In our area the a good number of people in town of Oswestry and the rural
area around want a roundabout! This would replace a staggered (deaths so far 5)
junction where traffic from the town and industrial estate crosses the Oswestry
by-pass to reach various villages. The by-pass is part of a trunk road and so
is government controlled. To save money they built the by-pass just 20 years
back with just one staggered junction - ours. A few weeks later the deaths
started.
There have been questions in parliament, petitions, a letter writing
campaign and even a spot on the radio, but the government's regional road mob
in Brum say that the number of deaths/accidents would not even warrant a
widened road to get crossing traffic out of the way of the fast through
traffic. One gets the impression from schemes elsewhere that if it ain't urban
it ain't important.
As for our bus service it is one every two hours and last bus at 5pm so
everyone on this side of the by-pass has to risk life and limb in our cars just
to do the weekly shopping. Roundabout - we just wish...
to v
Iain Street <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----- 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
>
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>
>
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