Congestion hotspots targeted

17 May 2006
 
Poorly-functioning traffic junctions across Northampton could be improved, after the county council carried out a survey of how well they performed during peak periods.
The council considered a number of junctions and ordered them, according to how many times signals changed before a vehicle could go through the junction. The information will inform a new congestion-reduction target, focused on cutting the number of signal changes motorists have to wait for.
One of the worst junctions was Northfield Avenue to Northampton Road, in the afternoon 4pm to 6.30pm period, where 93% of drivers faced lengthy waits. During the morning rush hour, 7am to 9.30am, the Kingsthorpe Road and Kingsthorpe Grove junction was the worst, where 87% of drivers faced delays.
Ministers spared the majority of local traffic authorities the burden of new mandatory indicators for congestion following concerns about the expense and usefulness of collecting data. But popular opinion and the network management duty have spurred some to finding cost-effective ways of identifying the worst-affected areas, and tracking changes.
Chris Wragg, project leader for the local transport plan 2, said: ‘Congestion hotspots are a priority for us, and that is why we included the study as part of the LTP. It was a simplistic method of measuring it which we don’t think has been tried elsewhere.’ The council intends to use the data, published in the council’s full LTP2 document, to maximise the use of its existing highway assets in order to avoid, where possible, the cost and disruption of new road building.
A programme of small-scale works to improve capacity at junctions will be developed at a cost of up to £250,000 for each site, but most would be much cheaper.

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