feeder roads to be put in place.