TRAFFIC jams are getting worse in Bradford, with more cars on the roads and average speeds slowing, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.

On one of the district’s main routes, cars crawl along at an average of just 10 miles an hour during the morning rush-hour.

Now transport chiefs from across West Yorkshire are joining forces to draw up a congestion-busting plan for the county’s crucial A-road network.

This could include harnessing new technology to alter traffic light priorities in real-time or link in with sat-nav companies, re-routing cars around congested routes.

BRADFORD'S SLOWEST ROADS

  1. A657 - New Line, Leeds Road and Saltaire Road, through Shipley, Idle and Greengates. Morning rush hour average = 10.2mph.
  2. A647 Leeds Road. Morning rush hour average = 14.2mph.
  3. A6177 Bradford ring road. Morning rush hour average = 14.5mph.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, who signed up to the agreement on behalf of Bradford, said: “Of course we’ve been working in partnership with other authorities in the region for some time and this is the next logical step in that.

“It is an agreement to look at those key transport corridors and consider how we can develop consistent approaches to improve journey time and reliability across the district and region.

“It also means we can speak more powerfully with one voice when discussing the road network with Government.”

West Yorkshire’s 410 miles of A-roads make up just seven per cent of the road network but carry 60 per cent of all vehicles.

The average speed on Bradford’s A-roads fell from 20.8 mph in 2015 to 20.4 mph in 2016.

Over the same period, the amount of traffic on the district’s roads grew by 3.5 per cent on a typical day, despite the opening of both the Apperley Bridge train station and the Bradford-to-Leeds cycle superhighway.

The district’s most clogged-up A-road is the A657 (New Line, Leeds Road and Saltaire Road) through Shipley, Idle and Greengates, where the average westbound speed during the morning rush hour is just 10.2 miles per hour, according to the latest figures from the Department for Transport.

In second place was the westbound A647 (Leeds Road), with an average morning speed of 14.2mph, and in third place was the Bradford ring road, the A6177, at 14.5mph.

Cllr Ross-Shaw, who leads on transport matters at Bradford Council, said tackling congestion was a case of both easing “choke points” and getting a significant number of people to move from “single-occupancy car use to smarter travel choices”.

From 2019, new trains will be introduced on all Northern routes, providing 30 per cent more seats in the rush hour, Cllr Ross-Shaw said.

West Yorkshire transport bosses are also adding 550 more park-and-ride spaces at Apperley Bridge, Menston, Shipley and Steeton and Silsden rail stations.

Transport chiefs are currently testing a real-time traffic monitoring system across West Yorkshire which has the potential to change traffic signals, display traffic messages to drivers or link in with sat-navs to re-route people away from jams.

One business leader said congestion was proving “a difficult nut to crack”, but was affecting local companies.

Bradford Chamber president, Nick Garthwaite, said: “It’s true that infrastructure investment is failing to keep pace with increasing levels of congestion, and so we support the idea of local authorities working closer together to attempt to tackle the problem – after all, congestion doesn’t end at Council boundaries.

“We have no figures on financial and economic impact, although we know that congestion levels are affecting the way that business operate and plan ahead – time spent in a traffic jam is no good to anyone.”

Councillor Martin Smith, the opposition Conservatives’ spokesman for transport on Bradford Council, was critical of congestion-busting efforts so far.

He said the district’s transport strategy “defies logic” and often seemed fragmented.

He said: “There has been no strategic view of transport in the district, interfacing with the needs of the public, It’s not co-ordinated, there’s no co-ordination.”

He also questioned the wisdom of narrowing roads to create cycle lanes, saying: “I struggle to see anybody on them ever.”