A ‘Low Traffic Zone’ has come into force this weeks in Salisbury, Wiltshire. as part of the city’s People Friendly Streets initiative.
The project is aiming to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists by reducing the amount of cars able to pass through. Eight streets will now be closed to non-permitted vehicles and bus gates are going to be installed which will stop unauthorised vehicles travelling through the city, while the left hand turn from Chipper Lane onto Castle Street will also be stopped.
Anyone without a permit that enters the LTZ will be issued with a Penalty Charge Notice.
Wiltshire Council said that In addition to using existing sensors, it will make use of the advanced monitoring technology provided by Vivacity Labs to monitor traffic flows and movements on the A36. This will enable the council to monitor impacts on the A36 effectively in real-time and through the agreed contingency plan, make any appropriate and phased changes to the scheme, which can then be further monitored.”
Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Waste, at Wiltshire Council told Greatest Hits Radio: “We want to make the city a more attractive place to live, work, visit and shop. I think Salisbury has had a very tough time over the last couple of years and we really want to help the city recover from that and so trying to find inspiration to encourage more businesses to make it a much more attractive place to visit must all be good for the city centre.
“Part of the idea is that we want to encourage people who do go into the city centre to walk or cycle and I’ve heard people say that they can’t go shopping and you’ve got to use your car to do that, yes that’s absolutely true but not everybody has to do a large load of shopping every day of the week so obviously there are occasions when you’ll need to use a car but if there are other occasions when you can walk or cycle into the city then why not do that instead.”
The zone is going to be fully monitored for 18 months with 47 sensors providing anonymous data on vehicle and pedestrian movements.
