FAQ 4. Rat running
FAQ 4. Rat running
How will it affect rat running?
What LCC says:
The scheme creates a shorter route for traffic moving from east to west between the Welford Road area and Saffron Lane / Aylestone Road. It will provide an alternative to Knighton Lane East for example.
What we say:
The Council’s reply doesn’t answer the question about rat-running, and also makes no reference to Clarendon Park which is where the rat-running will take place. We say rat-running through the smaller roads in Clarendon Park will inevitability increase with the increased traffic generated by this new link road.
We have explained in detail in the previous answer the effects this scheme will have on Victoria Park Road and Clarendon Park Road. This scheme will not provide a realistic alternative to Knighton Lane East, and it is fanciful to suggest it will – look at a map! The councils reply also avoids completely the question of rat-running through Clarendon Park.
The councils view of rat-running has been changeable. In the bid for funding it states: ‘Initial modelling has suggested that there may be increased traffic on orbital routes that feed into the new link road. It will be necessary to ensure that traffic uses the most appropriate routes and that rat-running through inappropriate residential streets is avoided.’
The only orbital route that feeds the new link road is Victoria Park Road. This means the area at risk of increased rat-running is Clarendon Park to avoid increased congestion on Victoria Park Road and at the Mayfield Road roundabout. However, the council later changed its mind and in a public presentation stated: ‘Rat Running – overall beneficial impact in residential side roads.’
The evidence for this are the claimed traffic reductions in Clarendon Park Road.
Clarendon Park Road is not the only road at risk. Avenue Road, and in a different way Knighton Park Road, are currently used as routes to avoid congestion, along with other side and connecting roads, but nothing is said about these.
We find it difficult to reconcile these two conflicting statements about rat-running arising from the scheme. Nothing in the scheme has changed between these two statements, the council has had no new traffic information in that time, and there are no proposed measures, and no funding, to discourage rat-running through Clarendon Park. Our considered view, based on detailed argument, is that congestion will increase at Mayfield Road roundabout, along the length of Victoria Park Road, and at the Welford Road junction, and increased rat-running through Clarendon Park to avoid this congestion will be inevitable.
