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Speed survey for Broad Street
From Lt.Minton:
Metro count results for 3400 Block of E. Broad St.
Issue: What is the extent of speeding and traffic volume on E. Broad Street in the 3400 block corridor?
Discussion: An analysis of traffic patterns on E. Broad Street was conducted over a period of time spanning 7 days from March 18, 2013 through March 25, 2013. The site is a two way, marked residential roadway geographically running East and West. Land usage is residential. The posted speed limit is 25 mph.
An extrapolated average of 2,868.6 vehicles per day (119.4 vehicles per hour) traveled through the survey site on weekdays (0000-2359 Mon-Fri). On weekends, an average of 2,277 vehicles per day (94.9 vehicles per hour) traveled through the survey site (0000-2359 Sat-Sun).
Vehicle Classes
The following groups comprise the total 18,882 vehicles surveyed:
| Class | Total Number | Percentage (% Rounded) |
| Motorcycles | 112 | 0.6% |
| Passenger Cars | 15,474 | 82% |
| Pickups | 2,621 | 13.9% |
| Multi Axle Trucks/Buses/Other | 675 | 3.5% |
Traffic Volume
Weekday Peak Average Traffic Volume
| Time | Volume |
| AM 0800-0900 | 228.2 vehicles per peak hour |
| PM 1700-1800 | 262.4 vehicles per peak hour |
Weekend Peak Average Traffic Volume
| Time | Volume |
| AM 1100-1200 | 161 vehicles per peak hour |
| PM 1200-1300 | 209.5 vehicles per peak hour |
Speed Statistics
Vehicles= 18,882
Posted Speed Limit= 25 mph
Maximum speed= 61.7 mph
Minimum Speed= 5.1 mph
Mean Speed= 26 mph
85% Speed= 31.1 mph
95% Speed= 34 mph
Summary
Of all surveyed vehicles 3.1% or 584 vehicles were traveling between 35-40 mph, and 0.3% or 49 vehicles were in excess of 40 mph. Peak traffic volumes exceed 100 vehicles per hour, the threshold where citizens become upset at high traffic volume. Violations by time of day indicate the greatest number of violations between 0700-0800 and between 1500-1600.
Of all vehicles traveling along this road, 96.4% are within 10 mph of the posted speed limit. Statistically, an officer would have to wait just under 3 minutes to observe a violation exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph. Using the same statistical analysis; an officer would have to wait approximately 30 minutes to observe a violation exceeding the speed limit by 15 mph. Comparing traffic volume with speed violations by time of day shows that when volume is highest, violations maintain steady throughout the day. Speed violations percentages began to increase prior to daytime peak traffic from 0500-0800 compared with the traffic volume during those same times.
TAGGED: Broad Street
I realize it’s an outlier, but someone blew through there above 60 mph? Wow!
The 60 mph was probably the police. They occassinally set land speed records down the street and leave little burning tire tracks like the car in Back to the Fure.
It does seem like more people go in the 35 to 40 range than the study shows.
@ John, could have been one of the 112 motorcycle trips, doesn’t take much on a modern sportbike to get up to 60 real quick!
That was an interesting study to read.
This is great stuff. They did one of these studies on Franklin St. some time last year. Is there any way to get our hands on that report as well?
I’d be interested in reading a similar report on traffic coming into town down on Main Street. It appears that most vehicles are going somewhere between 40 and 55 heading west when they round the curve and go past Poe’s. I tried to follow someone one day and got up to 50 but wasn’t even close to them so backed off. Cops could slow it down by writing a few tickets but so far they don’t seem interested.
Lt. Minton,
Thanks. Interesting reading.
The 61.7 MPH is way too fast for that area!
When I used to live on the hill and take walks up in that area it always seemed like cars were going too fast but don’t think I ever saw one going quite that fast.
Does anyone know what’s now done with the data?
crd is right – they really need to take a look at Main Street. That is one street that is really dangerous to cross.
@3 – how do you know how fast most of the cars are going with such precision? The police should just hire you as a human speedtrap.
Your first point is spot on though. 5-1 it was a cop as its practically impossible to get that high unless your blew a couple of the stop signs beforehand.
Richmond Police Put The Breaks On Speeding Near Church Hill Park
http://www.wric.com/story/21893575/richmond-police-put-the-breaks-on-speeding-near-church-hill-park
That 8 News piece is some poorly written shit. Way to completely screw it up…
How the hell did they get “and show 95% of speeders are going almost 10 mph over the posted 25mph limit” from the data above. I’m 95% sure that this was the 95th percentile of speeds recorded. In other words 5 out of 100 were going this fast or faster.
Minton (correctly) interprets that this study was much slower than the panic here would lead you to believe. Everything else in the article was pretty much incorrectly interpreting the data. If you don’t know how stats work, don’t try to write about them please.
Usually the media can get away with writing empty headed shit because there aren’t any numbers to prove the article is completely vapid. It doesn’t work so well when you are writing a piece about a speeding epidemic and include that the average speed is 26.
There’s a reason the only place I trust for news in Richmond is CHPN. The rest of our local media are hacks that want to over- sensationalize stuff to fill timeslots without doing any real work.
I *think* what they are saying is 95% of SPEEDERS (as you stated) not 95% of traffic. So they would get (near) that number by taking the total number of speeders (3.4% of traffic) and 3.1% of the total percent of traffic is in the 35-40 mph range.
So 633 total vehicles were observed speeding. 584 were within (about) 10 mph of the posted limit
584/633 = .9225 x 100 = 92.25%
Regardless of how badly the local news managed to mangle the data, it’s pretty clear that this is hardly the new Richmond Raceway.
I do agree that the corner by Poes does seem faster, though I don’t have the internal radar detectors that some of our other posters do to confirm this.