Question
Traffic congestion in and around the eastern end of Lower Earley and Winnersh generally is getting worse, with hundreds of cars, buses and lorries stalled in long traffic queues on all main routes for many hours during extended morning and evening peak periods each weekday. The improvements to the Showcase end of Lower Earley Way have had a small effect currently, but the increases in traffic from the Strategic Development Locations is quickly adding to the existing congestion as more homes are occupied. Aside from the completion of the Winnersh Bypass Phase 2, what other plans does the Council have to alleviate these problems for vehicle movements specifically in this area?
Minutes:
Question
Traffic congestion in and around the eastern end of Lower Earley and Winnersh generally is getting worse, with hundreds of cars, buses and lorries stalled in long traffic queues on all main routes for many hours during extended morning and evening peak periods each weekday. The improvements to the Showcase end of Lower Earley Way have had a small effect currently, but the increases in traffic from the Strategic Development Locations is quickly adding to the existing congestion as more homes are occupied. Aside from the completion of the Winnersh Bypass Phase 2, what other plans does the Council have to alleviate these problems for vehicle movements specifically in this area?
Answer provided by the Leader of Council
This is actually quite close to my heart. One of the three major topics that we are dealing with at the moment is congestion.
If I was Pauline I would say that I drive on these roads every day and recognise your comments: but I do not as I live in the northern parishes. There has been some improvement since the Lower Earley Way work has been completed but there are times in the day when the area still experiences significant queues.
To manage this the Council, in its role as highway authority, has embarked on a series of actions to ensure that key routes and intersections operate as efficiently as they can. Not all of these actions will help Lower Earley Way but some will. These actions include improvements to lines and signs at signal and roundabout junctions and the use of technology to make traffic signal control as reactive as possible to demands throughout the day and the management of obstructions caused by parking and loading activities.
A programme of interventions at sensitive locations has been prepared and work is underway to design and implement improvements, prioritised towards those locations where congestion is worse. All this work is being combined within our emerging Intelligent Transport Systems (the ITS Strategy) which will support the Council in tackling congestion and delay and for which significant capital funding is being invested over the next four years.
This Strategy is setting a framework and justification for future investment focused on: improved congestion detection and sharing of information with the travelling public; improved control room facilities in order that quick decisions can be made around network management; the use of technology to manage our road network more efficiently; and how we can improve the use of alternatives such as cycling.
We are also, through our transport and journey planning activities by the Council’s MyJourney team, continuing to promote travel modes other than private cars and are engaging proactively with public transport operators to ensure that residents have access to a choice of alternative ways in which to make shorter journeys, such as travel to school and work, especially at peak periods. To further encourage more people to switch from using their cars to more sustainable modes we have, through our capital programme, been continuing with the delivery of new Greenways, an ambitious programme of traffic free cycling and walking routes across the Borough.
The combination of these activities is the only way to ensure that our road network operates as efficiently and equitably as possible for residents as well as businesses and visitors, whilst acknowledging the Council’s role in managing air quality, the environment and road safety.
We have, I believe, the highest concentration of vehicles per household in the Country so I am told. I am told that by Tony Johnson so it must be true. We also have a finite series of roads so it is difficult to change the network but we have been doing so by building roads. So the strategy which we are embarked on is trying to make the network work better and that is through the technology which is available which is making the traffic signalling work interactively and having a series of signage which works with the traffic signalling combined with a control system which then permits it to be planned with obstructions. So we have something like £187m in the Capital Budget, over three years, in order to tackle congestion which we think is probably the biggest frustration which our residents have. So I agree with you.
Supplementary Question
I have lived in Lower Earley for over 35 years and commuted by car to Bracknell and Crowthorne for most of that time there being no useful public transport for either departure or destination locations. My personal observations of the Winnersh Crossroads and using all form of approaches to it over recent months is that the traffic flows are about twice those stated in the models used for the Winnersh Relief Road planning application; if I have understood the addendum to the traffic assessment correctly. Queues of over 200 cars in both directions on the Reading Road are not uncommon.
Please can the Member for Highways explain how by adding two roundabouts either side of the M4 overbridge that connects a new road designed to bring in additional traffic from the various strategic developments from both north and south of the area is going to improve the traffic flow and reduce congestion in the Winnersh area? I would also be interested to understand how pedestrian and cyclists can be integrated safely into that?
Supplementary Answer provided by the Executive Member for Highways and Transport
The first thing to say is that because the Winnersh by-pass has the problem of trying to get either under or over the M4 you have got no option with the Winnersh by-pass and the by-pass road that goes up along the left of the main road. You have got no opportunity to have those two roads without two roundabouts because we cannot put a bridge over the M4 or indeed another tunnel under it.
So we cannot have one roundabout as there is not enough space for it. I have lived in Lower Earley for 35 years as well funnily enough and I commute along that road every day. My experience so far is that the Winnersh by-pass has improved the traffic along the peripheral road and the road towards the Showcase Cinema. That hopefully will relieve more of the traffic that is currently trying to go through the Winnersh crossroads. The Winnersh crossroads is meant to be relieved by that road but we are also looking to whether we can do anything to improve the Winnersh crossroads and we had a conversation with various people about a week and half ago to try and look at what the options are for doing something to Winnersh crossroads as well as the Winnersh by-pass to try and relieve it.
So I know there is a problem with the Winnersh crossroads it has definitely been made worse in my opinion by the turn-off to go to Sainsbury’s which means that there is only one lane up the way which also goes left which means it queues back further. I understand your problem and we are looking into it at the moment.
I would have liked them to have done something better with the A329M as well because that now queues up towards Bracknell and I am talking to them actively about that because they have actually caused a problem on the A329M Bracknell-bound that was not there before they put the smart motorway extra capacity off the M4. I have had one meeting with Highways England about that and we are still progressing that with them. At the moment we have not accepted that bit of the junction back because of the issue that they have left us with i.e. what they have done with that junction.