Changes planned for Tadcaster Road/St Helen’s Road junction

As part of a plan to upgrade the traffic signals at the St Helens Road junction a new Puffin pedestrian crossing facility is to be provided on the north side of the junction.

Full details are contained in this report

The report says,

“The replacement of the existing island has been proposed because the island is too narrow. It falls below minimum design guidance in terms of its overall width and the distance of its guard rails from the carriageway.

The substandard width results in difficulty for pedestrians in using the facility, especially those with prams and wheelchairs.

The substandard distance of the guardrail to the carriageway has resulted in vehicle strikes which in turn creates a maintenance liability.

The addition of a third pedestrian crossing on the north arm of the junction constitutes as ‘easy win’, in that it provides a desirable pedestrian facility without any significant detriment to the functioning of the junction.

There is no significant change to vehicular delays, queues, Practical Reserve Capacity or congestion.

Introduction of an additional pedestrian crossing on the north arm of the junction is a significant improvement for pedestrians as it serves a desire line accessing the inbound bus stop and Cross Keys public house.

Changes to traffic signals and junction layouts at George Hudson Street and East Parade in Heworth are also being considered

The same meeting will also consider a report following the presentation of a petition asking for carriageway repair works on The Horseshoe

 

 

Traffic signals and car park barriers unreliable in York

Traffic signals

This year to date (1st Jan to 3rd Dec) there have been a total of 696 traffic signal faults reported to the York Council’s maintenance contractors.

This number was 678 for the same period last year.

The Council does not have a means of recording the total duration for which signals have been out of operation; however, for high priority faults in this period – which are recorded in their own indicator – 91% were resolved within 4 hours, compared to 82% for the same period last year.

Marygate car park

Barrier faults have occurred during a total of 17 days since they were introduced at the Marygate car park. Currently income from the car park is less than it was when operated on a pay and display basis.Marygate-car-park-equipment-768x1024

Income from the Marygate car park, from the start of July to the end of October, totalled £231,000 in 2014/15.

The equivalent figure for 2013/14 was £246,000.

The York Council spent £100,000 installing the barrier system at Marygate.

NB. The Council has admitted that due to faults on its automated vehicle counting systems it doesn’t know how many motorists have taken advantage of the free parking offer which is available at some car parks from Thursday to Saturday.

Overall income from car parking is, however, over £400,000 below budgeted levels.

Traffic signals faulty for 804 hours during last 6 months in York

The York Council has admitted that traffic signal faults have more than doubled in the period between April and October 2013.

Press 17th Oct traffic lights

299 faults were reported with a total “downtime” of 804 hours.

This compares to a total of 790 hours (573 faults) during the whole of the last financial year.

The Council blames serious cabling faults caused by damaged and flooded ducts.

The information was obtained by Cllr Ann Reid who took up the issue at last weeks York Council meeting

However, recent problems seem to have extended the capacity of the repair and maintenance contractors and motorists will be looking for a long term improvement.

Yesterday there was near grid lock conditions in the Foss Islands Road area following the failure of two sets of lights.

York traffic signal reliability questioned

The seemingly endless series of faults on York’s traffic lights and signalised pedestrian crossings will be questioned at the Council meeting on 10th October.

London solution

London solution

Residents were particularly concerned when the pelican crossing on Front Street was faulty for several days last week.

The Council has not published any reliability statistics on traffic lights for over 2 years.

The response time targets for the Council’s maintenance contractor have also not been published

Cllr Ann Reid will ask the transport chief

“How many faults have been reported on traffic signals in York so far this year and what is the total time that signals have been out of service? How does this compare to the equivalent period last year?”
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NB. The continued unavailability of traffic camera real time information on the Councils web site will also be highlighted at the meeting.

It is 6 months since the Council opened its new £300,000 CCTV control centre and put traffic camera icons on its web based congestion map.

In July the Council accepted that the move had been premature although the North Yorkshire Council has had similar camera access available for many years. Assurances were given that the links would go live shortly.

3 months later and the links still aren’t working.

Liberal Democrat Councillors have therefore tabled a question asking, “Why is the feed from the traffic cameras to the “itravel” York web site map still not working despite the assurances given at the July Council meeting? “

A list of all the questions submitted for the meeting can be read here: http://democracy.york.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=32384