Road Traffic: Urban Areas
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps she has taken to help reduce congestion on urban road networks.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
Traffic management is the responsibility of the relevant traffic authority. Through the Traffic Management Act 2004 they are subject to the statutory Network Management Duty. This requires them to manage their roads to secure the ‘expeditious movement’ of all traffic, with a view to reducing congestion. They have a wide range of traffic management tools already available to them to fulfil this duty and are best placed to make decisions locally about which actions to take.
The Department supports measures to minimise disruption from roadworks, including lane rental schemes. These allow authorities to charge those carrying out works on the busiest roads at the most congested times, incentivising better planning, shorter and more efficient works, and greater coordination. Lane rental has been successfully implemented by a number of authorities and is helping to cut the duration and impact of works on key routes.
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