WSTM Presentations to Members

In January 2012 Council Members were given an interim update of the Wokingham Strategic Transport Model. The presentations were separated into one for North Wokingham (on 9 January 2012) and another for the remainder of the Borough south of the M4 (25 January 2012). The main interest in both presentations is the change in traffic flow as a result of Strategic Development Location (SDL) development in 2026.

The Forecast Year 2026 includes draft junction, access and highway proposals presented to the Council by SDL developers. These designs are not necessarily optimised in the transport model and may be revised following further interrogation of the transport models.

The presentations show highway flows as the ratio of traffic volume to design capacity (V/C) including junction constraints. A V/C of 100 indicates traffic flows are equal to the design capacity of that section of the highway. Typically traffic congestion and unreliable journey times are encountered where V/C is greater than 90.

The next step is to review the model output and identify junction and highway improvements to mitigate unacceptable traffic congestion and delay by 2026. These improvements will be included in the Council’s Capital Programme for implementation in the period to 2026 to be funded by SDLs and/or other development in the Borough in line with Core Strategy and other Council policies.

The transport models will be updated to test and reflect these changes and revised forecast models published during summer 2012.