New strategy to transform travel in Watford approved

Watford Borough Council has approved the programme to help transform how people travel to, from and around the town.

The strategy is underpinned by six themes including increased active travel opportunities, improving public transport for longer journeys, providing alternatives to petrol cars, making the town centre more pedestrian and cycle friendly, supporting change and making moving goods more sustainable.

Key projects that will take place over the next 12 to 24 months include relaunching an expanded ‘Watford Car Club’ to provide more people with short-term car rental services.

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Further phases of public realm improvement will also be implemented, such as the bus gate to reduce traffic entering High Street and improvements to cycle and walking routes around the town centre.

Additional works that will be carried out includes installing more electric vehicle chargers around the town and providing more cycle parking facilities to help people travel more easily.

Peter Taylor with an electric charger

Schemes such as new cycle infrastructure on key routes across the town and measures to reduce delays for buses at congestion hotspots such as the ring road will also be looked at over the next two years.

Alternative uses of the disused railway line between Watford and Croxley will also be investigated as well as the introduction of a ‘Town Centre Sustainable Transport Hub’ which will allow easy interchange between different types of transport.

The programme of scheduled projects follows Watford Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council’s consultation on their ‘Transforming Travel in Watford 2021-2041’ strategy.

This showed the majority of the 1,000 people who provided feedback were supportive of the need for change to the way people travel, as well as the proposals put forward to do so.

Mayor of Watford Peter Taylor said: “Not only are congested roads annoying for people waiting in queues, but the pollution from vehicles has a big impact on our health. Improving how we get around Watford will be really important to the health and success of our town in the future.

“Over the last two years it has been great to see some improvements. In particular, our Beryl bike share scheme has been incredibly popular with almost 200,000 journeys since the launch last March.

“Our new strategy builds on the work we have been doing since declaring a climate emergency in 2019 and the top priority is to reduce the congestion around Watford and make our air cleaner.”