Traffic team watching 24/7 to beat congestion
TIME and time again, there have been media reports on incidents on the M60, M62 and M56 which have sent shockwaves across our local road systems.
The result is familiar to us all.
Weary waits and wasted time sitting in stagnant queues on key routes like the Mancunian Way, Trinity Way and the A580 East Lancs Road.
Tuesdays are the worst days for congestion in Manchester.
November is the worst month, which could be something to do with the weather and Christmas.
Whatever the reasons, incidents at rush hour often lead to traffic chaos.
Three times over the last three weeks, huge swathes of Greater Manchester’s road network have ground to a halt.
Last month, commuters suffered 90-minute tailbacks on the M60 near Eccles after a twolorry crash.
Exacerbated by a broken-down HGV, queues stretched back to junction 18 for Holmes Chapel and affected roads around Salford.
A week later a serious crash on the M60 between the East Lancs Road and Worsley led to a full closure.
There were delays across Prestwich, Swinton, Pendlebury and Salford. Aggravated by other incidents, average journey times fell to 12mph.
Then there was the Bank Holiday weekend just gone, when an oxygen tanker caught fire on the M62, closing the westbound motorway for fire hours.
Cue gridlock on roads around Oldham and Rochdale.
But why does one major incident have the potential to cause such widespread chaos?
It’s all about how Manchester’s road network is designed - and how we, as drivers, use it.
Steve Gilholme is network reporting and monitoring manager at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).
He helps run the new 24/7 control room, among mayor Andy Burnham’s pledges to tackle congestion.
It monitors Greater Manchester’s ‘key road network’. This covers 1,300km - or just 7 per cent of the region’s roads.
But that small percentage carries around 70pc of total traffic, so the staff here are at the city centre control room are at the congestion coalface.
Steve says part of the problem stems from the sheer motorway mileage – the M60, M62 and M56 – around the city.
And when junctions on a major road like the M60 close, people become ‘trapped’ in the city.
“We’ve got more motorway than anywhere else in the country,” he says.
“And nearly every junction spits people out into the town centre so it’s very, very difficult to recover traffic once the M60 goes and you lose two or three junctions.
“People change their travel patterns so you never really know when and where issues will manifest - every day is slightly different.
“It could be an accident, the weather.”
Chris Thorpe, head of control and operations for TfGM, describes the problem as ‘complex’.
“There are times when it’s really difficult to intervene,” he says.
“But there are times when we do get there quickly enough and if we can start working with agencies we can put interventions in place.”
Measures they can take include:
Monitoring the roads 24/7 to tackle issues when they start
Changing any of the 9,000 traffic signals to control the traffic - creating ‘green flushes’ to clear gridlock
Adjusting the digital signs to warn drivers of upcoming problems and suggest alternative routes
Making sure the message is on social media
Setting up an incident management team dedicated to the problem
Even with these measures at their fingertips, it’s a challenging job.
Chris added: “If you’ve got a four-car pile-up on the motorway and you’ve got congestion sitting behind it we have to try and predict and manage where people might go instead.”
In a bid to help solve this problem, TfGM staff have been working more closely with Highways England, which manages the motorways. And in