Major traffic changes planned for Thanet Road near Lidl

The Council is expected, at a meeting taking place on 22nd June, to sign off major highways changes near the Lidl store on Thanet Road.

The plans involve imposing a 20 mph speed limit enforced by speed tables and humps. Currently for most of the day vehicle speeds are around this level anyway, although the Council has not provided any measurements.

The northern bus lay by (near the rugby club) will be removed altogether meaning that stopping buses will block the highway. This is a busy bus stop and carriageway waiting will artificially create additional congestion and pollution as well as limiting sight lines.

(The Council’s original plan had bizarrely been to reduce the carriageway to a single lane by creating a “pinch point”. Thankfully this potty idea has been abandoned).

Thanet Road remodeling plans

The Council has been criticised in the way they have sought to reduce accident levels in this area.

The Council report says, “10 collisions were identified between the roundabout at Foxwood Lane and the junction with St James Place. Four of these collisions had comminality with children either stepping out or running into the road in front of a vehicle. Two of these collisions were located outside the Lidl supermarket, with the other two located at different positions along the route”.

Unfortunately no further analysis of the individual accidents has been provided although the implication is that excessive vehicle speed was the cause.

The most obvious remedy, when pedestrians are involved in accidents on a carriageway, is to ensure that they cross the road at the safest location. This can be achieved by fitting guard rails (and is certainly the obvious way to address any concerns about children running out from the store access path).

There already is a Toucan crossing at the Kingsway end of the road while a pedestrian refuge is available at the other end.

The Council failed to consult properly on their revised plans resorting to lamppost notifications which were highly unlikely to be read by anyone, and certainly not by drivers. Strangely the Council doesn’t advertise proposed traffic orders of this type on their own web site.

If the scheme goes ahead as planned – without safety railings – we fear that it will make things worse rather than better. Drivers will become frustrated and will try to overtake stationary buses and other vehicles at points where traffic currently runs freely for most of the day.

Time for a last minute rethink perhaps?

Improvements to reduce congestion on the A19 south at Crockey Hill

City of York Council is asking for comments on new proposals which could help reduce congestion on one of York’s busiest roads.

The scheme will reduce the average time taken to travel on the A19 South through the Fulford interchange junction and down the A19 to Crockey Hill by up to five minutes. The length of southbound queues will also be reduced by up to 50 per cent.

Over 20,000 vehicles use this route every day and at times over 1,200 vehicles use the junction every hour in one direction, which often causes queues and sections of the A19 to block.

As a result of so many vehicles using this road there are often large queues of traffic particularly southbound during busy times in the evening. This can cause what is known as a ‘pinch point’ or queues of traffic at the Crockey Hill traffic lights (junction of the A19 and Wheldrake Lane). This rapidly backs up to the A19/A64 Fulford Interchange which causes congestion on the A64 off slip-road and on the A19 in Fulford.

The scheme will help address this problem and supports phase 1 which was carried outover the summer of 2015. This helped to reduce congestion and improve public transport journey times and reliability northbound at the busy A19/A64 junction (near the Designer Outlet).

However, for southbound traffic going out of York, the problem of traffic queues in the evening remains. Phase two will help to ease the build up of congestion along this busy section of road, reducing the risk of blocking the A19/A64 junction and improving public transport reliability and journey times.

Funded entirely from the Department for Transport (DfT) pinch point fund, the scheme is estimated to cost approximately £1million.

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Wet weather brings traffic congestion in York

Todays wet weather has brought more traffic congestion to the City.

Things are paricularly busy on the A1237 northern by pass and are likely to worsen as we approach the evening rush hour.

Real time updates can be found on this web site https://roadworks.org/

click to access

Behind closed doors York Council decision rules out new parking curbs near Gale Lane/Front Street junction

Dozens of traffic and parking decisions affecting whole City taken at secret session

Gale Lane Front Street click to enlarge

The Council has published a report reviewing parking arrangements near the Gale Lane/Front Street junction.

The report follows complaints about obstructions being caused to traffic generally, and bus services in particular, by vehicles parking on the carriageway and adjacent footpaths. Some of the problems were apparently being caused by delivery vans visiting the Gale Farm surgery.

The request for action were turned down at a secret meeting with the reports only being published publicly after decisions had already been taken.

Sadly this continues the practice of preventing residents from making representations, before decisions are taken, started in 2011. Despite public claims from the Council Leadership about their commitment to open government, this practise has still not been changed.

There is really no reason why agendas and reports can’t be published at least a week before a meeting takes place. This would give affected residents an opportunity to write to the Council giving their views, if they chose to.

Changes to traffic arrangements in every ward in the City were considered by the same meeting (and not pre publicised).

Click the links below for details
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12 month gap in York Councils speed check data …… accident levels up

A report to a Council meeting taking place next week has admitted that there have been no vehicle speed checks undertaken in the City for over 12 months.

Serious road traffic accident levels in York up during last three years

The equipment is used to build up a picture of the speeds that traffic using specific roads has apparently been faulty. The equipment is normally used by the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service although its maintenance (and replacement) rests with the Police Commissioners Office in Northallerton.

Roads awaiting speed monitoring equipment Click to access

Roads awaiting visit from speed monitoring equipment Click to access

Judging by published meeting minutes, the issue of the missing equipment does not appear to have been discussed by any committee of either the Police or Fire Authorities. It is mentioned only by the York Council in an annual speed management update. Money taken from speeding fines was used to purchase new equipment in July although “teething problems” prevented it being used for three months.

There is a backlog of 45 sites where speed surveys are required. Some date back 2 years.

The Police have continued to use their camera vans to monitor “problem” locations but they rarely use them for “reassurance” visits roads like Green Lane and Wetherby Road.

Residents remain concerned about vehicles speeds (in both locations vehicle activated warning signs are in operation – and they are triggered by about 25% of passing vehicles).

The Council promises that the results of all speed checks will in future be made available publicly on a “Traffic Bureau web site”.

An electronic form which would allow residents to report speeding concerns was promised over 5 years ago. Officials claim that its introduction is now imminent.

Congestion “Commission” was an expensive gimmick

Although there has been no official statement from the new coalition rulers at the York Council, it seems likely that plans to establish a “congestion commission” will be scrapped when it holds its first Executive meeting on 25^th June.

The Council leadership are right to get some of the detritus that it inherited, from the last administration, out of the way quickly.

Similar statements of intent would be welcome on issues such as the future of the Guildhall, the Knights rugby club, Coppergate fines. Oliver House etc.

Coppergate – Time to move on

The “Commission” idea was floated by a discredited administration which was desperately trying to recover from the Lendal Bridge shambles. Rather than face the criticism that is usually attached to taking any decision about transport in the City, Labour hoped to deflect the odium onto third parties. Hence the establishment of a Commission which would no doubt have agonised again about congestion charging and the like.

The debates would have been at a huge cost to taxpayers – £135,000 was quoted.

The Council already has a transport plan. It was agreed in 2011 and offers a balance of initiatives aimed at reducing congestion. It needs updating, not least because the decision to bring a trial cross river access restriction forward from 2025 to 2013 has seriously damaged its credibility.

But any transport strategy has to be affordable. With dualling of the northern by pass still elusively outside the resources of even the “combined authority”, talk of trams, tubes, extra river bridges and river buses would be just that – talk.

A1237 dualling still illusive

Any updated transport plan needs to build on what has been successful over the past decade when congestion levels have remained more or less stable.

There has been some modal shift to cycles and walking. Buses were becoming more popular until Labour made the grand gesture of evicting the ftr without having anything half as attractive to passengers to substitute, while new roundabouts on the A1237 have eased bottlenecks.

Now Labour have played an old – and discredited card – when claiming that “80 people a year” die in York as a result of poor air quality. This was the favourite claim of former transport chief Dave Merrett who – after much pressing – admitted that the figure was simply a local extrapolation of national respiratory death statistics.

No one knows how many local deaths, through respiratory diseases, are caused by the pollutants emitted by vehicles (or industry for that matter) but most would, no doubt, support verifiable actions to address locations where pollution levels are sometimes high (mainly narrow terraced streets like Gillygate).

New electric bus fleet launched last week

So some marks should be awarded to the last Council for beginning the roll out of the type of electric buses first trialled in the City in 2010.

More of this kind of thinking – making the best use of advancing technologies – will take the city forward in a measured and affordable way and with a reasonable chance of carrying the local population with it.

Traffic “congestion commission” plan to be reconsidered

The York Council is to reconsider whether to set up a “Congestion Commission” before the Council elections take place on May 7th

The Cabinet proposal had been called in by opposition Councillors who pointed out that any decisions taken now could be overruled in little over 2 months time by what could be a completely different Council.

Concerns were also expressed about the cost of the “commission” and its membership.

The issue will be reconsidered by the “Cabinet” at a meeting taking place on 3rd March

York Traffic Congestion Commission gets off to poor start

No attempt made to gain broad based support

Papers published this week give details of a Congestion Commission (CC) which is supposed to plot a way forward for transport policy in the City. It will cost taxpayers around £130,000.

Lendal Bridge closure went on for 8 months costing taxpayers over £1 million

The origins of the “Commission” are the lamentable failures of the present Council’s transport polices which culminated in the Lendal Bridge fiasco. When the extent of the failure of that “trial” became apparent it was abandoned and proposals for a “Commission” were hastily unveiled. The, now unseated, Leader of the Council, had a penchant for “Commissions” which sounds grander than a policy review (which is effectively what the proposal is).

Labour and Green Councillors then voted not to review how and why the Lendal Bridge trial had gone so badly wrong.

One previous Commission (the Fairness Commission) failed simply because it didn’t attempt to attract all party support. A former Labour Councillor was even parachuted in to be the chair of that organisation.

The terms of the new Congestion Commission are similarly being bounced onto opposition Councillors, more or less guaranteeing an atmosphere of distrust if not downright hostility from day 1.

A sensible approach would have been to publish the proposed terms of reference of the Commission and invite comments. If a mixture of lay people and Councillors were considered to be necessary, then the skills required (as have been suggested in the report) could also have been discussed.

Blossom Street/Station Rise remodeling has been a success. But Council is failing to maintain car park space availability signs

Only after a consensus on these issues had been achieved, could approaches be made to individuals who might contribute.

Instead Labour have published their preferred choice for Chair of the Commission – effectively daring non Labour Councillors to come up with alternatives. That will place the prospective “Chair” in a difficult position.

The other issue is, of course, one of timing.

There is both a General Election (which will help to determine how much money will be available to be spent on transport across the UK) and “all out” Council elections (at which York residents will have the opportunity to give a verdict on the current Councils transport mishaps) taking place on May 7^th.

The result’s of both elections will have a major impact on the amount of money that York has to spend on transport and the priorities of York residents.

Each party will publish a manifesto and – at least at the Local Elections – residents will vote for the package that they most favour.

It almost beggars belief that the draft timetable for the CC specifies the 6 weeks leading up to the elections on May 7^th as the period when “written submissions” will be invited.

Successful Park and Ride electric buses

Work should have been going on now for 6 months monitoring actual traffic volumes against forecasts.

At least until recently, traffic levels in the City were actually below 2008 levels. This was partly a result of the economic downturn.

Prior to that congestion levels had been stable for over 15 years. That did not happen by accident.

It was partly due to car drivers choosing to make journeys at off peak times and partly due to Council policies such as Park and Ride and encouraging cycling/walking.

The default position is not as some claim “do nothing”. The base position is “do more of what has been successful if the past”. Add in technology change, which should reduce unnecessary mileage, and you have the makings of a solution.

We have grave doubts about whether the Congestion Commission is the way forward.

If it is, then its work should start in June when the political background will be much clearer.

A lot of traffic congestion in York this morning – Dringhouses Library open

Multiple traffic light failures have been blamed for increases in congestion this morning. Click graphic for updated position

Dringhouses Library which has to close for a short time yesterday following a power cut, is now fully operational again.

Decisions affecting traffic in every part of the City taken in private session by Labour Councillor

Traffic and parking decisions nodded through at behind closed doors session.

The man responsible for the secrecy was Labour Councillor David Levene.

Over 50 proposals for changes to parking restrictions and other local traffic management measures were decided last week.

Residents had no opportunity to influence the decisions with papers only being published on the Councils web site AFTER the meeting had concluded.

Labour Councillors representing areas like Westfield failed to make any representations on the plans which potentially affect dozens of local residents and hundreds of drivers.