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Public report
Cabinet Member Report
Cabinet Member for Public Services
23 April 2015
Name of Cabinet Member:
Cabinet Member for Public Services Councillor Lancaster
Director Approving Submission of the report:
Executive Director of Place
Ward(s) affected:
Bablake/Holbrook
Title:
Petition – Request for Traffic Calming and a Pedestrian Crossing on Beake Avenue
Is this a key decision?
No
Executive Summary:
A petition has been presented by Councillor Birdi with 104 signatures that is asking for a
pedestrian crossing and other traffic control measures to curtail the speed of traffic along Beake
Avenue. In accordance with the City Council's procedure for dealing with petitions, those relating
to road safety and parking restrictions are heard by the Cabinet Member for Public Services.
The cost of introducing traffic calming or a crossing facility is usually funded from the
Transportation and Highway Maintenance Capital Programme budget through the Local
Transport Plan block settlement.
Recommendations:
The Cabinet Member for Public Services is recommended to:
i)
ii)
iii)
Note the concerns of the petitioners;
Endorse the addition of Beake Avenue on the perceived safety scheme and for inclusion
in a future year’s Transportation and Highway Maintenance Capital Programme;
To support endeavours to introduce Community Speed Watch along Beake Avenue in
collaboration with West Midlands Police.
List of Appendices included:
Appendix A – location Plan
Other useful background papers:
Cabinet, March 2015 – 2015/16 Transportation and Maintenance Capital Programme
Has it been or will it be considered by Scrutiny?
No
Has it been or will it be considered by any other Council Committee, Advisory Panel or
other body?
No
Will this report go to Council?
No
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Report title:
Petition – Request for Traffic Calming and a Pedestrian Crossing on Beake Avenue
1
1.1
Context (or background)
A petition with 104 signatures has been presented by Councillor Birdi requesting that:
Beake Avenue recently has had a fatal accident and also Beake Avenue being a road
providing access to north on the city, majority of the motorists travel at excessive speed, thus
becoming a health and hazard to pedestrians who are of school age, mothers and toddlers
and disable.
The citizens mentioned above cross the road regularly for different reasons and one prime
reason is that the elderly living either side of Beake Avenue cross the road to catch the buses
travelling to and from the City. There is new housing development going up along Beake
Avenue which will compound the traffic flows. Therefore we the petitioners request the city
council to investigate the traffic concerns and if needed be provide a pedestrian crossing and
also introduce traffic control measures to mitigate the speed at which motorists drive their
cars.
1.2
Beake Avenue is located on the western fringe of Coventry providing an important link
between the, B4098 Radford Road and Parkville Highway in a North/South direction. It acts
as a local distributor road and is predominantly fronted by residential properties. There are
a small number of recent developments, two nearby schools, some shops in close
proximity of the geographic area of the study area represented by the signatures. This
area is highlighted in Appendix A .
2
2.1
Options considered and recommended proposal
To assess the need for traffic calming and formalised pedestrian crossing facilities such as
Zebras and Pelicans, several factors are taken into account in order to establish what type
of intervention would be appropriate at individual locations. These are:
 Pedestrian flow
 Volume of traffic
 Speed of traffic
 Speed limit
 Personal injury accident record
 Site characteristics, e.g. footway width, road width, proximity to junctions, visibility.
2.2
There is a national criteria used for means of assessing the need for a formal pedestrian
crossing facility. The criteria is called PV2 test which analyses justification for a crossing
facility based on the numbers of vehicles and pedestrians using a road.
2.3
The petitioners have raised concerns about the speed of traffic and refer to recent accident
records. An analysis of accidents records of the study area shows three injury accidents in
the previous three years that occurred at various locations along the section of Beake
Avenue shown in Appendix A.
2.4
The records also show that of those three accidents there was one serious injury collision
involving a pedestrian (child) who was accompanied by a parent. The circumstance of the
accident in the Police report indicates that a controlled crossing facility would not have
prevented that incident.
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2.5
To put this into perspective in terms of priorities, there are many sites in the City with
greater recorded personal injury accidents in the last three years on roads similar to Beake
Avenue. Three years being the minimum accounting period for road safety studies.
2.6
A pedestrian count survey took place on two consecutive days during the week
commencing 23 February 2015 to establish the numbers and locations of pedestrians
crossing the road. The survey was carried out between 7.00 am to 7.00 pm over the length
of carriageway identified by the petition and this was divided into nine separate zones.
Pedestrian numbers were recorded in each zone for the 12 hour period. This helped
identify the busiest crossing point.
The greatest number of pedestrians were found to cross in the zone closest to the junction
with Rylston Avenue during the periods identified below.
AM
PM
(08:00-12:00)
(13:.00-17:00)
ZONE
Thurs 26th Feb 2015
Thurs 26th Feb 2015
67 (Adults)
55 (Adults)
ZONE closest to
1 (11-17 year olds)
10 (11-17 year olds)
Rylston Avenue
18 (5-11 year olds
15 (5-11 year olds
accompanied)
accompanied)
8 (unaccompanied)
0 (unaccompanied)
0 (Cyclist)
1 (Cyclist)
2.7
The pedestrian survey identified that the highest demand for assisted crossing is near
Rylston Avenue during morning and afternoon school peaks. This section of Beake Avenue
includes the provision of School Crossing Patrol for Whitmore Park Primary School
2.8
The results of the traffic volume and speed survey at the above location indicate that
speeds are not unusually high for a road of this nature with a 30mph speed limit. It is
considered that the majority of users are regular users and the results of the traffic survey
show that traffic speeds are appropriate for a road of this type with the 30mph speed limit.
Having said that overall, it could be considered that residents perceive high vehicle speeds
along this section of Beake Avenue. The actual speeds and vehicle flows recorded during
a recent survey carried out in March 2015 are shown below.
Vehicle speeds (mph)
Speed limit
85th percentile
Speed
Mean Speed
Traffic Count
Northbound
30
33.2
28.5
5121
Southbound
30
33.9
29.0
Summary
07:00 to 19:00
2.9
5500
The calculations in accordance with national guidance indicated that a controlled
pedestrian crossing is not justified on this location but a pedestrian refuge or other such a
measure is.
2.10 This section of Beake Avenue does not meet the criteria for a controlled pedestrian
crossing or inclusion in the local safety schemes programme of works. However, the
assessment above recognises that the pedestrian activity at the location North of Rylston
Avenue is large enough to justify the inclusion of Beake Avenue on the Perceived Safety
Scheme list subject to availability of funding.
3
3.1
Results of Consultation Undertaken
No consultation has been carried out but all the appropriate wards will be consulted should
a scheme be prioritised for implementation.
4
4
Timetable for implementing this decision
4.1
If the recommendation is approved to introduce a Perceived Safety Scheme will be
implemented from a future year’s Transportation and Highway Maintenance Capital
Programme, subject to confirmation of available funding and the outcome of the
consultation.
5
5.1
Comments from Executive Director of Resources
Financial implications
The cost of carrying out a traffic and pedestrian survey was approximately £900 and has
been funded from the approved Vulnerable Users budget in the 2014/15 Transportation
and Highway Maintenance Capital Programme.
If a decision is made to adopt the recommendations, the cost of detailed design,
consultation and construction and the necessary signing or road markings will be met from
future year’s Transportation and Highway Maintenance Capital Programme.
The
scheduling of works will be based on the outcome of the consultation and the availability of
funding.
5.2
Legal implications
Under s.39 Road Traffic Act 1988 the Council investigates all road accidents involving
vehicles and bring forward a prioritised scheme of measures for preventing their
recurrence. The Council has a range of highway improvement and traffic management
powers available to it consistent with Department for Transport regulations/guidance.
Any other additional features or realignment of the highway (not involving road humps or
traffic-calming) can be introduced using general traffic management/highway improvement
powers.
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6.1
Other implications
How will this contribute to achievement of the Council's key objectives / corporate
priorities (corporate plan/scorecard) / organisational blueprint / Local Area
Agreement (or Coventry Sustainable Community Strategy)?
The implementation of traffic management measures schemes would contribute to the City
Council’s objectives of:
A safer and more confident Coventry- By the provision of traffic management measures
that contributes to making places safer and local services easily accessible.
Making Coventry’s streets, neighbourhoods, parks and open spaces attractive and
enjoyable places to be - by introducing the measures highlighted in Para 2.14 would bring
about a downward influence on speeds of traffic and contribute to the City Council’s aims of
making Coventry an attractive and enjoyable place whilst ensuring that children and young
people are safe. It also contributes towards improving the environment and tackling climate
change.
6.2
How is risk being managed?
The location of the pedestrian dropped kerbs and other traffic management measures will
be assessed for effectiveness and will be included as part of future road safety studies.
5
6.3
What is the impact on the organisation?
None
6.4
Equalities / EIA
No specific equalities impact assessment has been carried out. However, the introduction
of traffic management measures will have a positive impact on residents, especially young
people and the elderly who ought to feel safer as pedestrians using the roads. However,
the introduction of the measures would have a positive impact on vulnerable pedestrians
like wheelchair users and pedestrians with pushchairs/prams.
6.5
Implications for (or impact on) the environment
None
6.6
Implications for partner organisations?
None
Report author(s)
Name and job title:
Mohammad Shafie, Manager Road Safety and Traffic Management
Directorate:
Place
Tel and email contact:
024 7683 1632, [email protected]
Enquiries should be directed to the above person.
Contributor/approver
name
Contributors:
Colin Knight
Paul Boulton
Jas Bilen
Liz Knight
Title
Directorate or
organisation
Date doc
sent out
Date response
received or
approved
Assistant Director
(Planning, Transport
and Highways)
Head of Traffic and
Transportation
HR Manager
Governance
Services Officer
Place
07/04/15
10/04/15
Place
07/04/15
14/04/15
Resources
Resources
07/04/15
07/04/15
08/04/15
08/04/15
Lead Accountant
Senior Solicitor
Cabinet Member
(Public Services)
Resources
Resources
07/04/15
07/04/15
07/04/15
08/04/15
08/04/15
09/04/15
Other members
Names of approvers:
(officers and members)
Finance: Graham Clark
Legal: Mark Smith
Other members: Cllr
Lancaster
This report is published on the council's website:
www.coventry.gov.uk/meetings
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APPENDIX A – LOCATION PLAN
Section of Beake Avenue relating to the Study
Licence- OpenStreetMap data is licenced under the Open Data Commons Open Database Licence (ODbL).
For more information visit: http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/summary/
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