Action plan to be discussed for Woodside Road and Huddersfield Road (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford councillors to debate improvement plan for bottlenecks

9:00am Saturday 22nd September 2012 in News

TROUBLE SPOTS: Councillors will discuss plans to prevent traffic snarl-ups on city roads next week

Bus lane improvements to ease congestion on one of Bradford’s most-choked routes are up for debate by councillors next week.

Targeted trouble spots on the A641 include the bottleneck junction of Woodside Road and Huddersfield Road where buses such as the X6 Express become badly slowed up at peak times.

Another infamous pinch-point is the end of the A641 dual carriageway away from Bradford where two lanes squash awkwardly into one badly-clogged road.

Suggested schemes include making new bus corridors, giving facelifts to existing ones and improving junctions.

Shifting bus shelters to better positions and installing part-time signalised bus gates on the route are also part of the proposal – which may become linked to bus lane improvements already approved for the Netherlands Avenue Junction.

And £47,000 of funding has already been earmarked for a variety of work on sections of the important A641 to Huddersfield, thanks to a contribution from the West Yorkshire Local Transport Plan.

The Bradford South Area Committee will consider the proposal to begin consultations on this latest drive to encourage travellers out of their cars and onto buses when it meets on Wednesday.

And committee member Coun David Warburton (Lab, Wyke ) said it seemed a good idea on many fronts.

“We’ve had major problems over the years on this route with the junctions of Huddersfield Road, Netherlands Avenue and Woodside Road.

“We are working towards making these into safer environments – it’s not long ago that two members of the public died in a terrible car crash at one of the junctions.

“We’ve tried for many years to improve this route and of course the money from the Transport Plan will not pay for all the work that needs to be done, but it will certainly help kick things off,” Coun Warburton said.

“The other side to this is that we are always working hard to get more people onto public transport and we need to make more progress on that,” he added.