Myth busting: the new pavements and the width of Norwood road

As the works have continued along the Norwood Road pavement people have been asking why the road width has been narrowed. This is because as the pavements have been extended it has looked as if the road width has also decreased.

Myth busting: the width of the carriageway actually remains the same, meaning it is the same width now as it was before. This is 9.1 meters by the traffic lights and 8.2 meters outside of Superdrug’s where the parking bay has been removed. We were able to ensure this was the case because the footway has been expanded by 1.8m which is the same width as the previous parking bay.

It is hoped that this will improve traffic flow by removing the pinch point outside Iceland where vehicles were parked in the loading bay, and the parking bay opposite making it difficult for buses an HGV’s to pass one another. As part of the scheme we will be commissioning a road safety audit to look at the scheme as a whole. However, one area which will be a priority is to look at the assumptions made on traffic flow and the road width to see if this assumption has been met.