Lancashire's Safer Roads Funds Programme
28th of September, 2022
Lancashire County Aouncil is about to begin the next phase of this major project which involves installing average speed cameras on five roads in the districts of Chorley, Fylde, Lancaster, the Ribble Valley, West Lancashire and Wyre.
The Safer Roads Fund was established by the Department for Transport in 2016 to improve safety on England's 50 most dangerous A-roads.
Lancashire County Council made a successful bid for £7.9m to deliver improvements on the five 'high risk' routes which had been identified within the county, with the funding being awarded in 2018.
The fund is specifically targeted at delivering road upgrades and improvements with the aim of reducing the number and severity of fatal and serious injury collisions.
A range of work has already taken place to improve safety on the five routes, with aspects of the programme which involve upgrades such as installing LED cats eyes, high-reflectivity road markings and safety barriers, now having been delivered. The county council's Cabinet also recently agreed a series of speed limit reductions designed to improve the safety of these roads.
The schedule for the next phase of work to install average speed cameras is due to take place as follows:
A581 Rufford to Euxton September 2022 to December 2022
A588 Lancaster to Skippool November 2022 to April 2023
£1.9m for the A588 from Lancaster's Pointer roundabout to Skippool – including average speed cameras over 26km, and measures to highlight the centreline and edge of the road, and cycle safety measures at the Pointer Roundabout.
A683 Lancaster M6 J34 to Kirkby Lonsdale January 2023 to May 2023
A6 Lancaster city centre to M6 J33 February 2023 to June 2023
A682 Gisburn to North Yorks boundary March 2023 to June 2023
Average Speed Cameras work by reading the number plate of passing vehicles and calculating a driver's average speed over a known length of road within the same speed limit. This results in drivers maintaining a steady average speed rather than just slowing down when they see a traditional fixed or spot speed camera, delivering safer and smoother traffic flows.
There are currently 8 routes already covered by Jenoptik’s SPECS average speed camera enforcement systems in Lancashire, which were installed in 2017 and 2018. Initial evaluation shows there has been a reduction in collisions of up to 86% on these routes