We don't need no stinkin by-pass 2
As a follow on to my timed journey I did another, recall it took about 6 minutes to get from the 30 zone to the island. This time:
Fire - Arthur Brown: 2:54
Carol of the Bells - Arthur Fiedler: 1:13
Love Shack - B52s: 3:58 in (just as the "Bang bang bang on the door" started)
So call it 7 minutes... that was to get to the start of the 30mph from which I took my last reading.
In then took:
Love Shack - B52s: 1:25 (the remainder of the 5:23)
Venus - Banarama: 3:39
Walk like an Egyptian - The Bangles: 3:20
Where's Your head at - Basement Jaxx: 1:50 in
So call it 10 minutes. That's 17 minutes total to travel 1.3 miles. I've been in worse.
As an example a different night I turned the corner at the island with 1:40 on the music and reached the Mitton Street entrance at 2:50. Just over a minute to travel 0.1 of a mile. No-one turning right into the station or Baldwin Road, no-one broken down - just traffic coming down from Gilgal and not always in the left 'priority' lane, but due to the curve in the dark you can't distinguish which lane they're in so everyone stops just in case.
Now sure some sections are worse, however I would like to point out that for those trying to get from Stourport proper towards the Worcester Road and back there is no other route available that either doesn't go in the totally opposite direction, down country lanes, or lead back to the same point from another direction.
Let's face facts - we're not going to get a bypass from the dual-track to Hartlebury Road any time soon and the 'by-pass' via Discovery Road leading to Mitton Street will do nothing if not make things worse and this has been the known situation for over 30 years yet what's been done about this section of road... they've put a sign up on the entrance to Gilgal warning of merging traffic.
Recall that at either end of Gilgal we have a lane that can travel at the full speed travelling around an inside bend being joined at the outer side by traffic that can't travel at the same speed while negotiating the tight inner turn. The natural line that the fast-moving traffic takes is to switch lanes in both cases as they come around the turn as this is the straighter course. Stop them!
Extend the damn dividers so you can't cross the lanes on the corner, but only once you're on the straight. If that's too expensive edge the cross-hatchings in unbroken white lines rather than the broken ones which supposedly means you can't travel through them. I doubt that latter will have much effect, but it's an attempt at least and hardly expensive - they need remarking anyway as they're starting to fade.
2 comments:
Yes - good plan for Gilgal dividers.
I don't use that area in the rush hour, but during the day coming from Vale Rd I always swing round that tight turn at a decent speed and switch lanes further down to go up Worcester Rd. It is amazing how shirty some drivers in the other lane get when they think you are going to come straight across into their lane.
If there was some strong demarcation down the middle it would ease the flow.
Andrew
It would definitely line up everyone into the correct lane; then the next problem to be dealt with is the queue that forms back from the island. Yet I've said the cause of that derives from the same principle - not knowing where the vehicles are going.
Any traffic on the island on the Hartlebury Road exit side has their lower halves hidden by the island and any traffic turning right from OGL/Thomas Vale is obscured by the first lane traffic turning left until you reach the island itself. So it becomes stop/start at the island which feeds back up the line.
Lower the island height and reduce the Worcester Road exit to one lane... downside being the York Street problem with no-body bloody indicating; then again it's a major and obvious left/right junction unlike the other.
As a bonus trimming the lane would allow a slip to turn right to Thomas Vale and ease the blockage back to the island that forms when someone tries to turn right into what has now become a mini housing estate.
Post a Comment