A3023: Updated Review
A3023 Fact Sheet from Hayling Island Residents’ Association (HIRA)
Introduction
This note is provided for general information so people can understand more clearly the facts relating to this main Hayling artery.
We base our view of the importance of this document on the fact that, in the worst case scenario, Hayling could be subject to 1600 more houses over the foreseeable future, a rise of 20%, with a commensurate increase in traffic flow of the same amount.
All the information contained here has been obtained from Hampshire CC or Highways’ Agency (HA) sources unless otherwise indicated. This note relates to that part of the route between Langstone Bridge and Church Road. This section is about 3.5 Km long.
To provide some interesting background and as a ‘starting point’, in 1984 HIRA received a letter about the A3023 from Havant BC. This letter, relating to a then proposed road improvement, included the following quote:
“this narrow, overlong cul-de-sac is carrying about 2.5 times its theoretical capacity……. between 1976 and 2020 the DoT forecasts a traffic increase of 76%.” The work proposed and referred to was never carried out and virtually nothing has been done since.
We take no account of the needs of cyclists who have been cruelly ignored and these issues are reviewed elsewhere.
Road Facts
The A3023 is a 2 single lane road (S2) Urban All Purpose road of which there are 4 classifications (HA TA 79/99). As clearly the A 3023 is not in the ‘high standard’ class we can only conclude it is in the ‘variable standard’ 3rd class category. Such roads have property frontages, junctions, bus stops etc., giving rise to all the problems that these features produce.
HA TA 79/99 also states that for a road of this standard the ‘capacity’ is about 1300 vehicles/hour in the direction of the major flow.
If this road were up to modern standards it would be 9.3m wide. Most of it is however 7.3m wide (the old 24 ft.). Most of it is now subject to a 30 mph speed limit.
If the authorities were to build a road similar to the A 3023 but to modern standards the initial maximum economic flow figure would be an average of 13,000 vehicle movements per day though this would increase with time. Current flow figures, see later, would justify a dual carriageway road or even, in extreme circumstances, 3 lanes each way.
Traffic flow data have been given by Hampshire CC staff to HIRA frequently and very promptly (hours rather than days). These data cover the annual figures for the flows as measured at Langstone Bridge. These are available for every hour of the year and daily, weekly, monthly and yearly summaries are included so we cannot say we are short of data. Most data are summarised as the Average Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Annual Traffic, abbreviated to AADT or as appropriate to the period.
Summarising
5 years ago the Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT), flow across the bridge was about 24,000.
Last year it was over 26,000.
Last year the weekday (working day) figure often exceeded 28,000.
During the peak day in August 2016 (day of the big jam) the figure exceeded 31,000.
The largest hourly one-way figure we have observed from these data is about 1,400 and this effectively represents the maximum performance of the road. On most normal weekdays the peak rush-hour figures vary from about 1,200 to 1,250.
The recommendation for a design flow typically suggests that one should use, for normal conditions, a figure of about 85% of the achievable maximum.
Based on a peak flow achievable or 1,400 v/hr, we should be limiting any regular demand to about 1200 v/hr in the maximum flow direction.
This is roughly what is now achieved with limited problems; any increased demand will drive us into territory that will breach Havant Borough Council’s own sustainability criteria that demand that ‘nothing we do today should prejudice the interests of future generations'.
We therefore believe that increasing demand by even 10% will get us into regions of demonstrably unacceptable congestion.
E&OE
