Transport, Highways and Parking – Page 3

Car club bays: securing them and keeping them viable

Car club obligations fail when no operator will serve the location or when a street bay depends on a traffic order the developer cannot control. Both are fixable in the drafting.

Servicing yards: standing, reversing and banksman conditions

Highway officers start with whether the largest vehicle can enter, turn and leave in forward gear. This covers design vehicle choice, swept paths, standing time, servicing noise and pedestrian separation.

Bus stop improvements and the contributions that fund them

Public transport contributions are easy to concede and often unjustified. This tests the usual asks against the statutory obligation tests and sets out the drafting points that decide what they really cost.

Construction access for abnormal and oversized loads

Abnormal loads move under a separate regime from planning, with its own notification periods and veto points. This covers the thresholds, route survey, structural capacity, closures and escort arrangements.

Vehicle crossovers: the application and the specification

A dropped kerb is a highway authority consent under section 184, separate from any planning permission for the access or the hard surface. Here is what each one covers and what the specification demands.

Stopping up a highway to allow development

Planning permission does not extinguish a public right of passage. How stopping up orders work, why statutory undertakers object, and why apparatus diversions set the programme.

Permit-free obligations and how councils enforce them

A permit-free covenant only works where a controlled parking zone exists. How the obligation binds owners and occupiers, how councils enforce it in practice, and the five ways it fails.

Cycle parking that meets the standards and gets used

Numbers come from the local plan, quality comes from LTN 1/20. Stand spacing, access routes, two tier racks and the design decisions that decide whether a cycle store is used or ignored.

Fire appliance access and the distance to the entrance

Approved Document B fixes fire appliance access at 45 metres to all points in a dwelling and 18 metres to a fire main inlet. Those dimensions shape a site layout long before highway standards do.

Reading signal junction model outputs at planning stage

Three numbers decide whether a highway officer accepts your junction: degree of saturation, mean maximum queue and practical reserve capacity. Here is what each one hides.

Roundabout capacity: entry width, flare and the inputs

Roundabout capacity is derived from six geometric measurements per arm. Get entry width and effective flare wrong and the ratio of flow to capacity is wrong with them.

Technical approval for highway structures on an estate

Retaining walls, culverts and footbridges offered for adoption go through technical approval before a section 38 agreement completes. Identify them at layout stage, not at detailed design.

Section 278 bonds and how the sum is calculated

The bond in a section 278 agreement secures completion of highway works if you fail. Here is how the sum is calculated, what sits on top of it and when it is released.

Visibility splays: setting the x distance at an access

The x distance is the set-back from the carriageway to the driver's eye. On residential accesses it is normally 2.4 metres, and a speed survey is what moves the y distance.

5 October 2026Read article →

Traffic counts in neutral months and survey validity

Neutral period surveys exist so the baseline reflects an ordinary week. Agreeing the dates with the highway authority before surveying is the best value hour on the job.

Transport, Highways and Parking8 min read

Checking the extent of the public highway

The public highway is almost always wider than the tarmac. The section 36 list of streets tells you a street is maintainable, not where its boundary runs.

5 October 2026Read article →

5 October 2026Read article →

Street lighting, columns and adoption on new estates

A lighting design that satisfies the planning case officer can still be rejected by the street lighting engineer. Settle the adoption route before the layout is fixed.

Turning heads, cul-de-sac length and layout geometry

Turning heads are sized by the refuse freighter, not the car. Here is what actually fixes cul-de-sac geometry, and where the local design guide can be argued with.

Travel plan monitoring fees and review triggers

Monitoring fees are lawful but must be built up from real cost. Here is how to test the figure, set targets that can be measured, and cap the remedial obligation.

Parking accumulation surveys and the Lambeth method

A parking stress survey decides whether a scheme with no off-street parking is acceptable. Here is the method, the periods to avoid and how to present the result.

Refuse vehicle swept paths and bin carry distances

The refuse vehicle sets the geometry of a residential layout more often than the car does. Get the carry distances and the swept path right before the plots are arranged.

Trip generation for older persons and care housing

Older persons and care schemes generate few movements in the network peak and real parking demand on a Sunday afternoon. Here is how to select trip rates, handle shift overlaps and evidence a reduced parking provision.

Where cycle schemes fail LTN 1/20 requirements

Cycle schemes submitted with applications fail LTN 1/20 in the same four places: width, junctions, continuity and shared use. Here is what the guidance asks for and how to record a departure properly.

Servicing management plans for a town centre unit

For a shop or restaurant with no off-street yard, the servicing plan often decides whether the highway authority objects. Here is what to count, how to show where vehicles stop, and how to propose your own hours.