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Simple routes to efficiency
Page 9
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Barry Proctor took a rare chance to put some jam-busting ideas to a businessman \Arno has the ear of the government Whether our lords and masters vvill listen ls, of course, another matter.
Efficiency is the key to making the transport system in this country work. At least that's what I told former BA chairman Rod Eddington the other day. No, it wasn't at some fancy cocktail party for high-flying captains of industry, but a regiona meeting attempting to influence transport policy.
Eddington is undertaking a study for the government to help it determine its transport initiatives in 10 or 15 years' time (OK, there's a separate argument that having to wait until 2015 for road improvements is a decade too late, but that's by the by).
told him to focus on simple initiatives that keep the traffic flowing. Let me give you an example. There's a road near me, the A34 that goes through Newcastle, Ta*e and Kidsgrove. It's the main road for the region. On one section it hits a roundabout and just beyond this is a minor road with a set of traffic lights.
Inevitably at rush hour a line of traffic builds up from the lights and backs towards the roundabout. Because car driver, are, by and large, selfish creatures, there ends up being a line of stationary traffic sitting across the roundabout and blocking a main road. All you need is a box junction with an enforcement camera and hey presto no stopped traffic.
I've seen the attitude of drivers in London when faced with fines for blocking a yellow box and they just don't do it any more. It isn't rocket science, but then none of the things I suggested to Eddington are_ Most people who use the roads on a regular basis can see incredibly simple ways to maximisE the system's efficiency (you could argue the overtaking ban on the M42 falls into that category); it's just a matter of communicating this to the people in charge.
I was greatly impressed with Eddington; he seemed very much a 'can-do' type of businessman. I just have a few reservations about whether his recommendations will actually go anywhere when he reports back to the government.
" So here all you need is box junction with an enforcement camera presto no stopped tr