How to reduce rat running

charlotte_rose

The local council is in discussion on how to reduce rat running across an area of 20 roads that themselves link two main roads.

So far, speed bumps and planters have been unsuccessful.

Making roads access only is one idea but this would significantly increase 999 response times.

Anyone faced a similar situation or can offer suggestions on a solution?

Robin9

Are you talking about rattus rattus - the common house rat ?

-taff

Introduce several narrowing the road in places with one direction having priority over the over?

Cornucopia

I have moved this thread to the Motoring subforum.

OP: It might help if you described the problem in more detail. Is there already a 20mph speed limit on these roads? Is the issue that it is being ignored? Or is the problem a large volume of slow traffic?

daveyjp

Well designed one way systems which make journeys inconvenient, but that affects emergency services and they may object.. Speed bumps damage vehicles of legitimate users and people who live on the street.

Restrict access, but who polices it?

However I hate the term rat running. Roads are provided to allow vehicles to move between two places, why stop people doing so?

tacpot12

Another option is to persuade the residents and the council that allowing the rat running to continue as it is a great way to distribute the traffic over the available roads rather than forcing the traffic all down one road.

AdrianC

charlotte_rose wrote: »

Making roads access only is one idea but this would significantly increase 999 response times.

What do you mean here?

"Making roads access only", to me, means putting a sign up and saying "access only". It doesn't change anything, apart from giving a hint that it shouldn't be used for a through route.

Or do you mean actually closing some roads off, so that what are currently through routes physically cease to be?

Scrapit

This isn't a question for this or any internet forum. The council do the town planning, leave them to do their jobs.

forgotmyname

Leave Council planning to do their jobs, are you sure?

They painted the lines on a local roundabout 5 or 6 times at a cost of over £15,000 a time. Maybe it was gold paint?

Dual carriageway where 99% of the traffic go straight on or turn right, they made the left hand lane left turn only. And it's a large busy roundabout.

Caused many problems, traffic queued back for miles. People used the left turn lane to go straight on and some even turned right. Lots of queue jumpers and people forcing their way in just yards from the roundabout.

Seems the people that designed the layout had never seen or used the actual road.

Car_54

Scrapit wrote: »

This isn't a question for this or any internet forum. The council do the town planning, leave them to do their jobs.

Quite right. There should be no discussion of any government policies or decisions. Exemplary jail sentences for dissenters.

Johno100

Never understood the term 'rat running'. Using all available routes to speed your journey and/or avoid congestion causing bottlenecks seems eminently sensible. Plus it reduces congestion at those congestion hotspots that are circumvented.

The question that needs asking is what are the authorities doing about the problems that mean that sometimes using a minor road rather than say a dual carriageway is quicker?