North Yorkshire Plans to Turn Trinity Road into a Rat Run
North Yorkshire Council (NYC) plans to turn Trinity Road, Harrogate, into an official rat run for through traffic avoiding the Prince of Wales roundabout.
It is part of the Transport Strategy for the West Harrogate urban expansion.
The Scheme
The council plans to put traffic lights at either end of Trinity Road, on Otley Road and Leeds Road.
According to para 6.4.15.3 of the Transport Strategy, the council expects the rat run to be used by:
- 40% of drivers turning right from Otley Road to Leeds Road and
- 60% of drivers turning left from Leeds Road to Otley Road
This would transform the character of Trinity Road, turning it from a reasonably quiet park street into part of the main road network.
Has NYC asked local people if that’s what we want? No.
Irresponsible Plans from a High-Traffic, High-Carbon Council
NYC’s approach to highways is old-fashioned ‘predict and provide’.
It assumes that volumes of traffic will constantly increase, and the council is trying to keep adding more streets to the main road network to expand capacity.
The key point the council fails to understand is that its actions have consequences.
Traffic is not like water, with fixed volumes that must find somewhere to run. It is more like a gas, which expands to fill the space available.
As long as NYC keeps providing more space for motor vehicles, they will fill it and demand more.
Meanwhile, every time the council grabs a residential or park street for through traffic, it diminishes quality of life for people who spend time there, and reduces the street’s use by people on bikes.
North Yorkshire is a blinkered, irresponsible, high-traffic, high-carbon council that is letting local people down.
Routemap to Carbon Negative
NYC has endorsed the Routemap to Carbon Negative.
That means that the council is theoretically committed to a 900% increase in cycling by 2030, and a significant decrease in vehicle miles travelled.
Why then is NYC still stuck in predict and provide mode, grabbing more and more space for motor vehicles?
Because, as usual, they are saying one thing and doing another. In truth, there is zero commitment to the Routemap to Carbon Negative.
Decide and Provide
At West Harrogate urban expansion, NYC claims to be taking a ‘decide and provide’ approach.
Decide and provide means:
- prioritising active and sustainable travel by making high-quality provision that enables modal shift, and
- only increasing capacity for motor vehicles as a last resort
In reality, expanding capacity for motor vehicles is at the rotten core of NYC’s Transport Strategy for West Harrogate.
The council’s claim to be taking a decide and provide approach is, to put it politely, misleading baloney.
Taking the Space Needed for Cycle Infrastructure
Cycle Infrastructure Design guidance says that side street routes can provide cycle facilities if closed to through traffic to avoid rat-running.
Harrogate Cycle Action suggests using Trinity Road as the link between future Leeds Road and Otley Road cycle facilities. This would require a modal filter on Trinity Road to cut out through traffic.
The idea has been provided to and discussed with NYC, but it appears that the council was entirely insincere in its engagement with cycle campaigners, and/or just going through the motions then ignoring all the ideas presented.
The cycling plans have been disregarded in the West Harrogate Transport Strategy.
Instead, the West Harrogate Transport Strategy represents high-traffic, high-carbon business as usual, and no space for cycling.