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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Highways England to trial wirelessly connected vehicles and driverless cars
    April 11, 2016
    Highways England (HE) is to invest US$213.5 million (£150 million) on new technology, including trials of driverless car technology on motorways. As part of its innovation strategy, HE may introduce a connected corridor, or ‘wi-fi road’, which could see cars and infrastructure wirelessly connected, with drivers receiving news of advanced road closures or congestion warnings. The strategy also includes trialling radar technology on motorways and in tunnels to improve the way breakdowns are detected. A
  • ANPR - cost-efficient traffic management, enforcement and more
    January 23, 2012
    Geoff Collins of Vysionics Intelligent Traffic Solutions talks about the near-term prospects of ANPR. The continued absence of a champion for its cause is preventing digital enforcement technology from delivering the true levels of cost-effectiveness of which it is capable, according to Geoff Collins, sales and marketing director of ANPR specialist Vysionics Intelligent Traffic Solutions.
  • Navigating the data privacy landscape
    July 24, 2023
    If customer data is not protected then the journey towards better, less polluting public transport solutions is likely to be delayed, warns Alexis Suggett of Cubic Transportation Systems
  • Ertico weaves tunnel visions into the ‘big picture’
    April 7, 2017
    As he takes the wheel at Ertico - ITS Europe, Jacob Bangsgaard talks to ITS International about the challenges and opportunities facing the organisation and the ITS industry. Ertico - ITS Europe’s new CEO, Jacob Bangsgaard, is no stranger to the organisation having spent five years there before moving to the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) in 2006. Four years later he became director general of the FIA’s Region I (EMEA), which represents more than 100 mobility clubs, and in 2012 he joined Er