Traffic on the A538 through Prestbury

1995 - 2010

Prestbury began as the centre and focal point of a parish some 10 miles across and 40 miles in circumference. All roads radiated from Prestbury to the other 34 townships of the parish. For centuries it was necessary to pass through Prestbury in order get from anywhere to anywhere in northeast Cheshire. Even in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Prestbury is still a traffic hub.

The main road through Prestbury is the A538. It conveys traffic between Macclesfield and the link to the A34 at Wilmslow.

During normal working days, the volume of traffic depends on time of day, peaking in the mornings and late afternoons, presumably when drivers are going to and from work. There is little traffic at night. Traffic must also depend on road works in and around the village.

Starting in 1995, records have been made of the number of vehicles passing along the New Road section of the A538. Traffic was recorded for single periods of one hour ending 18.00. This period is probably just before the early evening peak. So as to minimise dependence on the day of the week and the season, counts were made on the same typical day, arbitrarily chosen to be the penultimate Thursday in June of each year. From 1996 onwards, traffic going towards the church (southbound) was distinguished from traffic going towards the station (northbound).

From 1995 to 2002 the observation point was at Butley Cottage, which is on New Road between the church and the railway station (Table 1). No counts were made in 2003. In 2004 an attempt was made to observe from a point in the open, facing towards the church (see picture below left). Unfortunately the observation point was not well-chosen. The figures were recorded (Table 2), but are not thought to be reliable. Between 2005 and 2010 observers were stationed at restaurants on New Road, the Marco Polo/Romulus and the Prestbury Village Restaurant, by kind permission of the managements. There are road intersections between Butley Cottage and the restaurants. A few vehicles turn into the A538 from them or out of the A538 into them but numbers compensate, so counts from the restaurants should agree with those from Butley Cottage (Table 3). Differences between the results obtained by observers stationed at the restaurants (Table 4) reveal uncertainties associated with observer error and differing judgement of vehicle category.

As might be expected, cars and light commercial vehicles make the greatest contribution to the traffic. The diagram shows the number of cars and light vehicles going the direction of the church (red) and in the direction of the station (green). From 1998 onwards fewer cars and light vehicles have been going towards the station than in the opposite direction. This is probably because long queues can build up on Prestbury Lane and Heybridge Lane, so that drivers are deterred from proceeding past the station onto the London - Manchester Road.

The figures for total volume of traffic show that there has been little change in the total volume of traffic between 1995 and 1999. Traffic in 2000 seems to have been slightly but significantly less than in previous years. The A538 between Prestbury and Wilmslow was closed at the time of the 2001 count. The traffic total that year was about 20% less than the average of the previous six years. By 2002 it had increased again.

Conclusion The total volume of traffic in the specified circumstances averages 1128 cars and light commercial vehicles per hour. The highest volume was in 1996, 1235 vehicles in the hour. The lowest was in 2001 when the A538 was closed between Prestbury and Wilmslow, 943 vehicles in the hour.

If you did not hear the sound of the traffic in the background, click here for a 40-second recording. For the most realistic effect, play it at high volume.