A lorry control has been applied, for environmental reasons, to the roads within a rural area of Hertfordshire lying between Hatfield and Hertford. During a 9-hour working day about 140 HGVs (heavy goods vehicles over 3 tons weight unladen), most of them concerned with aggregates extraction or refuse tipping, have been diverted from the roads inside the control area to surrounding main roads. The violation rate is about 30 per cent for HGVs with two axles but virtually zero for vehicles with more than two axles. Although the diverted vehicles now pass more dwellings than formerly it is estimated that there was a net reduction in lorry nuisance to households because of the effect of the higher traffic flows on the busier a-class roads to which the diverted vehicles have transferred. The diverted vehicles now travel an extra 5 km at an extra cost of about £1 on the average one-way trip. The total cost to operators is about £45,000 per annum at September 1980 prices; with full compliance it would be about £53,000. (Author/publisher)
Abstract