Skip to main content

Focus on people when delays happen, say road users

UK transport user watchdog Transport Focus has launches it report on road users’ experiences of planned roadworks and unplanned disruption. The report, Incidents and roadworks - A road user perspective, follows the watchdog’s 2015 work on road users’ needs and experiences of the Strategic Road Network. In it, the watchdog recommends planning shorter roadworks, 24/7 working and involving the freight industry more in roadworks planning. It also encourages more work to help release trapped traffic, prev
November 16, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
UK transport user watchdog Transport Focus has launches it report on road users’ experiences of planned roadworks and unplanned disruption.

The report, Incidents and roadworks - A road user perspective, follows the watchdog’s 2015 work on road users’ needs and experiences of the Strategic Road Network.

In it, the watchdog recommends planning shorter roadworks, 24/7 working and involving the freight industry more in roadworks planning. It also encourages more work to help release trapped traffic, preventing vehicles from joining the back of a long queue and providing more helpful information when they are stuck.

Among the findings, researchers found that road users want to see continued investment in our motorways and major ‘A’ roads. They accept that it will come with some short-term pain, but feel that this could be lessened if users’ interests were more strongly considered when planning and implementing roadworks. For example, shorter lengths of roadworks, more visible work activity and better information helps road users to tolerate roadworks.

The report also states that road users are broadly sympathetic when there are accidents. However, they are still looking to 8101 Highways England to get the road open again more quickly and, if it is clearly a major incident, to take bold measures to get people on their way and protect the welfare of those stuck in the queues.

It also claims that road users have many examples of where their need for clear, accurate information is not currently being met, particularly once they are out on the road.

Transport Focus will now use these findings to work with Highways England, the 1837 Department for Transport and others to help shape the management of incidents and roadworks to better meet the needs of road users.

Related Content

  • November 2, 2016
    Ertico coordinates big data debate
    David Crawford finds that agreeing a common data standard for auto manufacturers’ onboard sensors, navigation system companies and map makers is proving a complex task.
  • March 7, 2018
    Europe’s road safety record suffers as austerity bites hard, say traffic police chiefs
    Europe’s leading traffic police chiefs are struggling with the challenge of how best to manage the region’s road network in an era of austerity. Things are changing fast, and not for the better, reports Geoff Hadwick. Europe’s road safety record is under threat. Police budgets are being slashed, staff numbers are falling and a long-term trend towards ever-fewer road deaths has ground to a halt. The line on the graph has flat-lined. Does Europe’s road network face a far more dangerous future? Lower and
  • June 3, 2015
    Kent County Council and Highways England partner on road management
    Drivers in Kent are set to benefit from better journeys thanks to a new agreement between Kent County Council and Highways England. The new partnership agreement will improve planning and communication between the two organisations and improve journeys for the many thousands of drivers who use Kent’s road network every day. The two organisations will share information about incidents better to improve the information on the county’s message signs. Roadworks will be co-ordinated to ensure that the dive
  • March 17, 2017
    Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h