Road traffic management can be an important issue in many situations and industries. However, it is also something that doesn’t get considered enough during planning or preparation.
A good road traffic management system is essential for making sure your event or construction site doesn’t cause congestion on the surrounding roads and doesn’t cause unnecessary danger to local communities or attendees.
If any issues arise from bad traffic management and it can be proven that you are to blame, then you can be held liable. This could prove very costly or even lead to prosecution, depending on the situation.
Here are some ways for you to address the problems you may face and to put in place an effective road traffic management system.
You can’t protect against risks unless you know what they are. So familiarising yourself with any potential issues or dangers is crucial.
Basically, where there are crowds or cars, there are lots of risks. When these things are present together, these risks are multiplied many times over. People coming to an event may be excited, trying to beat the crowds, or have overly-zealous children in the car. All these things can further exasperate the situation. Likewise, construction workers may be tired from long shifts and commuters caught up in the traffic may be keen to get to work. You need to make all of their journeys as easy as possible.
Look at the area around your site. What roads are busiest, when do they get busy, and how can you avoid adding to this congestion? Where are accidents or bottlenecks likely to occur, and what traffic management systems can you put in place to mitigate them?
Look for other dangerous areas too. For instance, if your site needs to be visited by coaches and there’s a low bridge on a particular road, this is obviously not an appropriate route to choose. If you have HGVs coming and going from your site, a road with a weak bridge is not a viable option.
When vehicles get to your site, how will you direct them to the parking areas and prevent congestion? Do you need volunteers to help with this?
All these issues need to be considered, but this isn’t an exclusive list. Research thoroughly and plan carefully
If you are going to be generating a lot of traffic or having a lot of people turning up in one area, then you need to know what the law expects of you. Familiarise yourself with all legal requirements and make sure you can comply with all of them.
Traffic management plans can be complex and difficult to create. However, they are vital for any live event – even ones that aren’t that big. They are also crucial for certain construction and roadwork sites, particularly if they are going to interfere with traffic flow in any way.
Use a road traffic management system to work out how traffic will arrive at your site and how it will leave. Make sure this traffic can easily enter the designated parking areas and that specialist equipment is in place to avoid congestion or pedestrian conflicts. Make sure local emergency services are notified of your plans so that they can control traffic where needed.
If many people are driving to your site, make sure they can easily park and that traffic management systems are in place to direct people correctly. Use signs to clearly label what drivers are supposed to do so that they can’t make any mistakes.
As you can see from this brief overview of road traffic management, there is a lot to consider. We are experts at creating a road traffic management system to meet your needs. Please get in touch and we will happily help.
