What we do and why we do it
Community SpeedWatch helps remind people of the need to watch their speed, and it really works. Statistics gathered from SID our Speed Indicator Device, show that the proportion of drivers obeying the speed limit has improved steadily from just over half of them in 2015, to 70% in 2022. Even more impressively, the percentage of drivers recorded exceeding the trigger threshold speed of 10% + 2 mph has more than halved from 21% in 2015 to 10% now.
Click here to see our annual report showing more details about this.
Over the 8 years since Sway's CSW activities began in April 2014, our SID operated for more than 780 hours monitoring the speeds of over 113,000 vehicles. Our volunteers recorded details of 11,765 of these that were speeding, and the police sent warning letters to registered owners of most of those vehicles.
Some people have their warning delivered personally if they are persistent or excessive speeders.
Our aim is to continue to report a significant reduction in speeding through the Parish of Sway.
Some people have their warning delivered personally if they are persistent or excessive speeders.
Our aim is to continue to report a significant reduction in speeding through the Parish of Sway.
Community SpeedWatch is education NOT enforcement
Nobody is fined or gets any points on their licences through SpeedWatch activities. The intention is to encourage people to act responsibly and obey the speed limit.
Speeding is dangerous and antisocial. In Sway, many roads have no pavements hence vulnerable road users must share road space with traffic. People live, cycle, ride horses and walk along these roads, and drivers must treat them with greater care and consideration. Being in the New Forest National Park means that ponies, donkeys and cattle are often to be found alongside and even on the unfenced roads across the New Forest Perambulation. Each year, dozens of animals die or are seriouly injured through motorists failing to drive at an appropriate speed and give them a wide enough berth.
Speeding is dangerous and antisocial. In Sway, many roads have no pavements hence vulnerable road users must share road space with traffic. People live, cycle, ride horses and walk along these roads, and drivers must treat them with greater care and consideration. Being in the New Forest National Park means that ponies, donkeys and cattle are often to be found alongside and even on the unfenced roads across the New Forest Perambulation. Each year, dozens of animals die or are seriouly injured through motorists failing to drive at an appropriate speed and give them a wide enough berth.
Sway's Vehicle Activated Speed Limit Reminder (aka Vera)
While our Community SpeedWatch activities encourage people to be law abiding at those times we are actively monitoring, too many drivers speed when we are not present. This is where Vera the VASLR comes in. By flashing its SLOW DOWN message at every driver exceeding the 35 mph trigger threshold speed, it reinforces that message 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Hampshire County Council has granted Sway a licence under Section 72 of the Road Traffic Act 1984, to deploy Vera at specific locations around the Parish. That licence requires Vera to be moved regularly from one site to another. If contractors were to be used for this, it would cost the Parish Council more than £70 each time. Instead, volunteers move Vera according to those rules, saving the Parish Council and hence the residents of Sway up to £2,000 a year.
Hampshire County Council has granted Sway a licence under Section 72 of the Road Traffic Act 1984, to deploy Vera at specific locations around the Parish. That licence requires Vera to be moved regularly from one site to another. If contractors were to be used for this, it would cost the Parish Council more than £70 each time. Instead, volunteers move Vera according to those rules, saving the Parish Council and hence the residents of Sway up to £2,000 a year.
Vera not only flashes a warning at speeding motorists, it also counts the number of times it has been triggered. Data collected since December 2018 indicates that around TWO MILLION speed at 35 mph and over through Sway each year. This shocking statistic reinforces the need for both SID and VERA along with their helpers to continue their valuable work.
Vera is highly effective at encouraging people to slow down. The next chart shows the percentage improvement at each of these locations since Vera was first deployed there. Each figure is derived by taking the latest number of vehicles speeding per day from the number counted at Vera's first deployment. The Hare and Hounds has been used only once so we do not have enough data.
You can see more detail by clicking on the locations shown in the map below.