Transport Safety Policy - Worcestershire County Council

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2.4.6 The Manual for Streets was produced in response to the Governments desire to promoteresidential developments which create more people-orientated streets. Our aim, through theManual, is to reduce the dominance of motor vehicles in residential street design by assigning ahigher priority to the needs of pedestrians and cyclists.2.4.7 A key aim of residential street design should be to naturally encourage low traffic speeds, ideallywithout having to rely on vertical or horizontal deflection measures. The design speed shouldnormally be a maximum of 20 mph. On quieter streets it may be acceptable to omit signs andmarkings indicating priority at junctions. Staggered junctions, compared with crossroads, canreduce vehicle conflict but may reduce directness for pedestrians. Mini and compact roundaboutscan be suitable junctions in residential developments, but larger sizes are generally inappropriate.Junction spacing is usually determined by the size of the blocks of buildings. It tends to reduce asbuilding density and pedestrian activity increase.Worcestershire will consider the implementation of 20mph zones in residential areas, whereusers will gain benefit, using the following guidelines:It should be judged likely that, after engineering measures have been installed, the averagespeed will be 20 mph or less at representative sites in the zone, i.e. at individual features andat points between measures where speeds are expected to be highestThe emergency services must be consulted and their responses taken into account whendesigning a 20 mph zone. 20 mph zones are unlikely to be appropriate on the approaches tofire or ambulance stations or hospitals, where the casualty reductions to be expected fromlower speed may be outweighed by the delay to emergency service vehiclesEntrances to 20 mph zones should normally be at a junction so that drivers whosedestination is not within the 20 mph zone have an alternative route outside the zone.Entrances should be designed so as to give the appearance of passing through a ‘gateway’ toa more restricted area.2.4.8 Whilst 59% of the total road casualties in Worcestershire result from accidents on our urbannetwork, 52% of those either killed or seriously injured occur on the rural routes. What alsobecomes appreciably noticeable is the fact that two thirds of the killed or seriously injuredcasualties in rural locations result from collisions involving a young driver (17 to 24 yrs). Thispercentage rises to a high as 82% when considering fatally injured casualties only.
Worcestershire County Council will seek to achieve an acceptable balance between costs andbenefits, so that speed-management policies take account of environmental, economic andsocial effects as well as the reduction in casualties they may achieve.- In principle A & B class rural roads will have the national speedlimit outside built up areas.- In line with Circular01/2006 and Traffic Advisory Leaflet 1/04, where appropriate, a 30mph speed limit will bethe norm in rural communities. Rural communities being defined by the following criteriarelating to frontage development and distance:o 20 or more houses (on one or both sides of the road) AND a minimum length of 600metres.Should there be less than 20 houses, we may make, if appropriate, allowance for any other keybuildings, such as a church, shop or school. When considering the appropriateness of applying a30mph limit in a settlement that meets this broad definition for a rural communities, accountwill also be taken of:Existing measured traffic speedFrequency and severity of reported injury collisionsRelationship between density of residential units and length of road being assessedAdditional service functions such as village hall, schools, public houses, retail outlets,churches, healthcare centres and local businesses having three or more employees2.4.9 The users of powered two wheel vehicles experience particularly high risks of fatal and seriousinjury. The number of such injuries, despite reducing minimally in recent years, has seen very littleoverall change in both total casualties and those either killed and seriously injured. Accidentsinvolving motorcyclists are generally dispersed on the road network; therefore site specificengineering measures are rarely justified. Working with partners to direct education towards theseusers is therefore of high importance.2.4.10 The RIDE course introduced throughout the UK is aimed at offenders in one of the mostvulnerable groups, motorcyclists. The course is designed to create awareness of current ridingbehaviour and a positive responsible approach to prevent further unnecessary deaths and injuriesto motorcyclists and other road users. Worcestershire County Council acts as a service providerto deliver RIDE in partnership with West Mercia Police Authority (See Policy TS14).
Page 1: Worcestershire Local Transport Plan
Page 6 and 7: Table 1.1 - The Transport Safety Po
Page 8 and 9: 1.1.7 The target audience for this
Page 11 and 12: 2.1.1 The Worcestershire Transport
Page 13 and 14: 2.3.1 The Speed Management Strategy
Page 18 and 19: 2.4.11 A large number of site speci
Page 20 and 21: with trailers. Special consideratio
Page 22 and 23: 2.6.1 Speed remains a perpetual fac
Page 24 and 25: 2.7.4 The Road Safety Partnership h
Page 26 and 27: 2.7.7 A number of intervention sche
Page 28 and 29: To reduce thenumber of peopleslight
Page 30 and 31: Figure 3.2 - Projected Serious Inju

Transport Safety Policy - Worcestershire County Council

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