Traffic survey disgrace

breadmonkey

I'm just reading through the planning application for a sizeable development in my area and the traffic survey conducted for the TIA was done on the 17th of March, a bank holiday.

This is an utter disgrace. The analysis was done by a very well know company and this is the absolute height of unprofessionalism. What's even more interesting is that the applicant is infamous for underhanded tactics.

Thoughts?

Pembily

K being a bit blonde you are saying that cos it was done over a busy weekend it means the volumes of traffic were higher!! Just to clarify...

IMHO take it up with a local counsillor - its election time and they need all the votes they can get, show the evidence and maybe have some ideas of the volumes of traffic normally in that area!!

Best of luck!!

breadmonkey

No it was done on a bank holiday Tuesday, meaning the counts were much lower as nobody was travelling to work.

They founded the whole analysis on bs data and they knew 100% what they were doing.

godtabh

Generally you dont do traffic surveys before or after christmas (within resaon) during school holidays (but there is correction factors) and on the day of bank holidays and usually a couple of days after to allow traffic to return to normal (our company generally dont do them the week after a bankholiday or the Friday before).

Any chance you could PM me details?

Turbulent Bill

Could you lodge a complaint or appeal to the planning authority (county council etc.) about this? I'd say using unrepresentative data is as good a reason to contest the application as any.

Are there any regulations/guidelines on when a traffic survey should be done? I'd naively say that it should be a random midweek day to get a representative worst-case, but it looks like it's open to abuse.

godtabh

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Could you lodge a complaint or appeal to the planning authority (county council etc.) about this? I'd say using unrepresentative data is as good a reason to contest the application as any.

Are there any regulations/guidelines on when a traffic survey should be done? I'd naively say that it should be a random midweek day to get a representative worst-case, but it looks like it's open to abuse.

You just do a 3 hour count in the morning and evening and get an AM and PM peak hour out of that.

Also depends on what kind of devlopment it is, when it is likley to be used etc etc

Fake Tales

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

Could you lodge a complaint or appeal to the planning authority (county council etc.) about this? I'd say using unrepresentative data is as good a reason to contest the application as any.

Are there any regulations/guidelines on when a traffic survey should be done? I'd naively say that it should be a random midweek day to get a representative worst-case, but it looks like it's open to abuse.

I used always do them on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and never in December.

godtabh

Having read one line of the report I'd ask for an RFI re the traffic counts straihgt away and wouldnt ready anything further cause its all bollox

JohnHenry

i would have to agree with ye lads, i have done a good few TTA's and traffic chapters for EIS, etc and doing a traffic count on a bank holiday monday is a cop out, underhand, unprofessional move in my opinion.
A couple of questions regarding the TTA?
do they factor up the traffic count in any way to compensate for the bank holiday?
What is the nature of the development, ie, is it for a hotel near a beach because then maybe, and this is argueable, it may be worst case scenario for the traffic count and valid on the bank hoiday.
I refered to an old(but very relieable) document, "expansion factors for short period traffic counts" when doing traffic counts generally and i am pretty sure they do not take into account bank holidays so i woudl like to know how long they carried out the trafic count for, ie, 3 hours, 12 hours, as i dont think it would be good engineering practice to factor up a short period traffic count on a bank holiday.....

godtabh

JohnHenry wrote: »

i would have to agree with ye lads, i have done a good few TTA's and traffic chapters for EIS, etc and doing a traffic count on a bank holiday monday is a cop out, underhand, unprofessional move in my opinion.
A couple of questions regarding the TTA?
do they factor up the traffic count in any way to compensate for the bank holiday?
What is the nature of the development, ie, is it for a hotel near a beach because then maybe, and this is argueable, it may be worst case scenario for the traffic count and valid on the bank hoiday.
I refered to an old(but very relieable) document, "expansion factors for short period traffic counts" when doing traffic counts generally and i am pretty sure they do not take into account bank holidays so i woudl like to know how long they carried out the trafic count for, ie, 3 hours, 12 hours, as i dont think it would be good engineering practice to factor up a short period traffic count on a bank holiday.....

Picking one day as a worst scenario is highly unlikely to happen

Johnny86

it seems very stupid to have done this...was there no scope with the council before the issued the TA? surely the council would have told them to get proper data

godtabh

Johnny86 wrote: »

it seems very stupid to have done this...was there no scope with the council before the issued the TA? surely the council would have told them to get proper data

Not many companies would go to a council for a scope unless it was a unique or very large devlopment.