2006-2011 LTP Annex 2

Introduction

Making the best use of our current road network is important for both economic vitality and society in general.  Roads facilitate the movement of goods and services and provide access to homes and businesses.  They also provide the routes for supplying an increasing number of services that modern society demands. 

The Vision that Warwickshire has for its road network is one on which people travel safely, with reliable journey times and that they have the best available information to ensure that they can make informed choices as to how they will travel in and through Warwickshire.

The Government, in its White Paper ‘The Future for Transport: A Network for 2030’ set out its vision for better management of the network: 

“We need a transport network that can meet the challenges of a growing economy and the increasing demand for travel, but can also achieve our environmental objectives.”

A better managed transport network will help achieve:

• A more reliable and freer-flowing service on the road network for both personal travel and freight, with people able to make informed choices about how and when they travel;
• Bus services that are reliable, flexible, convenient and tailored to local needs; and
• Walking and cycling as a real alternative for local trips.

A key theme that emerged from the DfT document ‘Managing our Roads’ was that traffic authorities should proactively manage the existing network.  The Traffic Management Act (TMA) 2004 contained a new network management duty for all traffic authorities. With effect from January 2005:

“it is the duty of a local traffic authority to manage their road network with a view to achieving, so far as may be reasonably practicable having regard to their other obligations, policies and objectives, the following objectives:

(a) securing the expeditious movement of traffic on the authority’s road network; and,

(b) facilitating the expeditious movement of traffic on road networks for which another authority is the traffic authority.”

The obligation is a whole authority duty: “anything that effects the flow of traffic” and as part of the duty the authority is required to appoint a Traffic Manager who will be the focus of meeting the requirements of the duty.  Warwickshire’s Traffic Manager is Keith Davenport.

The Shared Priorities

Tackling Congestion

In tackling congestion, we will look at the way in which we manage the highway network.  We need to provide an active and co-ordinated approach to network management. However, the provision of road space in Warwickshire is a finite resource, especially in our historic towns, and the provision of additional space would be environmentally unacceptable to many residents. Therefore, the roads have to be managed more effectively and in a more sustainable manner.

Delivering Accessibility

Warwickshire will seek to improve access to work and leisure facilities by improving the reliability of services through a Bus Punctuality Improvement Partnership with all its bus operators.  The Partnership will have a shared objective to achieve measurable improvements in bus punctuality, along with a willingness to use the findings to identify methods of improving the delivery of bus services.  We will work to improve travel information to the community and ensure that it is accurate and provides timely information about events and incidents on the road network.  We need to make sure this is communicated to the travelling public by a variety of means, such as variable message signs, the Internet, radio and television reports.

Safer Roads

A main objective of the Network Management Duty Strategy is to achieve a clear, consistent and understandable road network.  This will facilitate the efficient and safe movement of people and goods whilst protecting and enhancing the quality of life within communities.

Better Air Quality

Good, efficient traffic control reduces delay, which in turn reduces emissions of pollutants at urban speeds.  All potentially emerging air quality issues in Warwickshire are related to road traffic in and around the County’s town centres and along major commuter arterial routes and junctions. 

Improving the Environment

A major principal underlying Government policy is sustainability, i.e. balancing the needs of today without compromising the needs of future generations. Transport has an important contributary role, particularly through reducing congestion, improving local environments and encouraging healthier and safer lifestyles.

Everyone who uses our road network has a differing expectation from it.  Reliable journeys are important to the majority of people who travel on the network.  The utility companies need access to upgrade and maintain their apparatus for benefit of their customers.  For everyone, the ability to use the network safely remains the priority. In order that any potential conflicts can be sensitively handled, a co-ordinated and proactive approach to managing the network is necessary.

Core Objective of the Network Management Duty Strategy

Our core objective in implementing the Network Management Duty Strategy is to reduce the impact of traffic on the environment of town centres and residential areas in the main urban areas of the County.

Therefore, key objectives of the Network Management Strategy seek to:

• Reduce the environmental impact of traffic (in terms of its speed, volume and emissions) on environmentally sensitive areas;
• Reduce the impact of traffic on health;
• Design transport infrastructure to be sensitive to its surroundings, whilst still being effective; and
• Ensure that decisions taken regarding transport do not compromise the needs of future generations.

Route Management and Asset Management Plans

The Traffic Management Act 2004 places a duty on all local traffic authorities to manage their road network.  The objective of the network management duty is to ensure that all local authorities take action to reduce or minimise congestion while considering the needs of all road users.  This implies a road network that is working efficiently without unnecessary delay.

The benefits of better management of the road network are:

• Congestion and pollution is reduced;
• Businesses can operate more efficiently through the quicker and more reliable delivery of goods, provide better customer service etc;
• People are able to access their destinations more easily, saving time and money;
• Public transport can operate more easily, potentially further relieving congestion on the road by maximising the use of the existing network;
• More is made of the investment represented in the existing asset; and,
• The need for more radical solutions is reduced.

In order to manage the road network we need to identify current and future causes of congestion and disruption, and to plan and take action accordingly. A balance needs to be struck between differing users and different road types.  Different roads will need different policies and we therefore need to identify different road types throughout the County and develop a clear understanding of the problems faced on different parts of the network. This will allow us to have a structured approach to the allocation of road space on different routes or different types of route.  The development of a road hierarchy will also inform a more holistic approach to asset management through efficiencies gained from Transport Asset Management Plans.

Action Plan

• Set Definition Aims and objectives of a functional road hierarchy: October 2006
• Develop Functional road hierarchy and publish: July 2007
• Monitor effectiveness of hierarchy: July 2008/09/10

Our objectives in creating this hierarchy is to achieve a clear, consistent and understandable road network.  This functional road hierarchy will assist in identifying the road network by prioritising transport users, whatever their mode.

Most users of the network do not distinguish between categories of road, they expect reasonable consistency of policy and standards on similar roads which implies that all authorities both national and local should seek to deliver these expectations wherever possible. 

The aims of a functional road hierarchy are:

• to obtain the best use of the existing network, through effective design , maintenance and management;
• to minimise any adverse effect of the transport system on the built environment and thereby improve personal health;
• to ensure that the transport system contributes towards improving the efficiency of commerce and industry and the provision of sustainable development in appropriate locations;

Part of the Transport Asset Management Plan would provide a link between maintenance policy and implementation and assist with maintenance inspection frequencies, allocation of resources and safety decisions.  This also has a bearing on the planning of highway maintenance in that this should seek to add value wherever possible to other elements of the transport strategy.

Outcomes from developing this hierarchy include:

• Help balance competing demands on the network, i.e. the needs of transport users and non-users;
• Vulnerable roads users and public transport can be prioritised, given more attractive routes in an effort to reduce conflict;
• Safety can be improved by concentrating vehicle movements on the better designed corridors where road junctions are minimised and the potential for conflict is lessened;
• Increases in capacity realised, where incompatible demands for road space are managed by segregating traffic and restricting certain conflicts;
• Assist with the development of planning criteria for each road criteria.  Help with development control.
• Assist in development of highway improvement schemes;
• Assist in the development of traffic management schemes, speed limits and traffic calming. These could be used to reinforce the balance between the functions;
• Help with the environmental impacts of traffic, by concentrating traffic on fewer routes designed for smoother flow.  This links to the route review work and also the maintenance inspection regime; and,
• Assist in the coordination and management of roadworks, which will help reduce the disruption they cause.

There is duty within the Traffic Management Act that we keep a record of objects placed within the highway, the duty includes any object placed under, over, across, along or upon the street.

Air Quality

Air quality across the County is largely good although the need to reduce and manage emissions from vehicles is increasingly important.  All of the potentially emerging air quality issues in Warwickshire are related to road traffic in and around the County’s town centres and along major commuter arterial routes and junctions. Good, efficient traffic control reduces delay, which in turn reduces emissions of pollutants at urban speeds. 

In some locations Air Quality Management Areas have been, or will soon be, declared by the relevant District/Borough Councils due to predicted exceedances of the UK nitrogen dioxide objective. In all of these Air Quality Management Areas road transport is the foremost contributor to elevated air pollution levels and the main factor in exceeding the nitrogen dioxide objective.

The major themes of the Air Quality Strategy are:

• To improve areas with poor air quality and maintain those areas that currently experience good air quality
• To encourage sustainable forms of transport, which reduces reliance on private cars and minimises emissions to air; and
• To promote awareness of alternative travel choices.

The monitoring of air pollution is the responsibility of the Borough/District Councils.  However, we acknowledge that traffic is a significant cause of air pollution.  We currently have four roadside pollution monitors installed, which are connected to the traffic control system.  The data from these pollution monitors can be used to trigger strategies to manage traffic with the aim of reducing pollution levels in the vicinity.

We will use a number of traffic management techniques to reduce delays at peak times including the installation of pollution monitors.

Management of incremental change on certain routes on the network

Congestion in Warwickshire occurs mostly in peak periods and is limited to certain key routes in the urban areas and to some key junctions on the strategic rural highway network. When compared to larger urban areas congestion in Warwickshire is limited in geographical scope, occurs only at limited times of the day and is substantially removed during school holidays.

The effective management of the road network relies on the collection of accurate and reliable data.  Congestion monitoring has been carried out in Warwickshire’s main towns each year for the last seven years by carrying out repeated timed journeys on set routes.

A valuable source of data is that collected by the traffic signals.  The majority of the County Council’s traffic signals are connected to the Urban Traffic Control system.   In addition, the Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) demonstrator project in Stratford, which includes a Car Park Management system, Variable Message Signs and Automatic Number Plate Recognition system, will provide data on vehicle flows.

Data will need validation and processing such that it can give an early warning of incidents and unexpectedly high levels of congestion.  We need to establish if there are additional information requirements and how the authority can collate this centrally and make it available to stakeholders. The data, once validated, will enable predications to be made through modelling as to the likely effect of traffic growth on various junctions.

We should also seek to encourage, through the transport contracts let by the County Council, that vehicles involved in those contracts are fitted with GPS systems.  This will allow vehicles to be monitored and the data gathered and included in the information database for congestion monitoring. The County Council has the opportunity, through its School Links bus fleet, to trial GPS monitoring technology on buses.  As the buses are driving set routes on a daily basis, reliable data regarding the conditions experienced on the routes over time can be obtained.

An initial assessment of locations where traffic congestion occurs has been made using the existing urban journey time data, and from the interrogation of speed monitoring sites and the accident database. This initial assessment is for both the AM and PM peak periods.  A consultation will be undertaken with stakeholders to ensure the accuracy of the assessment. 

Land Use Planning

Sustainable patterns of development that reduce the need to travel, along with promotion of more sustainable transport choices and better accessibility to jobs, shops, leisure facilities by public transport walking and cycling can contribute to the integration of land use and transport.

Applications for new development will be considered within a framework that encourages sustainable patterns of development that make better use of land in the existing main settlements in the County. 

Improvements to Co-ordination

Growth in the economy, the introduction of competition into Statutory Undertakers services and increasing customer demand for services has led to increasing numbers of excavations in the street. There is a heightened potential for conflict between the Undertakers who have statutory right to use the streets, the Highway Authorities that maintain them and those who use them for transport purposes.

We will seek to improve the co-ordination of street works. It will be necessary to put in place a framework that seeks to contribute towards the reduction in inconvenience and disruption to residents, businesses and highway users.  A key component is ensuring the traveling public and those who are affected by any works are kept fully informed at all stages. 

By the development of a Considerate Contractor Scheme for Warwickshire and a voluntary Code of Good Practice, we would seek to influence the general standard of work and the condition and safety of Warwickshire’s highways for the benefit of all stakeholders.

This authority will use a variety of means to support the co-ordination of works and events with external stakeholders.  We will, in partnership with the Highways Agency, carry out an annual review of Warwickshire’s Detailed Local Operating Agreement with a view to sharing best practice through the agreement.  We will continue to work with Midlands Service Improvement Group in identifying areas of best practice around the role of inter-authority operability and also coordination of major incidents and works and events.  This authority will continue to take an active role in the West Midlands Traffic Operations Regional Group.  As a result of the inaugural TORG meeting a West Midlands (Shires and Unitary) Traffic Managers Forum has been established with the first meeting being held in Stafford on 7 December 2005.  The Group, which represents the Traffic Managers from City of Stoke-on-Trent Council, Herefordshire Council, Shropshire County Council, Staffordshire County Council, Telford and Wrekin Council,  Warwickshire County Council and Worcestershire County Council has agreed to operate together with an initial common goal:

"to improve the West Midlands regional approach to fulfilling the Network Management Duty”

To do this we have already identified the initial areas which we will act on or improve:

• Assist in guiding and shaping the role of the West Midlands Traffic Operations Group.
• Share best practice, and performance information, across the members of the group to improve the approach to implementing the Traffic Management Act 2004.
• To provide regional consistency and develop agreed frameworks to ensure the fulfilment of the Network Management Duty.
• To share information on the causes of congestion, and the proposed solutions, and the setting of network hierarchies in each authority.
• To guide authority’s approaches to network resilience.
• To share the information provided to the public through the individual authority’s web site by providing hyperlinks.
• To share information on how each authority is developing its organisation, the role of Traffic Manager, to meet the new demands of the Network Management Duty.

This authority will continue to take an active role in the West Midlands Regional Highways Authorities and Utilities Committee to achieve a consistency of approach to all and to discuss matters on a regional basis.

This authority has developed a database register of its own roadworks for co-ordination purposes.  This information is also entered on to a Central Street works Register so that day-to-day conflicts can be resolved and longer term co-ordination carried out.  The database is made available to all internal works promoters in order that all are aware of each other’s works programmes.  The registering of all our works in a central register is important for monitoring purposes to ensure parity between this authority and the utility companies working in our area.

We will continue to hold quarterly co-ordination meetings in accordance with Best Practice in streetworks guidance, to enable effective planning of utilities and our own works.  Local co-ordination meetings are not only for the purpose of meeting the statutory functions as prescribed under Sections 56, 59 and 60 of the New Roads and Streetworks Act, but also to promote good working partnership's between all parties with an interest in the Warwickshire road network.  In order to meet the requirements for effective co-ordination and Best Practice, there is a requirement to provide an appropriate co-ordination structure, a timetable for administration tasks and a format and method for presenting information.

Co-ordination is a continuing process and continued good liaison is essential to ensure the speedy resolution of outstanding matters.  All this information is on a co-ordination page on the Warwickshire County Council website and is made easily accessible to all those that need to use it.

We will aim to achieve better management and co-ordination of works and events affecting the highway and we will also aim to reduce the time that temporary works are present in the highway by such methods as increased working hours and weekend working.

Through effective planning and control the County Council will aim to minimise the disruption and congestion caused by its own works in the highway.

We will be proactive in the co-ordination and direction of both street works and works for road purposes.  We will develop an action plan based on the following:

• Check all incoming street works notifications for obvious inaccuracies;
• Check all incoming street works notifications for possible co-ordination issues or possible changes to construction methods;
• Hold regular quarterly co-ordination meetings with all works promoters in their area;
• Challenge incoming street works notifications where it is considered that the duration of the works is not appropriate;
• Issue directions, where appropriate, for carrying out work at less disruptive times;
• Challenge revised duration estimates on-street works notifications, if appropriate;
• Check that completion of works on site data is as notified;
• Require that all temporary traffic control, especially temporary traffic signals, be only used where and when necessary. Temporary traffic signals should either be vehicular activated or, at appropriate times, be operated manually; and
• Require information signing at work sites to advise the public in advance of the commencement of work.

Planned Events

One of the main causes of congestion is a planned event, such as Mop Fairs, carnivals, concerts and street markets.  We need to establish effective event planning and a management process that takes into account planned roadworks.  A plan needs to be prepared that will identify the likely impact of the event and level of on-going management required.  For regular events a review should be undertaken on the completion of that event with a view to updating the plan and management arrangements.

There are a number events that occur within Warwickshire for which there are well established multi-agency co-ordinating groups set up to carry out effective event planning.

Examples of such events include:

• The Royal Show at Stoneleigh Park;
• The Town and Country Festival at Stoneleigh Park;
• Pop concerts;
• The Bulldog Bash motorcycle event at Long Marston;
• Gods Kitchen Dance Event at Long Marston;
• Events at Warwick Castle and Ragley Hall near Alcester;
• The Mop Fairs in Stratford and Warwick;
• The Forest of Arden British Masters Golf event;
• Warwick Cycle Races and,
• The Warwick Victorian Evening.

As part of the Traffic Management Act, there is a new requirement to have a register, which will record all skips and scaffolding licences such that their effect can be co-ordinated through the Street Works Register.

This information will be made available via the web and will ideally be in a format that is of use to adjoining Highway Authorities, utility companies, national agencies, utilities’ contractors and adjoining authorities.

The Traffic Management Act 2004 introduces the new concept of a permit schemes for anyone wishing to carry out works on the network.  Anyone wishing to have permission to carry out works within the highway will need to have a permit to do so.  This not only will cover work carried out by the utilities but also that carried the County Council.  The permit can have a number of conditions attached, such as start date, space occupied by the works and also any over run of the works will be the subject of fines.

Working with the Highways Agency

The Highways Agency has identified two keys junctions within Warwickshire, Tollbar End and Junction 15 of the M40, for improvement during the duration of the LTP.

The A45 / A46 Tollbar End Junction Improvement Scheme will grade separate the existing Tollbar roundabout and provide additional road capacity between Tollbar and Stivichall junctions.

In 2002, approximately 70,000 vehicles per day, of which one in ten are HGV's, used Junction 15 of the M40. A combination of factors relating to junction geometry and vehicle destinations results in severe delays and congestion.  The main scheme objectives are to provide relief from congestion, which will significantly reduce the risk of shunt style accidents on the M40 and A46, and improve vehicle accessibility and journey times through the junction, onto the A46 and to Warwick. 

We will continue to work with the Highways Agency to develop robust Traffic Management Plans that mitigate the effect of additional traffic on Warwickshire’s road network.

Improvements to Walking and Cycling through network management.

We need to ensure that the quality of the cycling and walking environment is reassuringly attractive. This can be achieved by a reduction in car use in Warwickshire’s towns, a reduction in congestion and improvements to air quality.

Given that the existing highway network forms much of the pedestrian and cycle network, we will need to place more emphasis on the contribution that the improved co-ordination of works within the highway can make towards improving the walking environment, particularly given the low public satisfaction with footway conditions revealed by a recent Mori poll.

One of the barriers to people choosing to walk or cycle is concern over safety.  We can build on the safety improvements made in response to road accidents by improving the cycling and walking environment.

A main objective for the Network Management Strategy is to improve the cycling and walking environment thereby encouraging greater levels of walking for short journeys, particularly to town centres, workplaces, schools and public transport interchanges.

Intelligent Transport Systems Strategy

The main objective of the ITS Strategy is to “provide reliable travel information to users”.  This will allow the public to make informed choices about their journey, the route they take and how they make that journey.  The information will be made available on the Internet, on Variable Message Signs, by SMS text messaging, in bus shelters and at modal interchanges, and in hard copy format.

The ITS Strategy seeks to plan the expansion of the current ITS systems to other parts of Warwickshire, and to introduce the use of new ITS systems in a co-ordinated manner. The use of ITS tools will support the normal day-to-day management and help forecast likely congestion from events, works and incidents on the road network.

The information will include car park occupancy, tariffs and general information; current and forecast congestion; journey times; bus arrival/departure times; current and planned roadworks; and air quality.

A key component in the management of the information is that it is needed in a common database supported on a GIS system.  This would allow quick and easy interrogation, such that it enables immediate decisions to be made or as a forecasting tool to plan future works or manage incidents.

Provision of travel information to road users and the community

Priority Service Outcome (PSO) G14 requires the County Council to provide GIS-based presentation of information on roadworks in the local area, including contact details, and be updated daily.  The provision of accurate and timely information about events and incidents on the road network is a valuable source of travel information.  We need to ensure this is communicated to the travelling public by a variety of means.

Warwickshire County Council is a member of the EMPReSS community, which enables the transfer of all the notices that this authority holds on the streetworks register to the site. This is held on the system as a spatial dataset; both actual and programmed works are displayed.  The system allows for a seamless service without the user needing to be concerned with the change of service provider at authority boundaries.  This is particularly important with streetworks where the travelling public are concerned with access along a route irrespective of authority boundaries.  Adjoining authorities, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire are part of the project.  In addition, Berkshire and Oxfordshire are in the process of joining the system.  It is also expected that the Highways Agency through the National Traffic Control, will join enabling the transfer of information between this authority and the HA to be carried out via the EMPReSS system. 

This authority has undertaken a significant amount of work on updating the current Level 1 National Street Gazetteer to Level 3, such that we will have this submitted by October 2006.  This will also be made available via EMPReSS system.

Managing parking and other traffic regulations

The road network has changed over the years due to changes in traffic flow or developments that have taken place within the locality.  We need to challenge the relevance of a number of the Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) currently in place on the road network, especially those related to the loading and unloading of vehicles within town centres.  Ensuring that there is effective enforcement of parking regulations will reduce the incidence of illegally parked cars causing congestion.  It will also encourage the use of off-street car parks thereby reducing the amount of circulatory traffic in town centres and improve access for service vehicles to town centres.  An essential element in the management of TROs will be the Management Systems and processes that are put in place. 

A countywide system for Traffic Regulation Order management has been be developed that shares information with other stakeholders and partners. The system handles the full life cycle of Traffic Regulation Order management from initial request through to enactment of the order.

This system also supports the ongoing implementation of Decriminalised Parking Enforcement throughout the County and gives a common database essential for consistency when providing evidence to the National Parking Adjudication Service when considering appeals.

Drivers circulating within town centres searching for car parking spaces can generate unnecessary congestion.  Significant traffic management benefits can be achieved by the introduction of charges for on-street parking such that it is cheaper to park in off-street car parks.  This will encourage use of the off-street car parks and ensure that the on-street spaces are better utilised and have a greater turnover, thereby reducing circulating traffic.  This is especially important in our historic town centres. 

To assist drivers in locating the available off-street car parking spaces a comprehensive system of car park management needs to be installed within each of the urban areas.  The Urban Traffic Management and Control (UTMC) demonstrator project in Stratford includes a Car Park Management system, Variable Message Signs and Automatic Number Plate Recognition system which was funded through the 2000 – 2004 Local Transport Plan. The purpose of the UTMC project is to integrate various tools via a common database which enables the sharing of information between applications and information to be provided to network managers, other organisations and the public. The UTMC infrastructure provides a good base for the expansion of car park management in Warwickshire.

Enforcing Moving Traffic Regulations

If there is evidence that moving traffic offences are causing congestion, environmental intrusion or are detrimental to road safety, we will consider using powers in the Traffic Management Act to achieve better enforcement of such offences through decriminalisation of the offences.

Service Traffic

The County Council will continue to work with the freight industry through the Freight Quality Partnership for Warwickshire, to recognise the needs of goods vehicles in the management of the highway network.  Through the partnership we will:

• Promote the use of a defined and agreed 24 hour lorry route network, including producing a map for distribution within the road haulage industry;
• Seek to establish a zoning system in each urban area so that signage can be introduced to direct HGVs to industrial estates and town centres via the best routes;
• Seek to control HGV movements through or near environmentally sensitive areas;
• Define and enforce delivery times in town centres;
• Provide enforcement of parking restrictions to protect delivery access for lorries and HGVs;
• Review parking and loading restrictions to identify opportunities to address problems for delivery vehicles, particularly where front-only access exists;
• Ensure that reasonable access for HGVs is maintained in connection with measures for their control and restriction; and
• Explore the possibility of developing an urban area ‘consolidation centre’ for the transfer of goods from HGVs to smaller vehicles for final distribution.

Reviews of the network

Any review of traffic signs, road markings and signal timings, are currently ad-hoc, with this being carried out as a result of requests received from various road users. To gain the most benefit from a systematic approach, reviews should be carried out every three years.  This is especially important for isolated traffic signal junctions with adaptive controls, which can lose some of their efficiency over time. The reviews should take the opportunity to simplify traffic signs and reduce street clutter.

To improve the reporting of defects and equipment faults, we need to establish a well publicised reporting and repair process from a single customer contact centre, which deals with all aspects of highway faults. 

Working with the Police and other stakeholders

The nature of incidents is that they happen unexpectedly and, although they can be very minor, have a very large impact on the road network with effects that are difficult to deal with. 

We will need to develop processes that identify incidents and deal with them promptly and efficiently including the use of up-to-date data and traffic models from which predictions can be made as to the likely impact of various incidents on the network.  The predictions can be used in the setting of contingency plans for various scenarios.

Common requirements of an incident management system are:

• Normal day-to-day management; and,
• Contingency planning for accidents and regular events.

A key component in dealing with incidents is procedures put in place with the Police who will be the lead agency.  We need to support the Police in the management of the incident and the effect the incident has on the road network.  In order that robust procedures are put into place a multi-agency workshop has taken place with a view to preparing generic procedures for dealing with different types of incidents on different parts of the road network.  It has been agreed that all authorities within the decision-making process will use these.

Bus operators

We need to work more closely with the bus operators in order to help public transport operate more easily, thereby relieving congestion by maximising the use of the existing network.  It is the intention of this authority to have entered into a Bus Punctuality Improvement Partnership with all the operators by the end of December 2006.  The basis on which these partnerships will work is one of encouraging a participative joint approach to the identification of problems and solutions.  The partnership will have a shared objective to achieve measurable improvements in bus punctuality, along with a willingness to use the findings to identify methods of improving the delivery of bus services.  Key to this will be the predictability of journey times.  Within the partnership there will be a methodology for each party to measure performance and set targets for improvements.

Monitoring, Targets and Indicators

The Network Management Duty Strategy has identified a number of desired outcomes that will need to be monitored.  The monitoring will be an important part of the management and control process.  Progress against the desired actions and standards will be reviewed on a regular basis to make certain that action plans contained within the strategy are achieving the desired outcomes.

Identify locations where regular congestion occurs

An initial assessment has been made of the locations where traffic congestion occurs using the existing urban journey time data, the interrogation of speed monitoring sites and the accident database. This initial assessment is for both the AM and PM peak periods.  A consultation will be undertaken with stakeholders to ensure the accuracy of the assessment.  This will be reviewed annually.

When proposed changes to the New Roads and Streetworks Act 1991, have been introduced and for co-ordination purposes, all highway works will be a registerable activity and it will be necessary to ensure parity between works undertaken by a utility and those by the highway authority.  The way to achieve fair comparison is to develop Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure local highway authority performance.  This will be integral to the local traffic authority meeting its obligations under the Network Management Duty.

This authority currently has a system that records most works that are carried out within the highway, this system is to be developed further such that all highway works will be notified via an EtoN interface.  Once that is achieved, performance could be measured under shadow control arrangements. We intend to carry out monitoring under the following headings:

- Proportion of those works that did not require notice variation;

- Proportion of those works that complied with notice information;

- Proportion of those works which were subject to Fixed Penalty Notices, and which type of notice failure led to FPN; and,

- Proportion of those works that were subject to s.74 charges for prolonged occupation of the highway, and the average level of charge by category of work.

The performance of the Network Management Duty Strategy will contribute towards targets that have been set in other areas of the LTP as follows:

Bus passenger journeys - to increase the number of bus passenger journeys by 5%;

Bus satisfaction - to increase satisfaction levels for all bus services by 8%;

Bus punctuality - 90% of bus services to operate no more than 1 minute before or more than 5 minutes later than the times specified in the registered timetable;

Cycling - to achieve the same number of journeys undertaken by cycle in 2004; and,

Air Quality - to reduce the number of exceedances of the National Air Quality Standards in Warwickshire between 2005 and 2010.