Following a number of Road Traffic Incidents, I said I would speak to Highways Leeds about the possible solutions and report these back to residents. No decisions have been made and we are at an early stage of the decision making process but below are the initial proposals suggested by Highways Leeds to deal with the ongoing issues. For context, West Yorkshire Police injury collision data for this location identified that there have been seven recorded injury collisions at this location in the last three year period - this is only the reported data as any minor accidents may not have been reported.
Two of these collisions were the result of the driver having a medical episode at the wheel and colliding with street furniture The remaining five collisions were the result of drivers exiting Tempest Road into the path of vehicles travelling along Dewsbury Road, these collisions recorded three slight injury collisions and two serious injury collisions. The pattern appears to be lack of sight line for drivers existing Tempest Road and them then pulling out into the path of oncoming vehicles. Highways Leeds have superimposed the minimum sight line requirement at this location to meet current design standards on the image below.
This highlighted area in the red bounded shows the level of parked which would have to be removed, which would be all of the current on street parking to meet the minimum requirement. This has been previously proposed but when previously consulted on, it received significant objections due to the negative impact it would have on the adjacent businesses.
The implementation of this solution would cost around £20,000.
Highways Leeds has also considered other options and one which may be open to future consideration and which would retains the on street parking outside the shops is to make Tempest Road one-way from Dewsbury Road. This would then discourage the amount of through traffic along this route and would address the injury collision pattern of exiting vehicles in conflict with traffic on Dewsbury Road but would impact traffic movement on Beeston Hill and this would need to be modelled.
The implementation of this solution would cost around £20,000. Highways Leeds final option is the installation of traffic signals (lights) to manage traffic at the junctions to manage flows and delays between the main and side roads, provide a safe crossing place, and to reduce conflicts. This would require significant work and have an impact on signal timings and junction management on Dewsbury Road in both directions.
The implementation of this solution would cost around £150,000 to £200,000 subject to the amount of alterations requires to other junctions along Dewsbury Road to make it work.