It's the start of the academic year and the new part-time speed limit of 20mph now applies on Ruthin Road outside Ysgol Brynhyfryd. People have campaigned for this for years. It will be welcomed but will it be obeyed?
At one level, it's totally unnecessary. Traffic speeds crawl along this section when schools are in. General traffic's very heavy and there are more than a dozen buses coming in and out, all along Mold Road to and from town. Traffic tends to queue.
On the other hand, one reason for this is the school crossing patrol woman who assists pupils from Ysgolion Rhos Street a Phen Barras cross to Haulfryn. So often does she step out that she acts as a natural check on speed. But she will disappear in March or April, when the new primary schools open on Glasdir. This will change the dynamic on Mold Road (will it speed traffic up?). Note, in fact, that the 20mph limit does not extend to the primary schools—there'll soon be no need.
The 20mph zone operates at the start and the finish of each day and is mandatory for motorists.
Note, however, the conundrum that is the Ruthin School entrance. Leaving Ruthin, you enter the 20mph zone at the junction of Parc Brynhyfryd but the minute you turn left into Ruthin School (or Lenton House, just off the main road), so the speed reverts immediately to 30mph. 50 yards later, you are faced with the Ruthin School barrier which stops you and thereafter a school-imposed (and difficult to keep to) 5mph limit.
Having a 30mph limit over, what, 30 yards, is a little daft. But there is a sound reason for it. The 20mph zone applies to the highway on Mold Road but not that off it. Even though it's such a short stretch leading to a barrier, the Ruthin School entrance has to be signed as 30 when Mold Road goes down to 20.
Or, why didn't the Welsh government simply include the spur into the school woithin the 20mph zone?
At one level, it's totally unnecessary. Traffic speeds crawl along this section when schools are in. General traffic's very heavy and there are more than a dozen buses coming in and out, all along Mold Road to and from town. Traffic tends to queue.
The columns on which the variable speed limit signs are placed seen a little tall for the purpose
On the other hand, one reason for this is the school crossing patrol woman who assists pupils from Ysgolion Rhos Street a Phen Barras cross to Haulfryn. So often does she step out that she acts as a natural check on speed. But she will disappear in March or April, when the new primary schools open on Glasdir. This will change the dynamic on Mold Road (will it speed traffic up?). Note, in fact, that the 20mph limit does not extend to the primary schools—there'll soon be no need.
The 20mph zone operates at the start and the finish of each day and is mandatory for motorists.
It's 30mph from the black variable limit to the barrier...
Note, however, the conundrum that is the Ruthin School entrance. Leaving Ruthin, you enter the 20mph zone at the junction of Parc Brynhyfryd but the minute you turn left into Ruthin School (or Lenton House, just off the main road), so the speed reverts immediately to 30mph. 50 yards later, you are faced with the Ruthin School barrier which stops you and thereafter a school-imposed (and difficult to keep to) 5mph limit.
Or, why didn't the Welsh government simply include the spur into the school woithin the 20mph zone?