Traffic Survey

Lymm Traffic Survey

Lymm Parish Council have arranged for a number of traffic counting devices to be installed around the village, to monitor traffic flow & speeds in the medium to long term.

The Traffic counting devices are managed by Telraam.net, but have been procured and deployed by Lymm Parish Council at properties owned or rented by volunteer residents.

The Lymm Traffic survey can been viewed at www.telraam.net/en (links to a map of Lymm). Each of the monitored road sections can be clicked on for more information and historical traffic count information. Any sections marked as 'not counting' are likely being investigated - whilst the system is reliable, life in general (curious children / pets, power issues, internet issues etc.) can interrupt counting temporarily.

Road sections currently being counted include (with links to each road section):

1. Higher lane (between Grammar School road & Oughtrington Lane)
2. Higher lane (between Oughtrington Lane and Whiteleggs lane)
3. Eagle Brow (device changed in April 2023 for the Telraam S2 sensor, better suited to this location)
4. New Road
5. Danebank Road East
6. Burford Lane (close to the Jolly Thresher - limited visibility of the pavement)
7. Burford Lane (lower section)
8. Rushgreen Road (between Sainsbury's and New Road
9. Rectory Lane
10. Brookfield Road

Further locations are expected to be brought into the survey.

Relevant dates

The traffic survey has gathered information during the following events / traffic incidents:

• 25/03/2022 to 28/03/2022 (Friday to Monday) - M56 closure - junctions 9 to 5 were closed for eastbound traffic (heading towards Manchester); junctions 5 to 8 were closed for westbound traffic (heading away from Manchester). The closure was planned from 9pm Friday 25 March, until 5.30am Monday 28 March 2022
• 07/04/2022 (Friday) significant traffic problems over the M6 Thelwall viaduct, busy on Burford lane & toll bridge approaches - "Three accidents on M6, 2 hours delay and 20 minutes on slip road"
• 08/04/2022 & 09/04/2022 M6 Thelwall Viaduct - a temporary repair to a defective bridge joint between 9pm on Saturday night (9 April) and 5pm on Sunday afternoon (10 April). The work required the closure of three lanes – leaving only lane four open to traffic. The bridge joint is across lane two and lane three of the southbound carriageway and is very close to where drivers join the southbound M6 from the slip road at junction 21 – so the slip road was also closed between 9pm on Saturday evening and 5pm on Sunday.
• 18/04/2022 Lymm Duck Race - village centre road closures 07:30 to 17:00hrs
• 02/06/2022 Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations - village centre road closures from the Cross to Bridgewater Street, 18:00 to 22:00hrs
• 18/06/2022 & 19/06/2022 M6 Thelwall Viaduct overnight restrictions
• 23/06/2022 Lymm Festival Food Fest - village centre closure from 16:30 to 19:00hrs
• 27/07/2022 M6 closure, Cherry lane closed (by SSE), Warburton toll bridge single lane. Burford Lane & Higher lane showed increased traffic.
• 08/08/2022 M6 southbound closed J20 to J19 from ~15:00 hrs (no obvious issues shown on the Lymm Telraam systems)
• 19/09/2022 State funeral of Queen Elizabeth II (significant traffic reduction)
• 24/09/2022-26/09/2022 Rushgreen road closed 'near' Sainsburys due to collapsed sewer
• 05/11/2022 M6 Thelwall Viaduct issues early morning (Warburton Bridge not opened until later in the morning)
• 10/12/2022 Lymm Dickensian Day - village centre closed between 08:00 & 17:30 hrs (cold, icy, wet day, reduced procession)
• 25/12/2022 Chrismas Day - likely the quietest day of the year (outside of the 2020 Covid lockdowns)
• 10/04/2023 Duck Race - village centre closures from ~06:30 to ~17:00 hrs
• 13/05/2023 May Queen, road closures from ~11:30hrs & procession through the village centre until approx 13:30hrs
• 19/09/2023 M62 closure from ~midnight through to about 18:00 hrs, causing traffic issues across a wide area - issue was a road traffic collision involving a car and a pedestrian on the M62 between Birchwood (Junction 11) and Eccles.
• Cherry lane closure (dates to be added)
• School holiday dates to be added
• Example traffic counts to be added for these dates to demonstrate the impact on affected roads (as well as which roads are not affected).

Lymm Traffic Survey Proposal (partly historic now):

The traffic survey is being delivered via Lymm Parish Council, broadly:

1. To identify appropriate volunteers & locations to host traffic monitoring devices in homes / premises. 
2. Deploy a number of 'Telraam' traffic counting devices to record traffic volumes, types, timing and speeds
3. To gather data from multiple locations to compare profiles when events are held and for unplanned road closures such accidents on the M6/M56 network.
4. To use this data to help determine if traffic calming, alternate traffic systems, weekend event closures of a section of road in Lymm village centre during the summer would be appropriate.

 

How does Telraam work?

Telraam have developed an accurate, low cost traffic counting solution that is publicly available. The devices are mounted in the upstairs front window of a property with a clear view down to the street being monitored, to count traffic during daylight hours. The devices use a camera and algorithms (sets of rules) to analyse moving objects, categorise (or ignore), and log count, direction of travel, category (pedestrian, cycle, car or 'large vehicle') and time window (within a one hour period), sending the logged data to central systems, made freely available via the internet. Only the logged data (count, direction of travel, speed etc.) is sent off the device, images are not recorded*, and there is no text recognition (e.g. of licence plates or markings)

*in the interests of transparency, a very low resolution image is taken every few hours, using a 'long' exposure of 30 seconds and 'pixelation' to ensure that moving objects and people are not recognisable - this is uploaded to the central server and is only available to the 'owner' of the device and Telraam administrators. The purpose of this is to allow the 'owner' to check the device is pointing at the correct area of the street scene to accurately count traffic.

The device also operates with a live camera view during initial setup, to aid placement.

All the collected counts are to be made available for policymaking and research, sponsored by LPC, but run as a community initiative.

For those with more interest in the detail, the device runs on a Raspberry Pi 3A+ or 3B+ microcomputer, using a PiCam2 and a custom, locked down Raspberry Pi OS image. The Telraam code is written in Python and is available via the Telraam website.

What is required?

The Telraam device requires:

1. A suitable location on a road segment that has been identified for traffic survey
2. An upstairs window with a clear view of the street scene, with no lamp posts, telegraph poles, trees etc. blocking the view. Ideally overlooking a segment of street that does not have vehicles parking along the street.
3. The Window needs to be fixed - e.g. the device needs to be attached to a window pane that does not move.
4. A domestic mains power supply (a 'three pin' plug socket), within approximately 1.5m of the window where the device will be located
5. Internet access via WiFi

The devices will be set up, delivered, administered and configured (if required). The volunteer will need to provide access and agree a suitable sensor location (attached using a one inch circle of double sided tape to the window), provide a nearby plug socket and enter their WiFi credentials, to connect the device to their WiFi network. 

The devices send a very small amount of data every few minutes (volunteers should not notice any impact to their internet connection), and use about 3W when counting, 0.5W when not counting (at night). The device should be left permanently powered, and will use approximately 1.5kWh of electricity a month (costing around 30p per month)

Privacy

To deliver this proposal, is is necessary to collect and retain some personal information on each volunteer, this will include:

1. Name
2. Address
3. Email address
4. Contact telephone number(s)

This information will not be shared with any other people or organisations. Lymm Parish Council will not publish details of who is assisting with this project (you are free to do so yourself, if you wish).

It is necessary to record the road segment location of your Telraam sensor on a map that is publicly available (see here). The sensor is identified on this map by a number that relates to the sequence your sensor was installed (against other Telraam sensors worldwide). The sensor will be visible in when installed in a window to anyone looking for it. 

How would Lymm apply this technology?

The network will be utilised as a medium to long term pilot traffic survey, to understand regular traffic flows and be able to compare with flows when there are limited ingress and egress routes to the village centre during the Dickensian Day. 

The subsequent phase is to be deployed on key Lymm road segments to gather long term traffic data, and the effect on these routes of local events or issues, such as motorway closures, school holidays and adverse weather. 

How to volunteer?

If you live on one of the ORANGE sections of road shown in the map below (you can zoom in / move the map around) and would like to volunteer for this pilot please send an email to Lymm Parish Councillor, Steve Towndrow at stowndrow@lymmparishcouncil.gov.uk

The project is focussing on specific streets, though if you'd like to get involved, live at a location that you believe is suitable then please get in touch.

The green locations already have operational Telraam devices, you can see the data via the links below the map.

The target installation locations (as shown in the map above) are:

1. Village centre (the Cross)
2. Rectory lane
3. Danebank road
4. Eagle Brow
5. New road
6. Rushgreen road / Birchbrook road (initially one device, likely increasing to two or more)
7. Higher lane - from Oughtrington Lane to close to the Jolly Thresher pub
8. Church road / Booths Hill road / Camsley lane
9. Warrington Road near Statham school / Star lane
10. Cherry lane / Elm Tree road
11. Oughtrington Lane
12. Pepper street, near the Village Hall