Skip to main content

Traffic flow information substantiates benefits of new route

The number of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling through Carlisle’s city centre in the north east of England is estimated to have been reduced by more than a third since the US$276.5 million Carlisle Northern Development Route opened in February 2012. Information gathered from a network of 20 permanent and temporary traffic counters dotted around the city showing ‘before and after’ CNDR road usage is starting to build a more meaningful picture of the benefits the new road has brought to Carlisle.
August 20, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The number of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) travelling through Carlisle’s city centre in the north east of England is estimated to have been reduced by more than a third since the US$276.5 million Carlisle Northern Development Route opened in February 2012.

Information gathered from a network of 20 permanent and temporary traffic counters dotted around the city showing ‘before and after’ CNDR road usage is starting to build a more meaningful picture of the benefits the new road has brought to Carlisle.

There has been a marked reduction in both cars and HGVs along the main north to south arterial route through the city – the A7 and A595 – as an average of more than 10,000 vehicles a day use the new 8.25km/5.13-mile road.

Carlisle’s busiest stretch of road, the A595 at Castle Way, has shown a 16 per cent reduction in all vehicles from 38,083 a day before the opening of CNDR to 32,050 afterwards (with a 41 per cent reduction in HGVs from 6,860 to 4,060). Other city centre hotspots have shown similar reductions, with the A7 at Stanwix Bank showing a 16 per cent reduction in all vehicles and a 32 per cent reduction in HGVs.

CNDR has quickly become a key route to travel between the south west of the city and the industrial areas to the north - a big factor for employers looking to develop good communications channels in areas ripe for commercial development.

As expected, there are higher levels of traffic on certain radial routes that have direct links to the CNDR. The county council has already set aside additional capital funding to mitigate against this effect and also improve links to CNDR for pedestrians and cyclists along these radial routes.

Related Content

  • Missouri’s Road to Tomorrow provides ITS answers
    December 22, 2015
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at Missouri’s plans to become America’s ITS testbed The state of Missouri launched its Road to Tomorrow initiative earlier this summer at the ITS America Annual Meeting and Expo in Pittsburgh, rolling out the welcome mat for transportation officials to try out new, innovative ITS technologies in the field.
  • East Africa uses cargo tracking to foils criminals and collect tax
    June 10, 2015
    Shem Oirere looks at the beneficial effect of cargo tracking. The mandatory installation of electronic cargo tracking and security (ECTS) systems in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has helped enhance revenue collection, enforce cargo handling requirements, improved the business environment of the respective countries’ trade routes and helped cargo hauliers cut costs. This is being spearheaded by the state-owned tax collection agencies and the improved custom duty collection has not only enabled a reduction of im
  • Bogotá’s affordable path to safer roads
    April 28, 2022
    Enforcing speed limits on key corridors is a cost-effective way of reducing collisions in the Colombian capital, say the authors of a new study. Andrew Stone talks to them
  • High-tech road studs can help tackle accident trend
    October 3, 2014
    According to road safety engineer Alan Vass of the Traffic and Road Safety section of Ayrshire Roads Alliance in Scotland, LED road studs have contributed to a 100 per cent reduction in incidents on a stretch of the A719 road in the county. Vass says the active studs, which use LED and solar technology to create delineation shown to be far more effective than traditional retro-reflective studs, could hold the key to a brighter future. He said: “There had been a number of accidents on the A719 near Wat