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Briefing paper No 1Mitigation of Road Traffic Impacts
This briefing paper considers the actions available to mitigate the impact of traffic arising from the proposals in the MRS. The paper considers the reasons for a trend of increasing road traffic involved with the management of material resources and the range of measures that are available to Local Planning Authorities, Highway Authorities and developers to mitigate, regulate and control any adverse environmental impacts arising from the different types of facilities involved with material management.
As the economy grows and living standards rise, there is a trend of increasing consumption of material resources together with a rise in the associated waste. At the same time, economic pressures have resulted in larger and heavier vehicles being used to transport these ever increasing quantities of materials. In parallel with the above, the distances involved in transporting material resources have increased. New laws and regulations introduced over the last 20 years to protect the environment has resulted in the closure of many small local minerals and waste management facilities as a result of them being unsuitable for upgrading or rendered uneconomic by the cost of so doing. As a result, there has been a need to transfer materials further for processing and/or disposal. In addition, the increased focus on recycling for sustainability reasons has also increased the need for transportation. This is because of the need to feed recycled materials back into raw-material chains, which in the case of materials such as paper, glass and metals, involves a global market-place. There are only a handful of reprocessing plants in the UK for these materials and very few of them are in the South of England. The combined impact of the above factors has been a trend of increasing traffic, much of it heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), associated with the movement of material resources. However, this has to be balanced against the very significant environmental benefits from better waste management practices. For example, new European Directives on Landfill and Incineration will, when fully implemented throughout Europe, halve the environmental impacts from waste. As part of the work on the Hampshire Material Resources Strategy, consideration is being given to opportunities for minimising the need for transferring materials by establishing resource recovery parks where a range of different but related activities are co-located on the same site. The industry itself is also seeking to reduce traffic (and hence costs) by using empty vehicles on return journeys to reduce vehicle movements Road traffic, particularly heavy goods vehicles, associated with transporting material resources can have an adverse impact on the environment and on the quality of life of local communities. This paper considers options for avoiding adverse impacts from road traffic and , where it is unavoidable, the options that are available to reduce them to more acceptable levels.
MRS Activities giving rise to Traffic Traffic arises from a range of different facilities and activities associated with minerals and waste management. The range of facilities covered by the MRS includes:
Sorting / Separation Facilities e.g. MRFs, resource recovery parks, storage sites, WEEE sites, End of life Vehicle sites.
The overall aim should be to avoid the problem of traffic as far as that it practicable. This can be achieved in a number of ways. Alternative Modes of Transport Rail and water transport are potential alternatives to road transport. In practice, however, these modes do have practical limitations on operational and cost grounds. By nature, material resource management activities involve a large element of scattered collections/deliveries across Portsmouth, Southampton and the rest of Hampshire. Road transport in the only feasible option for many of these activities. Rail and water transport is most suited to specific ‘one-off’ situations (e.g. between two existing rail/water transport links) or where large amounts of material have to be transported relatively long distances between two single points. Current examples in Hampshire include:
In these situations HGVs are reduced, not eliminated, as they are still required for local deliveries from and to the local depots. There is potential for rail and water transport to play a more significant role as recycling increases and there is the need to transport materials to distant markets. It will be important in future to try and ensure that reprocessing plants that are reliant on such outlets are located so as to give access to existing rail and water networks. In general the powers of local authorities to require alternative modes of transport are very limited, particularly where road transport is judged to be acceptable in traffic and environmental terms. In such circumstances the case for using rail or water needs to be an economic one, so that operators choose these modes as part of their normal business planning processes. Fleet Issues Traffic problems can be minimised by the way operators manage their transport fleets. This is not so much a regulatory issue, but one of operators being good neighbours in the community and seeking to mitigate any adverse impacts of their activities (this is often referred to as corporate social responsibility). As noted in the Introduction, the use of ‘back loads’ to utilise empty vehicles on return journeys is already used by vehicle operators to reduce vehicle movements. Another fleet measure that can be taken to reduce impacts in certain circumstances is the use of smaller vehicles, although this may increase overall vehicle numbers and is often not be feasible for economic reasons. A number of alternative fuels are advocated for use in road vehicles on the grounds that they reduce produce less pollution compared to petrol or diesel. As with petrol and diesel, such fuels frequently have both advantages and disadvantages in pollution terms. The advice from the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution is that "there is no optimum fuel in environmental terms, and the choice depends on which problem is the priority at a particular time or place". The UK Round Table on Sustainable Development have reported that there are environmental advantages in using compressed natural gas as an alternative to diesel for relatively large vehicles that make frequent stops in urban areas. Refuse collection vehicles and road sweepers fall into this category. Proximity issues – location of facilities A key issue is to ensure facilities are located as far as practicable to minimise the need for transportation of materials. This can be done by locating facilities close to the areas they serve and co-location of different but related facilities on the same site (these are often referred to a resource recovery or eco parks). However, ‘proximity’ is just one of a range of considerations that has to be taken in account on deciding on numbers and locations of facilities. The others include availability of supply (e.g. minerals can only be won where they occur), availability of sites that satisfy the relevant selection criteria and economics. With regard to the latter issue, material resources management raises issues not unlike those involved with other economic sectors – activities must be organised in such a way as to be competitive in the market place if they are to be sustainable. As has happened with commerce and industry generally, this is tending to lead to fewer, larger minerals and waste management facilities. Perhaps the most important ‘proximity’ issue in traffic terms is the location of the facility in relation to the surrounding road network and local communities. In an ideal situation, the facility would have close access to the main road network to enable generated traffic to arrive at and leave the site with little impact on the surrounding areas compared with the high levels of traffic already using the road. In a worst case scenario, access to the facility would be via narrow country lanes with only one practical means of travelling to and from the main road network via a local village community. In most cases, the situation will be somewhere between these two extremes and varying levels of traffic management and control may be desirable in order to overcome some of the worst effects.
Control through the Planning System The purpose of the planning system is to protect amenity and the environment in the public interest. Within the framework of legislation and regulations, local planning authorities try to ensure that development is allowed where it is needed while ensuring that the character and amenity of the area are not adversely affected by the development. Planning permission is required for any development of land subject to certain provisos. In deciding whether to grant planning permission, local planning authorities must refer to the provisions of the development plan and to all other material considerations. Local Planning Authorities have to consult highway authorities on planning applications. Local Planning authorities should consider the impact of travel demand of all new development. A Transport Impact Assessment will enable the authorities to reach a view on the likely impact of the development proposals on traffic flows in the vicinity. Highway safety and standards of access design are also considered. In every case where a proposal for development is not acceptable, the local planning authority must state precisely the full reasons for refusal. Applicants can appeal to the relevant Secretary of State against the decision. Local Planning Authorities can impose conditions to limit or regulate the development. Authority is given by Section 70 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Any conditions can only be imposed where they are necessary, relevant, enforceable, precise and reasonable. Local Planning Authorities can impose conditions that the development cannot be commenced or occupied until certain highway works are carried out. This may be away from the site and on highway land. Developers may be required by agreement to pay for improvements to deal with existing deficiencies in the road system which would be made worse by the development.
Specific Traffic Control Measures There are a range of traffic control measures that local Highway Authorities can apply if circumstances warrant them, either as part of the planning consent process or separately. Traffic Regulation Orders Where, in the interests of road safety or local amenity, it is necessary to limit or control the movement of traffic, local Highway Authorities are empowered by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to make appropriate Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs). These require full statutory procedures to be followed, including consultation, the issuing of Public Notices of the intention to introduce a specific Order and the formal determination of any objections received. Once the Order is made and the requisite mandatory signing has been erected on the highway, the police are then able to undertake enforcement action when appropriate. Signing and Lining The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 define the full range of signs that local Highway Authorities are authorised to use on the public highway. The regulations not only contain the mandatory signing referred to above but also the permitted warning and direction signing that can be employed without a TRO. In cases where it is determined that some traffic management is required without the need to resort to full control measures, these signs can be used to warn of potential dangers or to advise on the most appropriate route to follow. Limiting Road Traffic In relation to the management and control of traffic generated by materials facilities, particularly HGVs, there are a number of options available to Local Authorities. With regard to the operators at the site itself, local routing agreements can be secured as part of the planning process. This is undertaken in order to try and ensure that generated traffic approaches and leaves the site by the most appropriate route or routes, so as to make the best and safest use of the local roads on the way to and from the main road network without undue environmental impact on local communities. For more general traffic, direction signs can be usefully employed to persuade and advise drivers of the local routing strategy and to reinforce the agreements outlined above. In appropriate cases, a range of ‘white on black’ HGV signing is prescribed for use in advising all lorry traffic of the route to follow. In cases where, for specific highway, structural or environmental reasons, it is necessary to control traffic and to back this up with police enforcement, TROs can be used which are specifically targeted at the potential problem areas. Thus weight limits can be applied and signed at weak bridges, statutory height limits can be applied at low bridges where bridge strikes are a possibility, 7.5 tonne weight limits can be applied over an area to limit the impact of HGVs in sensitive environmental locations, width limits can be applied for similar reasons and so on. In addition, the normal range of speed limits, banned turns, prohibition of driving and local waiting and loading restrictions can be used to control more general traffic. Management of HGVs The range of methods available for managing HGV movements in particular are referred to above as part of the more general considerations for limiting road traffic, but 7.5 tonne environmental weight limits are a fairly common technique for managing HGVs in an area and therefore deserve special attention. Such weight limits can be applied on an individual road or more generally in a defined area containing a network of roads, but a determining factor is often the suitability of the surrounding road network in accepting the displaced HGV traffic. Weight limits on individual roads can be used to force HGV traffic to use the most suitable access route, whereas area limits are mostly used to prevent unsuitable movements on narrow country lanes. Environmental weight limits always contain an exemption for local access and Hampshire County Council policy is that there should normally be at least 20 HGV trips by through vehicles per day in order to justify consideration for such a measure. Weight limits are not self enforcing and present the Police with a particular enforcement difficulty so early consultation on any proposal is essential. Influencing Vehicle Speed Road layout and width, forward visibility and the general state of maintenance are the most important factors in determining drivers choice of speed on any individual stretch of road. Speed limits applied nationally depending on road status, single or dual carriageways and vehicle type form a framework of speed control, within which local Highway Authorities are empowered to introduce lower levels of speed limit from 20 to 60 mph depending on the circumstances. A well managed road network will exhibit a range of limits which drivers should generally recognise as being appropriate for the conditions and will therefore be largely self enforcing. Vehicle speeds are therefore influenced primarily by the road environment but also by the sensible application of appropriate limits and associated signing and carriageway markings. In situations where speeds should ideally be slower than the road environment dictates, the application of a lower speed limit alone will not usually be sufficient to influence actual speeds. In such cases, traffic calming of varying severity can be employed to alter the appearance of the road to the driver and hence bring about a slower speed regime. Traffic calming techniques vary from humps and chicanes at one extreme to gateways and visual narrowings at the other, but each scheme is individually tailored to the local conditions, the traffic mix and the desired speed regime. Thus traffic calming schemes need to cater for all vehicles as part of general speed control but need to take into account the particular requirements of local generators such as HGV operators and the like. Mitigation through Facility Design Traffic impacts such as site access, noise and litter can be controlled by careful attention to facility layouts and design. Measures to be considered include detailed design of entry/exits, locating loading and unloading operations within buildings and landscaping measures to reduce noise. The latter measure can also have the advantages in nature conservation terms. |
MRS Activities Giving Rise to Traffic Specific Traffic Control Measures Mitigation Through Facility Design
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