How to change workplace traffic routes without exposing pedestrians

When a site layout or work programme changes vehicle and pedestrian routes, review the traffic risk before the new movement begins. Map where people and vehicles will travel, identify crossings and reversing, provide separate routes where possible, make temporary controls clear to regular and visiting users, and check that the arrangement works at busy times.

The critical question is not whether a revised plan has been printed. It is whether a person walking to welfare, a delivery driver looking for reception and an operator reversing a machine can use the new arrangement without entering each other’s path unexpectedly. This guide is change control for internal workplace traffic; public-highway work and roadworks signing need their own technical and legal review. HSE: workplace transport introduction; HSE: road-system design.

Trigger a review before the physical change

Make clear which changes require traffic-plan review: a closed gate or walkway, new delivery route, changed loading point, different vehicle type, new construction phase, temporary storage in circulation space, changed shift pattern, increased vehicle volume, new public access, altered lighting, or a near miss. The person proposing the change should describe old and new layout, dates and hours, affected users, delivery and emergency access, and where people will go instead, marked on a current site plan. A dotted line is not enough; walk the route and see whether it follows where people naturally want to go, which HSE calls “desire lines”. Decide who can approve the new arrangement so informal changes do not escape review.

Map every user, including those who arrive occasionally

List employees, contractors, visiting drivers, cleaners, maintenance workers, visitors and, where relevant, the public, including cyclists and people using mobility aids. A visiting driver may follow the old sign; a contractor arriving at night may not see a temporary walkway. Map vehicle types and activities such as cars, forklifts, articulated deliveries and mobile cranes, with their different space, sightline and turning needs, including vehicles that visit rarely, plus loading and unloading, waste collection, emergency access and refuelling. Watch the handoffs: a safe footpath can end at a busy yard; a driver may leave the cab to sign in and cross a forklift route. HSE: site layout checklist.

Design separation before relying on behaviour

Ask first whether pedestrian and vehicle movements can be kept entirely separate in space or time, using separate gates, paths and loading areas. HSE says routes should be separated where reasonably practicable, with appropriately marked crossing points when they must meet, and that complete separation is the most effective control. Restricting either pedestrians or vehicles from a route at peak times can keep them apart, provided the alternative is safe and communicated. Temporary controls need physical credibility: a cone line may be moved by a vehicle or ignored if it leads nowhere; place signs where a user makes a route decision, not after they enter the conflict. HSE: separating pedestrians and vehicles.

Manage reversing as a design issue

HSE advises avoiding reversing where possible, for example with a one-way or drive-through arrangement, and says segregation and improving the driver’s view are more effective than relying on reversing alarms alone. When a route change creates new reversing, ask whether a different entrance, turning area, vehicle size or time slot could avoid it; if not, identify the reversing zone, exclude non-essential people, and define who controls the movement. HSE: vehicle movements checklist.

Check surfaces and visibility, brief users, then verify in use

A temporary route can be separated yet unsafe if its surface is muddy, uneven, icy, unlit or too narrow. Walk it in poor light and rain if those occur, and confirm fire and ambulance routes remain available. Update induction and site instructions, but do not rely only on a future induction session: existing staff, contractors, shift workers, security and delivery partners may all need the new route before it opens, and multi-contractor sites should mark old maps superseded. Then observe the site after implementation at the busiest or least familiar conditions, such as shift change, morning deliveries and darkness, and correct a temporary route that proves impractical rather than blaming those who ignore it. Set an end condition: who removes barriers, restores routes and updates maps.

FAQs

Sources

• HSE: workplace transport introduction
• HSE: separating pedestrians and vehicles
• HSE: road-system design
• HSE: site layout checklist
• HSE: vehicle movements checklist

Related: RAMS explained, five steps to risk assessment, and construction compliance software.

In this series: reversing vehicles and banksman decisions.