Knock on effects

It's half-term for most of the schools and the effect on traffic means it's much quieter in the mornings; busier in the day and slightly less busy in the evening. So imagine my surprise when I joined the Worcester Road queue before reaching Cook's.

"An accident, something happened" I wondered

Then it struck me - the right-hand lane of Lion Hill had been closed all day; was it still closed? The answer turned out to be yes, but why would this affect the traffic?

With that lane of Lion Hill closed traffic from the town wanting to use it is being diverted up Vale Road and into Gilgal then Mitton Street; yup it's that infamous trio again. Despite Worcester Road having the right of way into the left-hand lane of Mitton Street everyone treats it as a priority junction; with Gilgal getting the priority (as I've complained about ad nauseum). With traffic only entering when nothing else is coming down, the extra traffic means less cars getting out from Worcester Road.

Less exiting builds a queue back to the island which is prioritised towards Hartlebury Road. So even when the traffic slackens or is stopped from that source the Worcester Road traffic still can't get out because the queue is that far back. So a queue builds up there.