Traffic “congestion commission” rethink

The York Council is to reconsider whether to set up a “Congestion Commission” before the Council elections take place on May 7th

The Cabinet proposal had been called in by opposition Councillors who pointed out that any decisions taken now could be overruled in little over 2 months time by what could be a completely different Council.

Concerns were also expressed about the cost of the “commission” and its membership.

The issue will be reconsidered by the “Cabinet” at a meeting taking place on 3rd March

Poppleton Bar delays continue as Council responds to Freedom of Information request

At the last Council meeting Councillors were told that all work on the Poppleton Bar Park and Ride project would be completed by the end of July.

No end to Poppleton Bar works

No end to Poppleton Bar works

However there is still a considerable amount of work outstanding with periodic impacts on congestion levels in the area.

While the final May deadline for conclusion of the whole Access York contract is long past, it is unclear why there are continuing delays at Poppleton (other than the obvious one that the contractors are simply not fully resourcing their contract obligations).

Cycle tunnel in use but no lane marking on paths

Cycle tunnel in use but no lane marking on paths

Councillor Ann Reid is now pressing for answers and some have emerged as responses to Freedom of Information requests

One (click to download) confirmed that the whole Access York project – of which the Poppleton works form part – was due to be completed by 23rd May.

Details of the road closure orders have also been published on the Council’s web site

Meanwhile, the permanent traffic signals at the A59 junction with the Park and Ride access road are now in place, but the following work is still outstanding

  1. Considerable surfacing and landscaping work
  2. White lining (e.g. on the cycle path exit from the A1237 pedestrian/cycle tunnel. (If this is intended to be a shared cycle/[pedestrian space then it does not seem to comply with the specification agreed with the Blind and Partially Sighted Association)
24 hour lighting on new roundabout

24 hour lighting on new roundabout

Yesterday (Thursday) the street lights in the area were permanently lit. Taken with the decision to exclude the provision of on-site electricity generation from the project, this does seem to fly in the face of the Councils environmental policies?

Drivers now want a realistic completion date for the project.

Residents would also like to be reassured that there are penalty clauses in the contract which will be invoked to compensate the Council, taxpayers and drivers for the inconvenience and additional expense that they have suffered over the last few months.

A64 eastbound carriageway closed following road traffic collision

Emergency services are currently at the scene of a road traffic collision on the A64 near Tadcaster.

Collision

The eastbound carriageway is currently closed after a Renault Clio overturned at around 3.25pm today (11 August 2014).

Three people were in the vehicle at the time of the collision. The extent of their injuries are not known at this time.

The westbound carriageway will also be closed to allow the air ambulance to land at the scene.

The eastbound carriageway is expected to remain closed for a number of hours.

Any witnesses to the collision are urged to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 – select option 1 – and pass information to the Force Control Room.

York congestion cameras still not working – York Council

Moving York’s CCTV cameras onto a system that provides residents with real time information on traffic congestion “has required more recoding of the website’s processing system than originally anticipated.” the responsible Councillor has admitted.

click to access

click to access

Live camera information has been available in North Yorkshire for several years but the York equivalent has been dogged by delays despite investment of over £300,000.

The Council now says that “this additional work is now almost complete and the CCTV images should be available on the website during October / November”.

For the mobile applications the updates required will be included in the next update releases of the apps, expected later this year.”

We will see.

Shame they weren’t working for today’s Yorkshire Marathon

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.