The need for more traffic calming, not less.

It has been very concerning to see some ill-informed comments by a minority of local councillors complaining about speed bumps around the town. Surely everyone ought to understand that speed bumps play a vital part in reducing speeds, making it safer for people to walk and cycle and leave a polluting car at home.
This group has a very proud history of intervening at a national level to help secure the 1999 target to halve the number of children killed and seriously injured on our roads within 10 years. That target, which entailed the use of far more speed bumps, chicanes and 20mph zones resulted in saving the lives of over 520 children. All humane people will support it and the measures that made it possible.
For those who might be tempted to consider replacing the nation’s speed bumps with average speed cameras it should be noted that at a cost of between £150,000 and £500,000 for average speed cameras the nation can never afford to replace all speed bumps that cost on average a mere £1,000.
For more information please read the following documents from DfT and PACTS: –
http://assets.dft.gov.uk/publications/local-transport-notes/ltn-1-07.pdf
(Page 9 on the effectiveness of signage, the cost of bumps and chicanes on pages 57 and 78, the limitations of chicanes at 6.6.1 on page 79 (must be used with speed bumps) and also note pages 90-91 on speed cameras
And this shorter document from PACTS: –
http://www.pacts.org.uk/docs/pdf-bank/snbt-00350.pdf
SEEFoE will continue to challenge ill-conceived comments on road safety schemes recognising, as we do, that speed bumps and traffic calming in general will help to slow traffic and ensure we come to enjoy living streets, safe enough for all to walk and cycle.