Traffic Management Schemes

The Council, as a highway authority, is responsible for managing the use of the public highway within the Royal Borough

This use extends to all those that require to move around the Royal Borough for work, pleasure, shopping and business and includes pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, public transport users and goods vehicles.

This mixture of uses, along with the growth in traffic, the need to improve safety and the need to deal with the increasing conflict in demands have lead to a range of powers and techniques for managing the use of the road network for transport.

The Council's Local Transport Plan set's out the policies and strategies to manage traffic in the Borough with the principle aims of:

• Achieving safe movement by reducing accident levels.
• Promoting and accommodating the maintenance and improvement of public transport.
• Protecting the environment.
• Seeking equitable levels of mobility and accessibility for all groups of people, particularly for those presently disadvantaged in mobility terms ie. people with disabilities, children, women, the old and the infirm.
• Improving pedestrian safety, accessibility and convenience.

Traffic Management schemes can be applied to solve a variety of identified problems in one or more roads. The need for a scheme can be identified in a variety of ways, depending on the issue. It may, for example, be in response to an injury accident problem or in response to concerns of residents that prompts an investigation. Any traffic management scheme undertaken will be dependent on its priority in relation to other schemes, its contribution to the policy and strategic objectives of the Council and the availability of resources.

Consultation

The Council consults residents for their views before the introduction of any major new traffic measures. A consultation leaflet is normally delivered to all residences and businesses in the roads concerned and other roads accessed from the roads concerned to determine the level of support for measures and sometimes on the type of measures preferred.

Some traffic measures require the publication of a formal Notice in the press and a three week period is allowed for objections to be received. Formal objections are considered, and schemes may need to be re-designed with further Notices being published. The Council, as Highway Authority, is responsible for introducing and maintaining the physical measures and for making any necessary Traffic Orders. Currently, enforcement of Traffic Orders is the responsibility of the Police.

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