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Why you’re stuck in traffic...
Hemel's Magic Roundabout for Hemel vs Swindon feature dt 04/03/10
ANYONE who has attempted to drive in or out of Hemel Hempstead during the rush hour will have found themselves gripping the wheel in frustration at some point.
It will come as no surprise to those fuming in stationary traffic that the town has been identified as one of the most congested in Herts.
Each year 583,714 vehicle journeys take place in Dacorum, more than anywhere else in the county, and figures show during the rush hour it takes on average 2mins 46secs to cover just a mile.
With the Maylands Business Park home to 400 firms and 16,500 employees, this kind of congestion is going to have economic implications. It has been calculated that clogged roads in the key towns of west Herts cost business £80 million a year, and this is predicted to more than double to £170 million over the next decade.
The problem becomes clear when you learn that 86 per cent of journeys to Maylands are by car and just five per cent by public transport, compared with Herts-wide public transport usage of 14 per cent.
Steve Holmes, cabinet chief for planning and regeneration at Dacorum Borough Council, puts his finger on it when he says: “There aren’t enough buses round here and they don’t go to the right places.
“The problem I find is bus companies themselves. They are interested in making money but they are not interested in loss-making routes. They are constantly moving routes around. It’s astonishing how many routes change on a monthly basis.
“It doesn’t help our residents to suddenly find when they get to a bus stop that it’s gone.”
Even though more than a quarter of people working at Maylands live within 5km of the park, just two per cent walk to work, while one survey found no-one used a bike.
This is the challenge faced by transport planners in Hemel Hempstead – hills and a valley that make walking and cycling difficult, a lack of public transport connections between the railway station, town centre and business park, and an ingrained culture of car use at Maylands.
The cost is not just financial. Environmentalists point to the three areas of Dacorum recently designated air pollution hotspots – Lawn Lane, London Road in Apsley and Northchurch High Street.
In 2008 traffic in the borough produced 232,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases, while road transport was responsible for more than a quarter of the county’s total CO2 emissions of 1.7 million tonnes.
Dennis Harvey, of Dacorum Environmental Forum’s transport group, says: “Any environmental forum would like to see people walking, cycling or using public transport, rather than using a private car, but personal comfort, safety and convenience appear to be more important to the individual than helping the natural environment.”
DEF claims there is a fundamental problem with the planning system that means while the borough council is responsible for new homes, it has little control over job creation or transport links, and things will only get worse with the thousands of extra houses due to be built.
In fact it is County Hall bosses who are in charge of transport, and they are spending £2 million on public transport improvements and making it easier to walk and cycle in Hemel Hempstead, Watford and St Albans.
This work will be expanded if a bid for a further £10 million is successful.
Mr Holmes points to plans for a cycle network in Hemel Hempstead using the Nicky Line and the electric car charging point at the Maylands Business Centre.
He said: “There’s plenty of sustainable transport going on. I would like to see as much of that as possible because that reduces congestion.
“We have to put housing in to support the jobs. If you can walk to work, that’s great, if you can cycle, even better, but if you are a little bit further away we have to provide the public transport.”
However, more road building is also on the horizon and plans for a northern relief road – driving a new highway along Green Lane, Three Cherry Trees Lane, through Woodhall Farm and Grovehill to the Leighton Buzzard Road – are still on the table.
“Hemel is not served by a lot of roads going into it and most of that goes through the Magic Roundabout,” Mr Holmes said.
“We have perhaps one of the biggest towns in the county without a ring road. Fifty years from now should we have a ring road?”
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 14 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Louise1960
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 03:11 PMTo add to comments about blue badge holders. Sitting in the restaurant Infinity I noticed two incidents of perfectly able bodied people returning to their parked cars laden with shopping one of which was pushing a buggy loading the car up and driving off but not before taking the number of another car who had parked too close to their bumper and possibly damaged slightly and leaving a note on the said offending cars windscreen. These people are lazy scum and probably falsely claiming all sorts of benefits.
cycs
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:51 AMIt is not rocket science why there is so much traffic in and around Hemel turn the clock back 20 years 80% of the industrial estate workforce lived and worked in the town, quickley forward to now , just looking round the office where i work about 50 people only 10 live in Hemel, people now commute more now just to have a job. Even before the lights in Durrents it was a nightmare with the lorries going into frogmore Blue badge holders should use the car parks ( i do) there are enough bays there for them in all of them. then keep the roads free especially the water gardens
PrivateDancer
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 09:37 AMSorry that was me just dropping a book back....
lsly
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:56 PMoutside KFC and the full house there is always a parked car or some sorts which forces traffic into 1 lane. Plus the mini roundabout outside the police station coombe street waterhouse street if you moved a bollard and kerb over about 6 inches 2 cars could come of the roundabout when heading towards leigton buzzard road mini roundabout. Plus who is that parked outside the library?
Louise1960
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:12 PMThe town centre traffic is getting worse, I can remember when the traffic used to flow into the town under the BP building before it was all, it was a thriving bustling town no empty shops and not a pound shop in sight. I agree that durrants hill is a nightmare now, typical jobsworth who passed that disastrous change. Everytime there is an accident on the A41 which results in temporary closure it's a nightmare through apsley and every road in and out of Hemel
longtime
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 06:26 PMTurning right into Cotterells from Station Road does not cause a problem because it has its own right-turn lane and these lights make it safer to turn out of Cotterells. Maybe what should happen is for there to be no right turn out of Cotterells as used to be the case then Station road traffic from the roundabout could have a permanent green light to allow constant movement of traffic.
Webcam
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 05:03 PMHaving been down the town at the weekend and in the week Im surprised anything moves around the town.....the whole of waterhouse street is now full of blue badge holders, having followed one couple from the sales to their car, load 8 bags of sales shopping and then jump into the car with no effort I wonder how many of the blue badge holders are needing to have these badges, the real shame is the genuinely disabled person who needs to park near the town must struggle with all these fit blue badge holders around. The buses can hardly get down to the controversial bus lane as the blue badge holders are causing the best form of traffic calming possible but it saves the suspension on my car being damaged by the speed humps that seem to breed in Hemel as they are everywhere. However I think the council is missing a bigger money making scheme...install a camera in Bridge Street....there are nice big No Vehicle Except Bus and Taxis signs but the number of cars who now use it a short cut through the town is amazing, there are now private cars parked in Bridge Street for the whole day, two taxis are parked there now but business must be bad as they stay parked and locked all day in front of the line of parked cars. It seems the traffic wardens don’t have the powers to ticket them and the police aren’t bothered. Still I must be mad paying to park in the town, I might use the free all day car park in Bridge Street, it is getting very popular now.......
branco123
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 01:58 PMIt is noticeable that the traffic is terrible. If there is any traffic incident around the area, the whole road system gets jammed.
branco123
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 01:55 PMWhat about the unnecessary traffic lights on Station Road to turn right into The Cotterells. During rush hour this causes tailbacks on to The Plough roundabout.
furryhamst
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 01:10 PMAren't enough buses. Must be or we wouldn't need a camera to fine us for being in a bus lane? The barriers to cycling aren't only hills its a lack of secure parking and facilities to changeshower when you get to your destintation. Majority of users for the industrial estate are coming off the M1 you only have to try and get to the M1 in the morning from Hemel and you get blocked by all the traffic turning right into it. Apsley is far the worst location in the town at the weekends, compounded by Durrants Hill. When durrants was closed a while back there were no issues at all on London Road. Lawn lane is only an issue because inconsiderate drivers trying to get to Two waters road when crossing the plough block across the exit from lawn lane. I think the environmental forum need to do a bit or reading as well. The borough's layout is definied in the borough council's core strategy. The County Council have to maintain is once its in but the Borough planners at the civic centre are the ones who choose who things are laid out.
golem11
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 08:24 AMCompletely right about the lack of buses. I used to get the 13 to and from Maylands years ago and the Arriva service was at best unreliable. Then it switched to Red Rose without any notice, they were reliable but the buses were delapidated. Then it switched back to Arriva who changed the route and timetable completely so that it's now as quick for me to walk the three miles home as it is to wait and pay for the bus.
longtime
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 12:34 PMOf course, the traffic lights in Durrants Hill Road should have been at the junction with London Road and the narrow bridge should have been widened to accommodate two lanes. Incidentally, has anyone noticed the roads around Hertford? Amazing how the quality is so good for such a small town . . . I wonder why?
Yellow Rose
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 08:26 AMNot true about people to cycle to work I know of 2 who cycle to Maylands and Maxted Road, admittedly they live in Adeyfield so it is fairly flattish ride. Agree with Maggs99 who through narrowing the bridge and then putting lights on it was a good idea. Those who do not understand that going over the bridge (downhill) when the light is green but cannot clear the other side just sit on the bridge and hold up the traffic trying to go up the hill, causing backlog of traffic to the High Street. This won’t change anything as they will use consultants who will eat up the 2 million in fees and no solutions (after all who designed Durrants?). Because that how DBC and HCC work!
Maggs99
Saturday, January 7, 2012 at 06:06 PMWhat about that stupid change to the bridge at Durrants Hill. Who ever came up with that was a nut case. There just isn't enough room by the Community Centre for cars to come across the traffic lights when they are green.
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