The objective of the Congestion section of West Yorkshire’s Local Transport Plan 2006-11 is to reduce delays to the movement of people and goods by improving journey time reliability and reducing the demand for travel by car.
This is done by encouraging more journeys by public transport, walking and cycling and by making better use of highway capacity e.g. through the use of bus lanes, High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes and Urban Traffic Management and Control methods.
What is Congestion?
Congestion arises mainly from greater demands on the transport system than it can cope with. Economic growth and prosperity is leading to more journeys, of a greater average length, which result in increased car use together with increased congestion.
There are many definitions of congestion. For the plan, it is considered that a length of road is congested when the average speed of traffic is less than 70% of the prevailing speed limit. Using information obtained from vehicles fitted with global positioning devices and local knowledge specific locations on the highway network where congestion occurs have been idenfiied.
Congestion Target Delivery Plan
The Urban Congestion Target Delivery Plan (UCTDP) was drawn up as part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Public Service Agreement (PSA) Target on reducing congestion. The plan sets out the action being followed across West Yorkshire to tackle congestion.
The delivery of the plan itself focuses on 13 specifically chosen routes across the region. These are monitored as part of the West Yorkshire element of the PSA target.
Although the delivery plan does not cover all action taking place across West Yorkshire in relation to tackling congestion, work is being under taken on other parts of the road network where congestion occurs.
The UCTDP was recently updated as part of the monitoring of the 13 congestion routes. As part of the process of updating it was decided by those involved in the LTP partnership to turn the plan into an electronic document that would be made available via the West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan Website. The purpose of which is to ensure the plan is up dated on a regular basis and is more readily available.
Follow the links below to view the most recently updated UCTDP (February 2010) and to view the Person Journey Time and Throughput trajectories for all 13 routes:
Downland Urban Congestion Target Delivery Plan
Download route Person Journey Time and Throughput Trajectories
Congestion Partnerships
A Congestion Partnership currently exists between Metro and the five local authorities within West Yorkshire. The partners have complementary roles to play and jointly manage programmes of interventions and coordinate activities.
Although the partners have main responsibilities and communication routes appropriate for tackling congestion there are more frequent ad-hoc communications between officers of all levels.
To view the Partnership roles and communications please follow the link below:
Partnership roles and communications (27kb pdf)
