Highways Agency

Chapter 4 Easing congestion

From A to B with less stress

One of the most frustrating things for road users is to be caught up in congestion. With car use set to rise in future years, this means working in partnership with public transport operators and in conjunction with other Government measures to tackle congestion, discourage car use and promote alternatives.

We are working towards this by delivering schemes aimed at easing congestion. We also plan our road works to minimise disruption and co-ordinate with work on local roads wherever possible.

Electronic message signs keep road users informed.

We are developing innovative Active Traffic Management (ATM) techniques to help ease congestion by making better use of existing road space. This will be supported by an enhanced Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling system (MIDAS) under which wire loops will be placed in the road surface every 100 metres instead of the current arrangement of every 500m. The MIDAS system tells road users of queues ahead using electronic message and Variable Speed Limit signs.

The new national Traffic Control Centre (TCC) will require us to work closely with others to manage the traffic on the network. During the year National Guidance Frameworks for operating agreements with the Police and local highway authorities have been signed and progress has been made on the Detailed Local Operating Agreements with the forces and authorities involved. In January 2002 the TCC company, Traffic Information Services (TiS) Limited, took over the operation of the Midland Driver Information Service (MDIS) from the Police.

Artists impression of the Agency's new Traffic Control Office.

2001-02 performance

• We exceeded our target by completing 17 Early Action Schemes at congestion black spots against a target of at least 11 schemes.
• We installed extra 91 CCTV cameras against a target of at least 68 to monitor incidents on the network. These cameras will enable the Police to respond more quickly to accidents and other incidents, by setting electronic message signs to divert road users from problem areas, minimising congestion caused.
• An extra 243km of motorway was equipped with MIDAS in 2001-02. This system automatically detects significant slowing in traffic speed and sets electronic message signs to warn other road users of trouble ahead. This will allow road users to take avoiding action and ease congestion.
• We met our target of delivering 13 of the 15 major scheme milestones in the Targeted Programme of Improvements (TPI) set out in our 2001-02 Business Plan.
• As part of our Road Users' Charter the Agency has a target to plan and co-ordinate our road works so that 97% of traffic lanes on the network are kept free of them during the year. During 2001-02 we achieved this with 98.6 % remaining free of road works.
• In November 2001 we published a new Procurement Strategy setting out how we will reduce the time between planning major schemes and cutting the ribbon on completed schemes. Currently these schemes take anything up to 12 years to open to traffic, but by developing new systems to speed up procurement we expect to reduce this to approximately seven and nine years for non-controversial schemes. New forms of contract enable us to develop closer relationships with our suppliers to ensure the delivery of a high quality and cost effective service, encourage best practice and achieve value for money.

The first four of the Government's Multi-Modal Studies (MMS) presented their recommendations to the Regional Planning Bodies and the Secretary of State announced his decision on three of them ­ Access to Hastings, Cambridge to Huntingdon and South East Manchester. This has resulted in two additions to the Targeted Programme of Improvements (TPI). On 10 December 2002 the Secretary of State, Alistair Darling announced the results of a further five MMS resulting in schemes to deliver improvements to the A1, M1, M6 and A453.