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ITEM EX15

COUNTRYWAYS RURAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PILOT ZONE

1. On 22 February 2001, the Highways & Road Safety Sub-Committee approved the creation of Oxfordshire’s first rural traffic management (‘CountryWays’) pilot zone centred on Stoke Row. The scheme piloted a new way of designing traffic management projects, largely developed around community involvement. This report contains a commentary of the scheme development and puts forward final measures for implementation.

Consultation and Scheme Development

2. The ‘CountryWays’ scheme has been under development since March 2001. It was set up to develop a community participation model to address rural traffic management issues, to trial the potential for implementing Quiet Lane networks in the County, and to test out new and innovative ways of addressing the growing issues surrounding traffic in our rural areas. The single most important point to remember with regard to the ‘CountryWays’ schemes is that they are primarily led by community development and not by officers of the County Council. As such they address the issues for local people, and are designed with them from the very outset.
3. Two tranches of ‘DesignDays’ have been held in the area, which have been led by TTR Ltd, a local consultancy. The first tranche, held in September 2001, sought to find out local opinion on the impacts that traffic was having on their local community and environment. A second tranche was held in March 2002 to gain reaction to potential schemes to resolve the identified problems. Both tranches involved three events held in local village halls, to which the whole community was invited through door-to-door leaflet drops. In addition, the communities involved have been kept up to date with the development of the scheme via a number of regular newsletters. This has led to a much higher profile for the County Council, and greater interest by the local community.
4. In addition to the DesignDays a local management board, made up of representatives of County, District and Parish Councils, and the Chilterns Management Board has guided the direction of the scheme as a whole, and has been invaluable in obtaining a local steer on scheme development, as well as acting as a feedback forum.
5. Throughout the scheme a large volume of monitoring has been undertaken. This has been necessary to ensure that we are able to track the effectiveness of any new measures. Comprehensive traffic speed and volume data has been monitored. An attitudinal study into local people’s perceptions on traffic issues prior to scheme development was also taken. It is intended that following implementation repeat monitoring for both traffic and attitudinal work will be undertaken to assess the impact of the scheme.
6. In summary, the development of the scheme has been extremely successful. A greater understanding of what is practical has been achieved by the public at large, and the design of schemes has led to a greater appreciation of local concerns and issues by officers involved. In addition Oxfordshire is becoming one of the most active Highway Authorities in this growing area, gaining a reputation not only regionally but also nationally, building on our status as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Transport Planning.

Scheme Details

7. One of the prime purposes of this scheme was to develop new and innovative ways of examining rural traffic management, and particularly those which are sensitive to the local environment. Through the process outlined above a number of actions have been implemented or are proposed through this report.
8. A comprehensive review of signing in the area has been undertaken. This has led to the rationalisation of a large number of signs - reducing clutter in the area and achieving a greater consistency in destination signing. On unclassified roads this includes the erection of new ‘polo mint’ finial finger posts, alongside a reduction in the number of individual mounting posts used. Some re-signing on A and B class roads has also been undertaken to ensure that locations within the CountryWays area are signed both consistently and via the most appropriate routes.
9. Turning to the engineering measures, Annex 1 of this report lists the measures proposed to be included in the scheme (drawings will be on display at the meeting). Some of the more innovative measures proposed include the development of a ‘virtual footway’ in Stoke Row to provide a safer pedestrian route on the south side of main street in the village which has no footway. In partnership with the Better Ways to School programme two ‘school zones’ are to be implemented, in Stoke Row and Checkendon, to encourage a more responsible attitude to driving in the vicinity of schools. A standard ‘t’ junction has been redesigned to slow traffic entering two villages, by recreating a more traditional ‘rural’ junction. Finally, in an attempt to address the issues of large vehicles and verge erosion, an innovative scheme involving the use of logs laid along the edges of carriageway to act as verge protection and to allow verge reconstruction behind is proposed on the entrance to Checkendon. All of these measures have been designed with the backing of the local communities involved.

Quiet Lanes

10. Quiet Lanes are roads which are open to all traffic, but are managed in such a way as to encourage pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders to travel with reduced fear by encouraging drivers to drive with greater care and respect for other road users. Through the DesignDays process a Quiet Lane network has been developed (Annex 2) which links all of the villages along more rural lanes, providing opportunities for increased travel/leisure use by non-vehicle modes. The creation of a Quiet Lane network has been seen as on of the major benefits of the whole CountryWays scheme. Our approach has been that there should not be significant engineering measures along the length of the Quiet Lanes. This places an increased importance on the entry treatments to make drivers behave appropriately, where the layout of the road does not already ensure this. Entries will vary with location and intensity of use. For example where there are very low vehicle flows it is likely that reliance on entry signing will be sufficient. However at more trafficked junctions measures such as "fake cattle grids" (a surface treatment which simulates the effect for drivers of driving over a cattle grid) may be installed.
11. Officers have reservations about the sign which has been used in the national pilots for Quiet Lanes. We felt that there were problems with driver legibility (in that the sign did not use the standard conventions for road signing) and that it needed to include a speed element to indicate how we would desire drivers to behave on the quiet lanes. An alternative sign which addressed these issues was put forward at local consultation and received considerable support. A similar scheme in Buckinghamshire also found similar results. This has been taken up with the appropriate Division of the Department for Transport. However, they have insisted that we use the national pilots sign. Until we have a satisfactory resolution to this issue, officers would not recommend installing any of the Quiet Lane measures. Any action which we might want to take to pursue this needs to be done jointly with Buckinghamshire County Council and the Chilterns Conservation Board. To emphasise our continued support in principle for Quiet Lanes, the network can be designated as Quiet Lanes. It is considered that one road, Cox’s Lane, is unsuitable for inclusion at the moment but that it should be included if effective speed reduction measures can be introduced.

Implementation Programme

12. Implementation of the scheme would take place before the end of this financial year, with the majority of the works occurring over the summer/autumn period. Changes to signing are scheduled to occur during July/August. Initial ‘after’ monitoring will be undertaken in Spring/Summer 2003, which will include a second attitudinal monitoring exercise to assess opinion change.

Second CountryWays Pilot Zone – Update

13. On 8 January 2002 the Executive approved the development of a second CountryWays Scheme around Uffington in the Vale of White Horse. TTR have again been appointed as project and consultation managers for the scheme. An initial consultation leaflet has been produced and has been circulated to all residents in the area. A slight change in the development of the scheme will lead to the first round of DesignDays being replaced by a leaflet and workshop approach to see if results can be improved over the initial pilot. A local liaison board will be drawn up shortly assuming backing from the public at large.

Financial Implications

14. Funding of the scheme will be undertaken through the Community Safety Transport budget. All costs are being charged to capital including scheme development and consultancy fees.

RECOMMENDATIONS

15. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

1. approve the implementation of the engineering measures as identified in Annex 1;
2. approve the designation, under S268(1) of the Transport Act 2000, of the Quiet Lane network as shown on the plan in Annex 2;
3. authorise the Director of Environmental Services, in consultation with the Executive Members for Transport and for Strategic Planning & Waste Management, to determine what further actions should be taken with regard to Quiet Lanes signing; and
4. note the progress on the development of the second CountryWays Pilot in Uffington.

DAVID YOUNG
Director of Environmental Services

Background Papers:

CountryWays DesignDays 1 Report
CountryWays DesignDays 2 Report
CountryWays Attitudinal Monitoring Report

Contact Officers : Andy Barton Tel: 01865 81046, Roger O’Neill Tel: 01865 815659

July 2002

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