Traffic patterns being monitored as part of Shrewsbury movement strategy
News from Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Partnership
Cameras have been installed in Shrewsbury town centre for a second time to gather more information about traffic journeys as part of a new strategy for how people travel around the town.
The Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Surveys are taking place around Shrewsbury from Thursday 8th to Saturday 10th September, with the cameras due to be removed on Monday, 12 September.
Members of the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Partnership, which is leading work on the town’s movement and public realm strategy, say the cameras are gathering important data.
Councillor Ed Potter, Shropshire Council’s deputy leader and representative on Shrewsbury Big Town Plan Partnership, said:
“The cameras are fully integrated, home office compliant equipment, which are also used by police forces across the UK. Any personal data collected as part of the survey will be held in line with GDPR requirements by the relevant parties.
“We previously used them in May, and this second monitoring period will give us even more accurate information about traffic travelling through the town centre.
“The Big Town Plan Partnership is working with nationally-renowned transport planners and designers, PJA, on a new movement and public realm strategy for Shrewsbury, and the data collected by these cameras will be vital.
“Understanding how and why traffic moves through the town centre is an essential part of the strategy, along with other information including public transport patronage data, walking and cycling data, and outputs from strategic traffic models of the local area.”
The team from PJA has been conducting research and speaking with a range of community groups and organisations over the past few months. A report outlining their recommendations is due to be published later this year.
For more information about the Shrewsbury Big Town Plan, visit www.shrewsburybigtownplan.org
Further information
ANPR surveys use cameras mounted onto street furniture to record time-stamped numberplates of vehicles using specific routes.
The survey will be undertaken by traffic survey specialists, Intelligent Data. At each of the survey locations, Intelligent Data will use CA Traffic Evo 8 Cameras, and the DVLA and Manufacturer Database to quantify the volume of traffic in each direction and collate information about vehicle type, vehicle class, fuel type and vehicle emission data.
