City of York adds more e-scooters to its year-long trial
There are now 250 e-scooters in use across York as part of a year-long e-scooter trial supported by operator TIER. Another 50 of them have been introduced this week as part of the Department for Transport-approved scheme renting an e-scooter in the city which costs users £1 to unlock and 15p per minute travelled. Andy […]
Smart motorways are safe ‘in most ways’ as, or safer than, conventional ones, but not in every way, says HE
Smart motorways are in ‘most ways’ safe as or safer than the conventional ones-but not in every way, according to Highways England. The organisation also said as part of its smart-motorways-stocktake-first-year-progress-report-2021, that converting parts of smart motorways back to a hard shoulder, would reduce their capacity by a quarter. “The resulting congestion on the motorways […]
Scottish parties promise 10% spending on active travel
Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives has promised a cycle network designed for communting, for every city in Scotland by the end of the next parliamentary term, if it gets intopower. Mr Ross said that 10% of the transport budget should be spent on active travel, in part down to the recognition of changes […]
Howard Robinson announced as new Chair of RSTA
Dr Howard Robinson, Managing Director of ASI Solutions, the leading provider of asphalt preservation around the globe, has become Chairman of the Road Surface Treatment Association (RSTA). He was handed the reins by outgoing Chair, Tom Foster from Foster Contracting as the senior officers of the RSTA for 2021-22 were appointed at a virtual AGM […]
Congleton link road opens to traffic
The £90m Congleton link road has now opened to traffic. The new highway joins the A534 Sandbach Road to the west and the A536 Macclesfield Road to the north, opening up connectivity and improving travel between Macclesfield, Congleton and the M6. It will release 20 hectares of new employment land with the potential to create 3,000 jobs by […]
EiB team walk 12.6 million steps to raise money for charity
The team at EiB, providers of specialist work-winning support to the highways and transport industry, has raised £1,600 for the Birmingham Children’s Hospital by walking 12.6 million steps as part of a strategic network challenge. The 6,238 miles walked by the team of 24, is equivalent to walking the full length of both Highways England’s […]
New insights into urban air pollution through novel road traffic and vehicle emission remote sensing data
Vivacity Labs has been working with Ricardo, a global engineering, environmental and strategic consultancy, and looks at how new types of traffic measurement data can be used with vehicle emission remote sensing data to better understand the contributions made by different vehicle types to urban NOx and NO2 emissions and concentrations. Read about why this was important and […]
Alun Griffiths wins Banwell Bypass contract
North Somerset Council has awarded Welsh-based contractor, Alun Griffiths, the design and build contract for the Banwell Bypass near Weston Super Mare. Plans are for the bypass to help with congestion problems on existing local roads in and around the village of Banwell in the county as well as boost the local community and businesses […]
North Somerset Council scraps plans to close some rural roads to traffic
North Somerset Council has cancelled plans to close some rural roads to traffic. Last month, as reported by Highways News, the council published an order to ban through traffic from a network of 34 lanes in some areas of the county. This was part of plans to provide space on these roads for cyclists and […]
Shapps asks ORR to confirm evidence for ‘relative safety’ of smart motorways
Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has asked the Office of Rail and Road to confirm the evidence base for the ‘relative safety’ of All Lane Running (ALR) motorways. The move comes after Mr Shapps spoke to the House of Commons yesterday following the publication of Highways England’s smart motorway stocktake first year progress report. The report […]