A village in Long Newnton in Gloucestershire has had an issues with speeding drivers that are passing through their nearby towns, and nothing that the town has done to try to slow them down has been successful, until now.
Despite the posted speed limits, warning signs, or 30-mile per hour limit in place has stopped them from moving quickly through the streets, that was until that small British village decided to plants gorgeous wildflower meadows on the sides of the road, which are so beautiful that motorists actually slow down to look at them, making them natural speed traps.
The village officials first planted these flowers on the side of the road during the pandemic in order to help improve the biodiversity of the area. But aside from attracting more wildlife in the area, they observed that even the motorists slowed down to take a better look at the dazzling flora and fauna.
The village, which sits between Tetbury and Malmesbury, has tons of traffic that regularly travels through them, and the small parish council gets limited funds from the government when it comes to traffic control measures.
By using these two things together, the village is now relying on these charming flowers to do the work that all the current traffic laws could not do, doing crowdfunding in the village to get the money they need to pay for the flowers.
While it isn’t exactly sure why people slow down, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Cotswold District Council, Jenny Forde, shares, “Evidence has shown that if you introduce things like wildflowers, drivers will slow down because they feel like they’re coming into somewhere that’s looked after.”
Amazingly, the crowdfunding campaign has managed to raise almost £8,000, approximately $9,700, for their traffic-calming measures. This will be used to fund a 3-year care program for the wild flowers.
In addition, a sign that flashes and records data when drivers break the 30 miles per hour, or 48 kilometers per hour, speed limit was also installed in the area by the council. This is because according to their data, 90% of the motorists drive above the speed limit in that area.
This only goes to show that just as the saying goes, people truly tend to “stop and smell the roses.”
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