Introduction
Danbury Society has been concerned for many years about the level of traffic through the village and the pollution, noise and disturbance it causes.   An Essex Highways Traffic Survey confirms how bad it is.   The problem will only get worse if the ill-conceived proposals for more development in Danbury or in neighbouring Maldon and Dengie District come about.

Results of the Survey
In the month of March 2016, well over half-a-million vehicles passed the survey point on the A414 near The Avenue.   On average that means over 17,000 vehicles a day and on working days even higher at about 18,380 vehicles.   The busiest period heading towards Chelmsford was between 07.00 and 08.00 hrs with an average of 786 vehicles in that time or about 13 a minute.   The return journeys in the evening were concentrated between 17.00 and 18.00 hrs with 892 on average or almost 15 a minute heading towards Maldon and the Dengie.   Around the middle of the day the flows equalise with as much traffic going East as West.   At lunch time, about 570 vehicles are going each way on that part of the A414.

Most of the traffic is private cars and small vans with 84% of the total.   Articulated HGVs - the 10- and 12-wheelers - make up 1.6% of the traffic with other heavy trucks another 2.7%.   Big vans constituted over 10% of vehicles.   Most of these are running during the day but there is significant amount of night time freight traffic.   Around 42 heavies and 90 big vans drive through between midnight and 06.00 hrs.

Click here to see the "Types and Numbers of Vehicles" which pass through Danbury
There are 3 sections - Eastbound, Westbound and Total Flow.

The File size is only about 1MegByte in Microsoft Excel format.   You can SAVE the results if you wish.

The speed limit at the point of survey is 30 mph. The average Westbound speed ranges from 27 mph in the middle of the night to just over 22 mph between 07.00 and 08.00 hrs.   Going East and downhill, speeds are a bit faster.   In the middle of the night, the average speed is 33.6 mph but only 26.2 mph at going home time.   Most drivers are very observant of the speed limit.   Going West, towards the speed camera, 97.9% of vehicles were within the limit while going the other way, heading out of the village and passing from 30mph to 40 mph zones, only 81.6% were obeying the law.   But, if a 40mph limit were applied to those drivers, 99.4% were within the limit.

Click here to see the "Speed of Vehicles" which pass through Danbury
There are 2 sections - Eastbound and Westbound.

The File size is also only about 1MegByte in Microsoft Excel format.   You can SAVE the results if you wish.

The survey was taken at the Eastern side of the village.   The situation at Eves Corner and further West towards Chelmsford is likely to be much worse in terms of volume and perhaps speed too.

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