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NEW: L&G admit traffic impacts will be nightmarish

Updated: Oct 26

As local residents we are convinced that the traffic generated by this development will be a complete nightmare. We all know how congested the Luton Road already is. Imagine how much worse this will get when as many as 1,200 cars flood onto it at peak times! We are also very concerned that narrow residential streets in the vicinity such as Cooters End Lane, Ambrose Lane and Tennyson Road will be unable to cope with the inevitable huge increase of traffic.


You might think these traffic problems are so obvious that L&G would provide robust and comprehensive traffic evidence to prove otherwise. However our independent traffic expert has found this is not the case. L&G's original March 23 proposal was not thorough enough and it substantially underestimated the traffic-related issues with development on this site.


L&G have spent the last 18 months trying to correct the major transport flaws which we pointed out in their original proposal, but if this is the best they can do then it is nowhere near good enough. They have now been forced to disclose the shocking truth that this development would grind Harpenden to a halt with 150-car queues in each direction along the Luton Road. 


In more detail:


- Their new transport documents fail to address the serious concerns we expressed previously. The evidence base on which L & G’s forecasts are based is not technically robust or credible.


 - L & G are taking an overly simplistic and optimistic approach to modelling the impact on traffic which is likely to underestimate the queuing and congestion on the local road network. However, even on this basis, the analysis shows major problems with the amendments that are required to make this a "sustainable" development. A new segregated cycle route is proposed along the Luton Road, which as it goes under the narrow Nickey Line Bridge would reduce vehicle traffic to a single carriageway. A new shuttle system would force 3 sets of traffic to share the single carriageway in turn under the bridge. Even under current traffic conditions (without allowing for an increase in future traffic), L&G's modelling shows queues of more than 145 cars northbound and southbound on the Luton Road. This is quite simply utter madness and would cause traffic misery for local residents.


- Residents have already experienced the severe disruption that L&G's proposals would cause. On 23rd October 2024, temporary traffic lights were installed at the Nickey Line bridge on the Luton Road. These created a single carriageway for 3 lines of traffic, which by chance precisely mirrored the permanent recommended solution for L&G's plan. The lights caused severe disruption for local residents, e.g. at 15.45 there was gridlock all the way south through Harpenden town centre to the Silver Cup, a 28 minute delay per satnav and extensive rat-running along quiet side roads. If L&G's plans are approved, this chaos would become the norm for Harpenden.  


 - L & G have put forward an alternative way of moving traffic through the Nickey Line Bridge (under which cyclists would join the traffic at this point) but have not provided any assessment as to how that would impact on congestion.


-  L & G are proposing a package of measures on Luton Road and Cooters End Lane to improve access for pedestrians and cyclists, but there have been no safety audits of the proposals.


- L & G are proposing improvements to bus measures, but given the congestion on Luton Road, buses will simply be caught up in the same queues of traffic as cars, and are unlikely to prove an attractive way to travel.





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