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New feeder taxi rank to make roads safer in Watford
Watford Borough Council has introduced a ‘feeder’ taxi rank at The Avenue car park, in an effort to make the town centre safer at night.
Road safety concerns have been raised about the number of taxis queuing up to use the Rickmansworth Road taxi rank on Monday, Friday and Saturday nights. The rank is only capable of holding about eight taxis to help take away the estimated 8,000 revellers, meaning that many more taxis often have to queue all the way back to the Town Hall roundabout junction.
Licensing Enforcement Officers regularly issue penalty points to taxi drivers who contravene the Council’s taxi rank byelaws by waiting on the double-yellow lines leading up the rank.
Various options had been looked at in the past to re-engineer the rank, which also serves as a bus stop, and during the day as a loading bay, but these have all been ruled out on the grounds of cost.
The new initiative means that The Avenue car park will be used as a feeder rank. Taxis will queue in the car park instead of in Rickmansworth Road. More taxis will then join the Rickmansworth Road rank when indicated to by a taxi marshall.
Councillor Keith Crout, chair of the licensing committee at the council, said: “I am pleased that we have been able to introduce this latest initiative for managing the night-time economy, of which a safe and orderly dispersal policy is a key part. I am also particularly pleased that this idea was put forward by the taxi trade itself at the Licensed Driver and Vehicle Project Board.”
The feeder rank will operate from 11pm to 3.30am on Monday, Friday and Saturday nights for an initial trial period, after which its hours of operation may be modified.
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