We have 80 streets and roads in the village, 54 of which are state-owned and state-maintained secondary roads, and are patrolled primarily by the Chatham County Sheriff's Department and occasionally by the State Highway Patrol.
Of the 54 state roads in the village, we currently monitor speeds on a portion of 6 (six) "arterials*," which carry the prime traffic load into, out of, and throughout several sections of the village.
After considerable data collection and analysis of traffic flow and vehicular speeds on six of our prime state secondary roads, we have spent a considerable amount of time aggregating and analyzing the accumulated data that is supplied remotely by the newer of our two current FHA monitors and by the same model monitor recently purchased by Camden Park, Inc. for use on East & West Camden, which also reports remotely.
As you should know, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) established a community-wide 25mph speed limit (except for the central business portion of the village, where the limit is 15mph), which is the common standard for subdivisions such as ours throughout the state.
As you surely also know, most vehicles on our monitored roads do not stay within that 25mph limit, and a small percentage (which, considering the high volume of traffic in the village, is actually a rather high number), consistently drive at speeds that are 15 and 20+mph over this limit.
Most of our relatively narrow roads have no sidewalks and often have to be shared with cyclists, pedestrians, and dog walkers, who must navigate along the risky, rough uneven roadsides and challenging ditches. Pedestrians and dog walkers face especially dangerous conditions around curves, when it is often very hard to get safely and quickly out of the way of speeding drivers who are surprised to come upon them so suddenly.
To obtain an adequate overview of the safety-related dimensions of the volume of such excessive speeds, we have aggregated a lot of speed data and have produced a color-coded table (a sample of which is displayed below) summarizing the speed compliance rates at various locations along with the low-risk, medium-risk, and high-risk levels of speeds above 25mph. We have come to call the highest risk level the "outlier" category. While these outlier vehicles are low in percentage terms, they are high in numerical terms, and they represent a significant risk to others and themselves. 6,000 pounds of speeding metal can cause a lot of damage and bodily harm, and such speeds are unacceptable in the village.
Not only that, especially these "outlier" drivers are in clear violation of the traffic laws of North Carolina, and are subject to a mandatory traffic stop by the police, if they are spotted. While 25mph may be commonly viewed as "excessively low" on some portions of the roadways and relatively unrealistic for universal compliance, speeds approaching and over 40mph cannot be allowed to go unnoticed and totally uncontrolled. Consequently, we are working with the Sheriff's Department to develop more effective traffic calming measures for designated problematic locations.
One final point: while many residents believe that the speeding vehicles are primarily service vehicles, such as delivery vans, construction trucks, school buses, etc. (after all people have seen some), the fact-- which is documented by the monitor camera-- is that almost all the high speeding vehicles are passenger vehicles, and we believe these are driven primarily by residents who are in a hurry to get somewhere (either home or out to 15/501).
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*The six "arterials" are Weathersfield, Village Way, East Camden, Millcroft, Creekwood, and the Beechmast "loop," which intersects with Village Way at two locations (near Swim & Croquet at one end, and at its intersection just below Countryhouse cluster of townhomes, a short distance below the Smokehouse kiosk). East Camden was added by Camden Park, Inc. HOA in June 2015; Creekwood was added by FHA in October 2015; and the "loop" portion of Beechmast was "revitalized" by FHA in October 2015. In the future, we expect to deploy the monitor periodically on portions of Spindlewood.
