----- Original Message ----- From: "Niall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2007 4:21 PM Subject: Re: [canals-list] Re: Proposed new car tax (OT)
> (snip) > Ok, explain Sherrifhall Roundabout, on the Edinburgh City Bypass. Every > minor road crossing the bypass has a split level junction, except the > junction with the A7 and A68, which is a roundabout with traffic lights. > Those lights are phased so that traffic is allowed onto the roundabout > from > one road, then stopped across the next, whose lights then go green, before > the previous lot is allowed to exit. Result is that one vehicle gets onto > the roundabout per light cycle. When the lights break down, the > "congestion" > disappears. There is no pedestrian access whatsoever. Lack of cash for building a full clover lef? > Edinburgh Council is well known to be anti car. Coincidence? > This is the council whose congestion charging proposals were heavily > rejected in a referendum, and which is now introducing trams, removed in > the > first place for being inflexible and a major cause of congestion. IIRC, and I was very young at the time, the trams did not cause congestion, but were discontinued because buses were more flexible in operation. The other problem was the restoration of the track(money again) after roadworks. Princes Street lost its cobble stones once the trams had gone. >They refuse to put the tram question to a referendum, more or less >admitting it's > because they know they'd lose. After the congestion charge referendum, are you surprised? :-) There are other examples of "congestion causing" roundabouts; Almondvale in Livingston, another traffic lights one, and the new roundabout on the A7066 (old A8) at Bathgate, where a roundabout has been installed for access to the new houses on the British Leyland site. This one is offset from the road, which seems to be the fashion these days, but makes the roundabout a lot trickier to negotiate, especially for HGVs. It's not only roundabouts that cause congestion; traffic islands, combined with buses and parking, regularly bring parts of West Lothian to a standstill. IMHO, traffic separation and calming could be achieved by a broad rumble strip painted on the road, instead of islands. -- Iain > > -- > Niall > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > >
