FAQ3. Local roads
FAQ 3. Local roads
What will be the effects on Victoria Park Road and Clarendon Park Road?
What LCC says:
We expect to see some limited redistribution of traffic from residential roads in Clarendon Park onto Victoria Park Road. There is predicted to be a reduction of 200 cars in the morning peak hour on Clarendon Park Road (approximately three less per minute) and an increase of 100 cars on Victoria Park Road (almost two more per minute).
In the afternoon peak period Clarendon Park Road is expected to reduce by 50 vehicles (one per minute) with no increase on Victoria Park Road. This will complement Clarendon Park’s status as a destination, not a through route.
What we say:
A main purpose of this scheme is to create a link road which connects the eastern and western areas of the city using Victoria Park Road as the main connecting road. The main aim therefore is not to cater for local traffic but to attract additional through traffic. It is nonsense to say this scheme complements Clarendon Park as a destination. It does the opposite. Therefore we say the Council is wrong in expecting fewer cars through Clarendon Park Road, and the increase in numbers on Victoria Park Road is likely to be greater. We also say there will be an increase in rat-running through other roads in our area. Read on to see our detailed argument.
It is difficult for us to comment on the specific numbers provided in these examples as we have not had access to the traffic modelling data. We have asked to see it and are waiting for a response. However it is important to recognise that all the traffic data available to the council for this scheme is limited to one morning peak hour, and one evening peak hour. They have not modelled beyond those two hours and cannot say what the traffic impact will be over a whole day, for example. But you can be sure it will be many times greater than for one hour. Moreover, anyone who lives in this area knows there are vast differences in traffic flow and traffic patterns within school terms, and outside of them. We don’t know, and we suspect the council doesn’t either, whether these figures refer to in term or out of term. We have other reasons to doubt the accuracy of the traffic forecasts which we explain in detail elsewhere.
Looking at the actual figures and the claim that they represent traffic choosing to go via Victoria Park Road rather than Clarendon Park Road we find it difficult to understand how in the morning 200 cars choose to divert from Clarendon Park Road to Victoria Park Road but only 100 actually get there, and in the evening 50 cars divert but none of them make it. These vehicles don’t just disappear, they go by other routes, and the most likely explanation is the missing vehicles show increased rat-running through the smaller roads in Clarendon Park.
Leaving aside the actual figures, we have doubts about the credibility of these claims based on detailed knowledge of how traffic uses Clarendon Park. Traffic using Clarendon Park Road, and also Avenue Road, is doing for two reasons. First, partly to avoid existing congestion on London Road leading up to the Mayfield Road roundabout and on Victoria Park Road itself, and second because it is the best route to their destination.
In terms of congestion avoidance, we find it hard to believe that the new link road will lead to increased traffic diverting from Clarendon Park Road or Avenue Road in order to use Victoria Park Road (which they are already trying to avoid) when the new link road will be making both Victoria Park Road and the Mayfield Road roundabout even busier than they are now – and both are heavily congested at the peak times for which the council did its modelling. These would be longer and slower journeys.
The reverse of what the council claim is the more likely outcome with additional traffic cutting through Clarendon Park to avoid the increased congestion caused by the new link. On this basis alone the council claims do not make sense. They make even less sense when routes and destinations are brought into the picture.
Traffic on London Road wanting to go westbound currently cuts across at Knighton Road to Knighton Lane East and beyond, or Avenue Road or more often Clarendon Park Road. This is to access Knighton Fields Road West (often via Oakland Road) and the outer parts of Saffron Lane, Aylestone Road, or further across to Narborough Road. We can see no reason why traffic would choose to drive considerably further inbound on London Road to then use Victoria Park Road and the new link road in order then to drive outbound again to reach their destination – it adds considerably to the distance and on some of the already most congested routes in the area. It is important to note that the new link road junction is nearly a kilometre from any destination area on either Saffron Lane or Aylestone Road.
The only route for which the new link road creates any advantage is for Westbound traffic entering Victoria Park Road from the East along Evington Park Road through Mayfield Road. This is already a peak orbital traffic flow for through traffic using Mayfield Road and Victoria Park Road to go West. This is the most likely source of additional traffic, which will be through traffic, not local, and it will increase congestion at Mayfield Road, and along the length of Victoria Park Road.
The overall impact then will be quite different from that claimed by the council. Through traffic will increase along Victoria Park Road. The additional traffic and associated congestion and delays will displace more traffic through Clarendon Park, not less. It will not enhance Clarendon Park as a destination, it will drive more traffic through the connecting roads and side roads of the area.
