Council wins high-tech bid to improve the transport network

Brighton & Hove City Council has secured £1.83 million to invest in improving the transport network to reduce congestion, improve road safety and enhance the management of traffic incidents.

The money, awarded by the Local Transport Body of the Coast to Capital LEP, will be spent on a range of technologies to improve travel for all road users, including traffic management systems for smoothing traffic flow, reducing congestion and making journey times more reliable. Traffic lights, pedestrian crossings and variable message signs for travel and car park information will all be part of the investment.

Brighton & Hove's bid is designed to help the city cope better with unexpected incidents and problems on the network which will help deal with congestion quicker and reduce air pollution caused by queuing traffic, as well as making it easier for people to get to where they need to go.

It represents a double success for the authority – the same LEP meeting yesterday awarded the council £1.16m to start a shared bike scheme.  It would see 430 hire bikes available from 50 docking stations citywide.

Councillor Ian Davey, lead member for transport, said: “Once again we have been successful in achieving funding for our transport infrastructure. Technology is developing all the time and we want to harness the very latest for the benefit of all our road users.

“This is great news for people however they travel and for businesses operating in our thriving and growing city.  We have a wealth of expertise in this area, being pioneers of the live bus stop information system and 'talking bus stops.' We can harness this technology to provide people with instant information about anything affecting the network, such as traffic incidents or availability of car parking spaces and respond better to traffic incidents to ease congestion quicker.”

 Total cost of the project is £2.1 million, with the remaining £300,000 coming from local contributions.