Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

Members were invited to declare, at this point in the meeting, any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor Merrett declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4 (Interim Report) as an honorary member of the Cyclists’ Touring Club and a member of Cycling England.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting held on 16 January 2008.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 16 January 2008 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the committee’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Wednesday 16 April 2008 at 5 pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

To consider an interim report on the Traffic Congestion Ad-hoc Scrutiny Review.

[Annex E to follow]

 Members considered a report, which detailed the background to the Traffic Congestion Scrutiny Review, set up with a remit to reduce present levels of traffic congestion in York together with ways of minimising the impact of the forecast traffic increase.

The Committee were reminded of the briefings and extensive consultation undertaken in relation to the objectives. Also the request to SMC for an extension of time and additional funding for a survey to ascertain resident’s views on the broad strategic options available to the city to tackle congestion.

Members also considered the following information:

• Plans relating to Annex F detailing by colour code, accidents relating to pedestrians, cycles and powered two wheelers, previously circulated;
• Plan showing the geographical distribution of car accidents displayed at the meeting;
• Briefing note: Contributions to Reducing Congestion Major Options, circulated at the meeting;
• Annex E surveys carried out as part of LTP1 and LTP2, circulated at the meeting.

Briefing Note on Traffic Congestion and Road Safety

Officers confirmed that the information used to produce the graphs, displayed in the report, was based on Police accident records.

General

• Surprise that there was such a close alignment between accidents rates and peak traffic flows;
• Relationship between congestion and accidents was less clear as congestion was difficult to measure/define without geographical analysis;
• Measures that may be chosen to relieve congestion may result in more accidents;

Powered Two Wheelers

• Further examination of this data required to ascertain the type of powered two wheelers involved, age of driver, experience, speed etc prior to any conclusions;

Cycle Accidents

• Appeared to be more cycle than pedestrian accidents;
• Plans showed accidents closely related to main road networks;

Pedestrians

• Confirmation that this information related to pedestrians who were involved in a collision with a car/cyclist including those reported on cycle tracks;
• Confirmation that a high number of pedestrian accidents go unreported;
• Noted that concentration of accidents are in the city centre with very few in residential areas;

Car Accidents

• Noted that policing was reduced after 1am leaving Officers covering larger areas;
• Premature for conclusions on car accident data, deeper analysis required eg age of driver, weather related etc. 
• Officers confirmation that a detailed investigation was undertaken each year of areas where 4 accidents had occurred in the previous 3 year period to try and ascertain a common cause but this was often difficult;
• Confirmation that there was liaison between the Police, North Yorkshire County Council, the Highways Agency and the City of York Council in relation to all roads in the area with preparation of long term strategies;
• Portsmouth’s proposed 20mph zone would only cover residential streets, with signage to ensure driver compliance, in an effort not to increase traffic calming measures. The anticipated cost was £½ m over the 2 year introduction period. This was not considered as a realistic option for York owing to the nature of York’s roads.
• Introduction of blanket measures would be difficult, further investigation of why accidents occurred eg junction visibility etc required, prior reduction measures being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.