News: The £2.45m of transport improvements in Rotherham that hasn't improved traffic flows
A multimillion pound transport scheme in a Rotherham village has failed to improve traffic flow, the local council has admitted.
Where Coach Road meets Main Street and Potter Hill in Greasbrough, a mini roundabout was replaced by a three-way crossroads, with traffic lights and dedicated left and right turn lanes, aiming to relieve congestion at this busy junction.
To improve safety and encourage travel on foot and by bike, paths around the junction were widened to provide cycle routes, and new crossings for pedestrians and cyclists have been installed.
In 2021, £2.45m was secured from the Local Growth Fund via the predecessor to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), and the work was carried out by Esh Construction, on behalf of Rotherham Council.
Following correspondence from local MP Sarah Champion, Rotherham Council said that a review of the scheme has shown that "the improvements have not had the desired effect of increasing traffic capacity through the junction."
In 2017, Rotherham Council approved an option to demolish Greasbrough Public Hall so that future road improvements could be carried out here. Papers showed at the time that the Council deemed that the strategic importance of improving the infrastructure around the proposed Bassingthorpe Farm development outweighed proposals to save the historic village hall.
Removed from the greenbelt, a masterplan has recently been signed off for a 2,000 home development - a "well-connected 21st century garden community" at Bassingthorpe.
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Andrew Bramidge, Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment at Rotherham Council, said in the letter that "It is apparent that traffic has redistributed around the local highway network negatively affecting junction operation. In particular, it appears that there has been a significant increase in demand for some movements, including a significant increase on outflow from the junction toward the north, which could explain the apparent underperformance of the scheme. This may be a consequence of a well-documented effect, where improvements to junction capacity can result in increased traffic, where road users change their route or travel behaviours in response to driving being made more attractive.
"Secondly research undertaken by (sic) regionally has identified a local factor with regards the operation of junctions in South Yorkshire. Research has shown that the actual traffic flow crossing stop lines, known as the saturation flow, is generally lower than the values calculated using industry standard methodology (TRRL research report RR67). The research showed that some drivers are, relative to industry standard forecasting, slow to respond to a green signal and the queue starting to move and / or prefer to leave a larger gap to the vehicle in front. This has led to green time effectively being 'wasted' and the junctions not operating as expected with actual saturation flows (simplistically the capacity of the junction) being 18% less than expected values on average."
Further work at the junction has been ruled out and a nearby project for "The Whins" no longer appears on any lists of council capital projects having previously been identified as a project that could be funded by the authority's Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). A potential scheme to support Bassingthorpe had been in development for a new roundabout at the triangular road layout on Cinder Bridge Road. A passing bay at the junction was also discussed back in 2023.
Sarah Champion said that she was disappointed that the response offered no solution. adding: "This simply is not good enough, and it is something that I will keep pushing alongside Greasbrough’s local councillors."
Images: Google Maps
Where Coach Road meets Main Street and Potter Hill in Greasbrough, a mini roundabout was replaced by a three-way crossroads, with traffic lights and dedicated left and right turn lanes, aiming to relieve congestion at this busy junction.
To improve safety and encourage travel on foot and by bike, paths around the junction were widened to provide cycle routes, and new crossings for pedestrians and cyclists have been installed.
In 2021, £2.45m was secured from the Local Growth Fund via the predecessor to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), and the work was carried out by Esh Construction, on behalf of Rotherham Council.
Following correspondence from local MP Sarah Champion, Rotherham Council said that a review of the scheme has shown that "the improvements have not had the desired effect of increasing traffic capacity through the junction."
In 2017, Rotherham Council approved an option to demolish Greasbrough Public Hall so that future road improvements could be carried out here. Papers showed at the time that the Council deemed that the strategic importance of improving the infrastructure around the proposed Bassingthorpe Farm development outweighed proposals to save the historic village hall.
Removed from the greenbelt, a masterplan has recently been signed off for a 2,000 home development - a "well-connected 21st century garden community" at Bassingthorpe.
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Andrew Bramidge, Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment at Rotherham Council, said in the letter that "It is apparent that traffic has redistributed around the local highway network negatively affecting junction operation. In particular, it appears that there has been a significant increase in demand for some movements, including a significant increase on outflow from the junction toward the north, which could explain the apparent underperformance of the scheme. This may be a consequence of a well-documented effect, where improvements to junction capacity can result in increased traffic, where road users change their route or travel behaviours in response to driving being made more attractive.
"Secondly research undertaken by (sic) regionally has identified a local factor with regards the operation of junctions in South Yorkshire. Research has shown that the actual traffic flow crossing stop lines, known as the saturation flow, is generally lower than the values calculated using industry standard methodology (TRRL research report RR67). The research showed that some drivers are, relative to industry standard forecasting, slow to respond to a green signal and the queue starting to move and / or prefer to leave a larger gap to the vehicle in front. This has led to green time effectively being 'wasted' and the junctions not operating as expected with actual saturation flows (simplistically the capacity of the junction) being 18% less than expected values on average."
Further work at the junction has been ruled out and a nearby project for "The Whins" no longer appears on any lists of council capital projects having previously been identified as a project that could be funded by the authority's Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). A potential scheme to support Bassingthorpe had been in development for a new roundabout at the triangular road layout on Cinder Bridge Road. A passing bay at the junction was also discussed back in 2023.
Sarah Champion said that she was disappointed that the response offered no solution. adding: "This simply is not good enough, and it is something that I will keep pushing alongside Greasbrough’s local councillors."
Images: Google Maps
3 comments:
The Bassingthorpe Farm development should NEVER be allowed to go ahead for many reasons, the complete gridlock of traffic it would cause in Greasbrough being one of them.
Pat yourselves on the back council, only they could explain the failure in terms of they have made it more attractive for people to use! If that is the case their modelling was flawed. No to Bassingthorpe development in any way as it will be even worse. Every night at 5PM traffic now backs up Potter Hill to the recycling centre on the dual carriageway. Just this morning at 8am the traffic was back up passed the Whins and to the top of the hill at Nether Haugh! Millions wasted and the flow is worse than before.
The traffic lights have been a disaster, A slightly bigger roundabout was all that was needed as there was often a Mexican standoff on the mini roundabout due to people being inept at driving and giving way to cars on their right AND left.
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