Two pedestrian crossings are replacing one crossing here in Abingdon. A developer came up with the scheme, and a planning inspector gave it the thumbs up, and so now it is nearly built.
The 2nd replacement pedestrian crossing, at the top of Ock Street, has caused a lot of traffic problems while being built. And has made it more difficult for pedestrians to cross the roads.
It also caused a lot of controversy before being built. It is being put in place to allow 158 dwellings to be built on Drayton Road, and should ensure traffic problems are no worse, after the additional housing, than they were before.
Local people wanted no more developments in South Abingdon without better infrastructure. Local people argued that the development was in the wrong place but that did not sway the planning inspector.
I’m no traffic expert but I simply cannot see how this will make any difference at all.
In this ‘development’, the term “Traffic Engineer” is an Oxymoron.
Socking great island obstruction in the carriageway!
With the inevitable logjam, how will Emergency Service vehicles get past ? Better ban all roadside parking in that area and take all the furniture off the footpath as well !
Craig, you are absolutely right. If anything it will make it worse as the traffic coming down the Drayton Road will now be delayed turning right to go into town because of the Pelican crossing. The crossings were just a ruse to allow the houses and the extra 250 cars coming down the Drayton Road. I travel down the Drayton Road to get to work and I can verify that the queues are horrendous at peak times. The Vale planners said that they do not have to take into account access times of emergency vehicles when making their decisions.
In the unlikely event that these mitigation measures will be successful in limiting traffic problems to their present dire state, what additional mitigation is planned to compensate for the future traffic increase, resulting from the many hundreds of houses planned for Drayton? Clearly it was too much to ask of Council ‘planners’ to have had the foresight to take that into account in the present measures.
How can people who call themselves planners really expect further obstructions to traffic flow will improve traffic flow ?
This is insanity, as is the their ignorance of Emergency Vehicle access times.
When somebody dies as a result, they may realise their mistakes.
It will be too late then !
I s explaining this to someone the other day. The way I put it is a small developer buys a plot of land and puts in a planning application. Everyone argues against and wins. The small developer then sells at profit to a larger developer who comes back arguing against every point that stopped the original application and wins – builds houses and runs away with a huge profit not caring about the quality of life for those in the new development or the surrounding areas.
Taylor Wimpys website says:
“Being a successful homebuilder means we do so much more than build homes. We provide high-quality places to live with appropriate facilities, an attractive environment and a sense of place. We also add social, economic and environmental value to the wider communities in which we operate.”
Oh good, that’s alright then, nothing to worry about!
Don’t worry about all the traffic, there will be £800k to spend on improving our town centre soon so they are surely going to sort out the traffic. Oh no, they are going to give us free wifi, which we already have in Bury Street. They are going to give us signs to tell us where to park our car. This is if we can ever get down the Drayton road.
I would like to urge all visitors to this blog to speak to the shop keepers in Abingdon & tell them to stop wasting so much time on this ridiculous idea, as the costs will be passed on to the consumer by increased prices at the tills.
Abingdonian1, what idea?
Two questions. Is the new crossing in ock Street in the correct place & anyone know when taylor wimpey intend to start building.
Testing the traffic should not be THAT hard.
how long it takes a car to travel from vineyard roundabout to esso marcham road, and reverse done at various times of the day
From the river crossing to esso. and reverse
mini roundabout on wootton road to esso and reverse
in theory and its just a theory you can obtain the CCTV in the town / traffic cams via an FoI and time it yourself might not get all of the locations but a pretty good shot.
Never mind the Drayton Road.Something
caused a massive tailback on traffic coming into Abingdon from Marcham this morning. I wonder what that was?
It is not just the Drayton Rd that has bad problems. Spring Rd also suffers and sometimes it was only possible to get onto the Marcham Rd from Spring Rd when the pedestrian lights stopped the traffic.
Some days this week it has been impossible to get down Spring rd and people have been turning around and giving up.
“The Vale planners said that they do not have to take into account access times of emergency vehicles when making their decisions”
I believe that ostrich attitude is no longer supportable; no wonder local politicians are held in wide contempt by the public they purport to serve. Perhaps they should reconsider their approach to ‘joined-up government’.
The idea of the two crossings was suggested in the report by SKM Buchanan – the traffic consultants commissioned by the original developer. That same report stated that if the crossings were to be installed, ‘there would be a traffic queue of no greater than five vehicles on the Drayton Road during the peak period’.
I may be forced to eat my hat, but the authorities which swallowed this claim without testing (as was requested) could possibly be considered by some to be either corrupt or just totally incompetent,
How can planners really expect further obstructions to traffic flow will improve traffic flow ?
This does not make sense, nor does their lack of concern regarding Emergency Vehicle access times.
When somebody dies as a result, they may realise their mistakes.
It will be too late then !
If this works I will be amazed, a device that slows traffic to a stop so it starts to back up.
Four roads converge to create a bottle neck at the roundabouts, so take away some of the traffic, make the Wootton Road accessible from Stratton Road traffic heading towards Ock Street (roundabout maybe), I would think up to half the traffic would then use Wootton Road to navigate different areas of west Abingdon leaving Ock Street less congested. This already happens with cars performing illegal right hand turns or turning around in the Bt, coxeters or community centre car park.
I would also look at making the bridge over the Thames by the Anchor pub 2 way (for cars only, no big vehicles) and controlled by traffic lights using East St Helens as the route South and West St Helens the route North, this would be similar to the bridge from Culham to Sutton Courtenay, again this would take some of the traffic away from heading down Ock Street only to then double back to South Abingdon.
These roads are in place and need no work to them so minimal cost, well no more than what is taking place at the end of Ock Street.
….don’t forget..tehre have been opportunities to help allieviate teh traffic at teh double roundabouts before…but, rtaher than do the best for Abingdon…teh “he said, she saids” between the blue and yellow tams was far more important than sorting the issue.
Now, we have teh MG garden – a welcome addition to Abingdon, just teh wrong place. And, the ‘jet lane’ at the McD roundabout heading straight on from Marcham road….?
Teh absolutely best town lanners and forward thinkers were tasked with helping ABingdons traffic woes. Unfortunately they were all busy…so we got someone else in….
Perhaps some adverse publicity in the local media about the traffic jams caused by the recommendations by SKM Buchanan and then the Vake can sue their socks off or enfor e them to rectify the problem……another pig fkying around Abingdon…
This new crossing on Ock St is supposed to help free up the queue along Drayton Road eh ……. so what happens when traffic from the Drayton wants to turn right and go up Ock St when the crossing is being used. No doubt cars will stop on the roundabout too because the crossing is nearly on top of the roundabout. Surely this will have a counter effect?
It might work one way, but its going to hold up cars going the other way.
On my way back from shopping and browsing the wares at fair acres and tesco at about noon today – a quiet Sunday, the temporary lights at the new position on Marcham Rd were causing queues back to the double roundabout…. indeed across it, as well as traffic backed up Drayton Rd (I assume as it was slow to turn left up Marcham Rd.)
It doesn’t bode well ! Mind you… it doesn’t have to , I guess….
Same situation when you come down spring road
Has anyone considered a ring road or a bypass and a new bridge? I think the majority of traffic is passing through Abingdon and the medieval road structure simply cannot accommodate that.The other thing is that planners don’t seem to take into account that people change their behaviour and that often negates the changes implemented and generally moves the congestion problem to another spot.
I have to travel through Abingdon, it takes me on average 30 minutes to get from the A34 to the Nag’s head bridge – about two miles.
When the town centre is closed for the fair, it takes me about ten minutes! maybe there is something to be learned from that ?