Hempsted bypass.

Methods

The methods I have chosen to help me gain information are as follows: -

Primary data

• Traffic count on Hempsted bypass. Providing information that people do use the by-pass

• Traffic count on Hempsted Bridge. Providing information that will help me find out

• Questionnaire handed out to residents on the three estates and in Hempsted village.

Secondary data

• Letters to Gloucester City Council, Gloucestershire County Council and other organisations.

• Online maps from multimap.com

• Internet sites such as;         

www.gloucester.gov.uk

                                        

Aims

I have chosen these aims, which I hope to prove right and wrong over the course of my investigation, into the Hempsted area.

• What roads have been relieved of serious traffic problems?

• Whether the Bristol road has been relieved of serious traffic problems?

• What the advantages of the bypass are?

• What roads now have more traffic on them?

• Should the bridge be wider at Hempsted?

• Will the advantages of the bypass increase after the extension is built?

• Will the advantages of the bypass only be significant once the bypass system has been built?

• What the disadvantages of the bypass are?

Hypothesis

The bypass has been of limited benefit in terms of fulfilling the objectives of the scheme.

I believe that my hypothesis is correct; as there are still daily traffic jams on Bristol Road. In addition the Hempsted bypass is also very congested with traffic, worsened by the problem of a bottleneck that exists at Hempsted Bridge. This problem might be eradicated once the whole scheme has been completed

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Approve

• Decrease in travel times
• More business

Disapprove

• Dangerous for children
• More noise+ traffic

Question 9

Hempsted bypass

Traffic count.

Time taken: 5.30pm-5.35pm

Date taken: Monday 11th August

Hempsted Bridge

Traffic count.

Time taken: 5.35pm-5.40pm

Date taken: Monday 11th August

Data interpretation

All the results opposing and agreeing to the bypass where affected and did not gain a fill set of results, as the questionnaires handed out to the estates, the people have been only living there since the building of the bypass as their houses were built in the space made by the bypass. However they were still able to give answers to how they feel about the bypass now.

The main age range for the people filling in the questionnaire was 26-46, which is very good as these are the people who are more likely to be using the by-pass more often than the older people who may me retried so may not experience the bypass at peak times so could throw the results off track as the questionnaire would not show the right type information which would be helpful.

The results for question 4 where totally what I expected as the car and bus travel option came out on top for the most used method of transport, so the information grained about the traffic jams are shown trough the eyes of 90% of those who answered the questionnaire giving a detailed picture of what the bypass is like in terms of amount of traffic jams. The amount of traffic jams faced by the people living in this area varies greatly from 2 people who reported experiencing no traffic jams what-so-ever to 1 unlucky person who reported experiencing 12 traffic jams in the test period of 3 days, that is 4 traffic jams a day!

The issue then turns to the state of cycle paths in Hempstead, which the three people who answered this question thought are very ample. The cycle paths run to town along side the Gloucester and Sharpness canal and to Sharpness in the other direction towards the city centre, but the only part of the canal path that is not up to standard is the part about 200 meters just past Hempsted in the direction of Sharpness, as this part is very narrow. This will hopefully be brought up to standard after the straightening of the canal, when the bypass crosses it.

Only 6 people out of the 27 people who answered the questionnaire felt that the bypass has made their journey times slower. This may be due to the large number of traffic jams faced by the people living in the Hempsted area. These 6 felt that there where better travel times before the bypass was constructed. The 21 others felt that even though the bypass does have a large number of traffic jams, it does decrease their journey times in the long run.

All of the views about the building of the bypass came from the Hempsted village. The results show that 11 people who did want the bypass to be built gave reasons such as: it will decrease traffic flow on Hempsted road and improve links with the city centre. The other 7 that disapproved of the building of the bypass had reasons such as it would cause more noise in the area and it would be unsafe for children, even though the traffic and noise would be taken away from the main village area and may lower the house prices.

The final question from the questionnaire was directed to the shop owners/workers and is about if the shops have seen an increase in sales figures as there are now more houses which means more people, so in turn more potential customers. But out of the two shops tested 1 said they had seen an increase and the other said the bypass had not improved sales.

The traffic count carried out on the Hempsted bypass provided very useful information and showed me that the traffic problem lies not in the bypass itself but in Hempstead Bridge. The traffic cannot exit from the bypass as fast as it comes in, thus causing traffic jams which in turn might lead to people finding different ways home a cause smaller roads to be swamped with traffic they weren’t built to carry. The Hempsted traffic problem will hopefully disappear as soon as the bypass system has been finished and is completely operational.

Ultimately, I feel that I have investigated and achieved my aims through the questions I asked in my questionnaire, and the information I gained from various sources.

The data in the appendices part of this project played a great part as the information in found here about the south west system, made it possible to see the whole picture and all the benefits gaining for creating the bypass system, some of which do not just help traffic flow, such the why the estates where built.

During this investigation what was found is that the Hempsted bypass is part of a larger project, which involves linking with the use of the bypass the M5 south to the A417 in four sections. I found out that the reasons the bypass has so many large traffic jams is that the traffic gets slowed down in the exit from the bypass, the bridge causes this as it acts like a bottle neck. Thus it shall hopefully be corrected when the bypass system is completed in January 2005.

The traffic counts have turned out very well as the traffic counts taken by the council by means such as manual counting and electronic counts support the findings in my survey, but also provides information on other roads which have benefited from Hempsted bypass

In the appendixes there is more information about what made the council deicide to build the bypass system the data gained showed that before the bypass was built Bristol road carried over 21,000 vehicles a day, which is now down to 18,000 that is a 14% reduction. So it seems that the bypass has been useful at lowering the number of vehicles on other roads.

The method used to test the hypothesis was very useful and gained a lot of information from various sources. The data which help the most was the questionnaire results as those results are from the people who live close to and use the Hempsted bypass instead of information written by someone who does not use the bypass every day so only has the perspective of a visitor to the area. The information gained from Mr Dorian. Whiting who is part of the network improvement team helped very much.

Another thing I could do to gain more information could have maybe asked people visiting the local shop what their views were on different questions. The results helped a lot in making a valued and clear conclusion about the whole project. Things that could be done to develop this into a further study would be, handing out more questionnaires to hopefully increase the amount of answers, which in turn will increase the accuracy of the results, giving a more in depth picture into the people’s views about the bypass.

The data gained though this research would be able to make proposals about this area because of the before and after traffic counts received from Mr Whiting, these show that Hempsted bypass carries 5000 vehicles a day now, so just imagine how many this may rise to after it has been completed, even though now to someone with one the information it would seem like the bypass has just created traffic problems. The other data gained from Mr Adrian Clarke from the City Council was really helpful and easier to use and gain information of the objectives the scheme; these show everything that will have to happen to complete the bypass system.

All maps came from multi map.com or received in the letters from the City and County Council.

Mr Adrian Clarke from Gloucester City Council and Mr Dorien Whiting from Gloucestershire County Council for all the information in appendixes 1 and 2

All of the data in the information part of this project has been adapted from Internet sites such as          and www.gloucester.gov.uk