Traffic and parking on the Ware Road (east of Gallows Hill) are intractable problems because the road does not have the capacity and space to meet all the demands made on it. It cannot carry buses, cyclists and pedestrians safely, and provide space for residents' parking, when it is also a main through route for general traffic, including lorries. To make any impact on the problem we have to think outside the box. What about blocking it off roughly where the viaduct is, so that it becomes 2 culs-de-sac, one from Ware to the viaduct, and the other from the Gallows Hill roundabout to the viaduct? Through bus access could be maintained, controlled by rising bollards, and of course the cycleway and footpath would be uninterrupted. Other motorised traffic from Hertford to Ware would have to travel via the A414 (or Gallows Hill), Rush Green roundabout and over the A10 viaduct, to enter Ware by Westmill Road/Watton Road. Unfortunately, even if this idea were to find favour, it is probably outside the scope of a neighbourhood plan because of the effect it would have on other areas. But local traffic problems are probably insoluble without a wider vision, which makes me question the value of trying to deal with them at a neighbourhood level.
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Kingsmead Neighbourhood Plan
Hertford
Planning our future community needs
as the various statistics show, Gallows Hill is already heavily used. I would think that Watton Road Ware is the same. surely any blocking of Ware Road between Hertford & Ware would just see all that E-W traffic trying to use these roads as the nearest alternatives - making them unworkable through congestion?
I just wondered if Peter Norman's interesting suggestion regarding Ware Road being made into culs-de-sac (July 2020) was explored further in the Transport and Parking Working Group?
Something really does need to be done in relation to Ware Road as, aside from the proposed **mass rapid transit route, which is dependent upon a (somewhat controversial) Hertford Bypass - plus the prospect of further housing densification spewing more vehicles out onto an already congested highway, the outlook seems rather bleak.
**Draft A414 Corridor Strategy 2018 - segment 11 - p.247 (table showing timescales)
Package 23- Delivery Timescales:
‘End Points’ A Mass Rapid Transit system through Hertford is unlikely to be feasible until a bypass is in place. To provide a fast, efficient and direct east-west public transport service through Hertford, it will require a reprioritised highway network which can accommodate, for example, dedicated lanes for MRT and local bus services. These improvements need to be carefully timed to coincide as far as possible with the opening of a Hertford bypass.
Having queried this with HCC and the County Councillor, I was informed that... "traffic modelling on the consequences of the various options should help clarify what would actually be effective."