Highways service levels

Road networks are provided for the benefit of users. Local authorities are actively involved in contributing to the reform agenda, and managers of local road networks need to understand user expectations in terms of levels of service and their relative priorities for maintenance. This is reinforced in Well-maintained Highways, which states that one of its key objectives is “to encourage a focus on the needs of users and community and their active involvement in the development and review of policies, priorities and programmes”.

To this end, and to assist local authorities in the development of their Transport Asset Management Plans, this research is exploring the way in which different kinds of road user talk about carriageways and footways, and the ways in which user vocabulary and expectations can be related to engineering considerations.

The work is being undertaken by TRL Ltd and the work is expected to be completed in the autumn of 2006.