Feature
M62 - Your Local History
A lot of finds were uncovered during the archaeological evaluation carried out for the M62 Junction 6 Improvement scheme so we thought it would be nice to provide an interactive website so you can see what we found.
Feature
Better information for your journey
The National Traffic Control Centre collects real-time information on road conditions
Quick Links
Don't Cross or Walk Along Motorways
The Highways Agency aims to make more people aware of the dangers of walking or crossing our motorway. We have launched a poster and radio campaign aimed at 16-25yr olds. Hopefully with our hard hitting posters, our message will come across.
Educating tomorrow's drivers
See how we are driving through key messages about safety on our network for the drivers of tomorrow.
Meet the Ancestors
Find out about the history of roads and the work the Agency does to preserve archaeological remains.
See when traffic will be lightest
Our traffic forecaster can help get you there quicker
6. Publicity
The M1 HOV scheme will have a high public and media profile. It will be important to have an integrated approach to publicising the scheme and disseminating the results of the assessment of impacts.
It will be important to inform the press and the public of the reasons for the scheme and its expected effects, before the scheme is installed. It is recommended that advance publicity should explain the reasons for implementing the scheme and its expected impact.
Any likely negative impacts should be dealt with in the advance publicity, to attempt to reduce the dissatisfaction felt by any people who perceive disbenefits from the scheme. The prior publicity should not oversell the idea or inflate anyone's expectations.
It is also important to set up a method for responding quickly to criticisms in the press or by MPs. This highlights the need to be aware of the scheme's potential impacts so that appropriate information may be collected and presented in support of the scheme. Suitable data should be processed quickly, especially during the first few weeks of operation of the scheme, as this the most likely time for criticism.
The success of the scheme will also need to be conveyed to the public and the media. This should help both to prepare the public and to gain their approval for the wider implementation of the techniques concerned. Initial results should be released as soon as possible after the introduction of the scheme, followed by a more substantial report when detailed results are available. The initial results should concentrate on general effects of the scheme; care should be taken when quantifying benefits as the early results may change as more data becomes available. Any early publicity should have strong caveats attached to any results, whether they are positive or negative. There should be sufficient data available after six months of operation for a publicity release summarising the impacts of the scheme.
A review of existing HOV schemes (Dixon and Alexander, 2005) found that it is important that the public be given a complete picture of any benefits or disbenefits as, for some American schemes, incorrect conclusions have been drawn from published articles where incomplete data has been given. This lack of data was interpreted as a cover-up by the local authorities, who were thought of as trying to hide disbenefits of a scheme.
The most suitable methods of disseminating information are still to be determined. Possible methods are leaflets to be distributed locally (e.g. at libraries and service areas), and items in the local and national press and on television. Use of video techniques may make the information more comprehensible to the general public.
