Traffic signs and transport advice service set to reduce congestion

Two solutions to help ease town centre traffic-flow in Maidenhead are due to be rolled out before the end of the year.

The introduction of a personalised travel planning service and installation of electronic travel information and car park signs were confirmed at a Maidenhead Town Forum meeting on Tuesday.

The personalised travel planning service will give householders in selected areas of Maidenhead the chance to meet an advisor who will offer suggestions about how to get around more efficiently.

Householders will first be asked to fill out a survey before receiving a free visit from an adviser who will use the information to offer the best solutions.

The scheme, due to be introduced in the autumn, will focus on encouraging people to leave their cars at home.

Electronic travel information signs with the option for text changeable messages are due to be installed on the town's roads by the end 2013.

These signs will warn drivers about upcoming obstacles and delays.

They will be placed on the Braywick Road and at two points on the A4, one near to Maidenhead Bridge and the other incoming from Maidenhead Thicket.

Variable message signs will also be installed at the Stafferton Way, Nicholsons Centre and Sainsbury's car park with all three systems interlinked.

The Royal Borough's highways and transport manager Ben Smith said: "The signs will direct people to where there are spaces so people won't clog up the town centre and be looking for a space that doesn't exist."

Money for both projects has been provided by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

The possibility of building a multi-storey car park in Stafferton Way to coincide with Crossrail's arrival in 2019 was also flagged up at Tuesday's meeting.

A suggestion was made as to how a new car-park could connect to the station providing a convenient drop off point at platform level.