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Drivers queue to pass the new Shinfield Road traffic lights

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Drivers fuming at Shinfield Road traffic lights

By David Millward
September 01, 2010

Motorists have reacted angrily to the introduction of two new sets of traffic lights on a main route into town.

Drivers and neighbours say the replacement of two roundabouts with the lights in Shinfield Road has created traffic chaos.

And they say the new bus lay-by is too small for buses and is a potential hazard.

Even the borough’s transport chief has admitted he does not like the scheme and has promised a review.

The lights were introduced on Shinfield Road at its junctions with Whitley Wood Road and Elm Road last Wednesday, when they promptly broke down and stuck at red.

John Morgan, who lives in nearby Blagdon Road, said: “There are really long tailbacks now in the middle of the day when traffic never used to be an issue.

“There are a couple of places where it was difficult for pedestrians to cross so I can see why some changes were needed but this just seems like overkill.

“It seems a lot of money to spend when everybody’s budgets are being cut.”

Luis Mendiz, of Elm Road, who campaigned against the traffic lights, said: “They will not help the situation but hinder it, as no-one will be able to move around here while priority is given to north/south traffic.

“We will get stuck with semi-permanent traffic queues and CO2 and other idle-engine pollutants right outside our doorsteps, just as we predicted months ago in our petition.”

He also warned the new bus lay-by near the Elm Road junction was too narrow for buses to pull in.

Mr Mendiz said: “This causes the bus to jut out sometimes so the southbound traffic has to stop behind the bus.

“As well as being totally unnecessary, this makes it difficult to turn from Elm Road.”

Kate Pembroke, of Cutbush Lane, Lower Earley, who regularly uses the route into Reading, agreed.

She said: “I have seen two near misses at the new bus stop opposite The Maidens pub.

“One was trying to get round the bus, not knowing the width, and the other didn’t realise the bus couldn’t get into the bus stop and nearly went into the back of it.

“Unless people are cautious that is a potential accident hot spot waiting to happen.”

Councillor Richard Willis, who became Reading’s lead councillor for strategic planning and transport after the May elections, said work had already started on the project before he took up his post.

He said: “It’s not a scheme I would have liked to have been implemented the way it has.

“There were a few minor changes we made but frankly I was stuck with the scheme left by the previous administration.

“If it had been mooted at this stage I would not be looking at replacing working roundabouts with traffic lights.

“It’s pretty much completed now and I think, to be fair, this needs to have at least a few weeks for people to get used to the new arrangements.

“What I have said repeatedly to local residents is we will review it after it’s been in place for six months.”

Scheme is ‘not complete’

Reading Borough Council spokesman Oscar Mortali said the new traffic scheme was implemented in response to a number of accidents on that stretch of road.

He said the new lights allowed dedicated pedestrian phases to help people cross, particularly children at Whiteknights Primary School and residents of two nearby homes for the elderly.

He added: “While traffic lights were switched on last week, they are still being monitored and testing will continue over the next few days to ensure they are working correctly during the different periods of the day.

“However, the scheme is still not complete and we’d ask the public to bear with us while work continues.

“Concerns about the width of the road at the new bus lay-by near The Maidens pub may have arisen because work was still taking place nearby which temporarily narrowed the width of the road, however the scheme should be completed by the end of next week.”

davidmillward@trinitysouth.co.uk

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Oh Boy!!!!!

Went through these for the first time on Saturday – twice!!

The first time we where coming back from Fleet, my brother needed to go to Carphone W’house so we came through from Shinfield, we joined the queue about 100 yards up from the Lower Earley Way roundabout, and this was at about 1:30pm

I have never queued along there before apart from peak times and then never that long or far!! It took so long to get through the junctions I could have gone for a pint in the Maidens whilst my brother waited in the traffic!

We came out of CW and went down Elm Rd – the queue was out of sight down the Shinfield Rd coming from town, in Elm Rd the queue was all the way back past the Elm Lane roundabout - again I have never seen it like this even at peak times – the lights at the road works there kept changing but the cars could not move due to the queue!!

Later on I had to go back up / through there at about 5:00pm – I queued up Elm Rd and through the 2 junctions and it took 3 times as long as it did before the lights went in – never happened at this time before!!

And both times I witnessed pedestrians just wandering across the road between the set of lights / junctions whereas before they would at least try and use the crossings so it must be far more dangerous then previously

RBC hang your heads in shame for allowing this debacle to have been finished and to continue – never mind 6 months for a review or even 6 weeks – 6 days is enough to see its NOT WORKING…………..

OLDMAN!, Reading
13/09/2010 at 11:27

This is an absolute outrage. It takes forever to get through, but the worst case is to get to the tescos or subway for example, in between. The two sets of lights contradict each other and back up to queues and long tail backs in all directions. You can't progress through one light as the other is still on red. You've lost the right of way to go right to elm road. You don't have the same right of way as you do going in the opposite direction to whitely wood. With a separate arrow turning right. This needs sorting out seriously! and please do it quickly it's a nightmare for those that live through this everyday.

tinofpineapples, Reading
10/09/2010 at 18:21

Roger T: your comments do nothing to raise the profile of cyclists. You are clearly a militant car hater and represent everything bad about the obsessive anti-car road safety lobby that now defies common sense on a biblical scale.

JDP
08/09/2010 at 09:44

Mr readingtree.....you obviously should have gone to Specsavers today as your vision is obviously out of focus! I was nowhere near the Civic centre today............I have much more important things to do that sit about waiting for you to come along. And as for my comments .....they are true ....Cllr Willis has voted for and presided over this cock up , and a group of 11 year olds could have devised a much more practical scheme. It is also stating the obvious that drivers will be taking the residental roads around the area in an attempt to get to where they want to go in a reasonable time. What part of that is either wrong or abusive?

Howard Thomas Common Sense party
03/09/2010 at 18:38

An utter and dangerous waste of money.

I have used this route to drive, and also cycle to work in the centre of Reading over quite a number of years.

The traffic queues have been massive since to light have been turned on. (Consider that the disruption has not been as bad at any point during the roads works for this scheme until both sets of traffic lights were turned on).

Whatever mode of transport you are trying to get into Reading by, these changes significantly increase your travel time, and the schools are not even back yet.

Other posters are right, people will avoid this area, thereby putting extra load on unsuitable residential roads, hence we have a major junction rendered massively less safe, and roads around it turned into rat runs and hence again less safe.

Quite simply, narrow roads are dangerous, as you loose visibility, have no where to go if a situation does arise, this applies to all users of such roads, drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians alike.

Implementing a scheme based on narrowed roads, around a major junction series on an A road is simply madness.

But that is what we have here.

Comments by other posters here that once the roadwork’s have been completed that the bus stop situation will cease to be, are frankly rubbish, buses will not be fully off the highway, result, the road is still blocked on this narrowed road.

As for the layout of the actual junctions, you cannot (if driving) pass in the left of traffic waiting to turn right, hence more gridlock.

Road humps, surely somebody is having a laugh, if not, then this is one part of the scheme that RBC can still stop, and must.

Then again the whole scheme should be ripped up, and thing put back as they were, the roundabouts worked, and there was a perfectly good pelican crossing.

Those at RBC, both in terms of the design and the subsequent approval of this scheme must be publicly held to account, and immediate steps must be taken undo this dangerous waste of money. (Scrapping other so called planned ‘road improvement’ schemes can be used to fund it).

Driver&Cyclist
02/09/2010 at 23:41

Mr Commonsense, i saw you sitting outside the Civic Centre today, why are you not in there working your magic, or are you just happy to sit on the outside and throw your abuse in? We need action not words from everyone!

readingtree, Reading
02/09/2010 at 20:19

Cllr Willis says that he doesn't like the scheme and yet when he was in the position of voting for or against it at the council meeting, he voted for it ! We and others have pressed him to use his position to alter this ridiculous scheme after he became the lead man on transport in Reading , but he has always said that he was unable to do so because the contract had been let. We will be investigating whether this is actually the case, and if it is , exactly who is responsible for putting out a contract that it is 'impossible' to amend after it is becoming more and more clear that the council ( and Cllr Willis in particular) are presiding over a cockup ! 2 things are competely obvious here , one is that many drivers are going to look for alternative routes which will put more traffic onto other main routes ( like the already screwed up A33) or into less than suitable 'rat runs'. The second obvious point is that a team of 11 year old school children could have done a much better job of it making any changes to the Shinfield rd area !

Howard Thomas Common Sense party
02/09/2010 at 19:23

Whitespirit, the figures will show that the Maiden's area was not an accident blackspot, such that it warranted the radical change that has been implemented. If it was then the Council has been negligent in not introducing any traffic calming measures sooner. The curiosity is that the Council moved from nothing to everything including the kitchen sink without proper and sound consultation. Make no mistake the research conducted was a sham and the results not worth the consultant's fees or tax payers' money. What the Shinfield Road shows is that the Council has not learnt the lessons of either the Rose Kiln Lane or one-way IDR fiasco. Now what needs to take place is a complete review of the competence of town and transport planners. What are they attempting to achieve. If you examine the Local Transport Plan covering the period to 2011 you will notice that the Council has failed to meet any of the stated objectives save those directed by central government. There needs to be a more rigorous form of scrutiny as it has again been shown that Councillors have not been diligent enough in the town's interests, and we rely on them to ask the right questions. Then again it really boils down to their competence in transport planning as much as the planners.

Next week Reading returns to normal - school runs, etc. My straw poll of local residents suggests that a great many have decided on alternative local routes through residential roads. The bottom line is that the Council should have taken notice of the public's call for further planning and consideration of the area.

Damocles, Reading
02/09/2010 at 11:50

Stuck in more traffic last night and this morning..

Businesses down that way will suffer, Only used them cause they were easy to get to. Now i aint gonna use them, the time it takes to get ot them i could of easily gone to the supermarket.

RBC bad for businesses and bad for drivers

Brock O'Lee
02/09/2010 at 10:41

In fact I've just submitted a FOI request to rbc. Lets see what their reply is.

whitespirit
02/09/2010 at 09:10

We never have seen tha accident statistics used to justify this idiocy. Methinks a freedom of inrofmation request wil lbe on it's way from me to rbc soon.

whitespirit
02/09/2010 at 08:57

Could someone just pass a memo to Siemens (who must have the best sales team in the world) to tell them to stop selling traffic lights to Reading Borough Council?

Genial Harry Grout, Twyford
02/09/2010 at 08:00

@Forbury Lion - So they've installed these dreadful traffic lights AND they are also going to install speed bumps?! Talk about overkill. I would've thought that a number of speed bumps and a pedestrian crossing would've been the solution, but no the council's traffic department hard to find a way to spend their yearly budget (yes, a controversial statement!)

GingerYoshi
01/09/2010 at 23:42

Total shambles. I cannot believe that this whole idea was conceived by an experienced traffic planner as my 8 year old could have done it better. It's like a "lets throw all these ideas together and see what happens" kind of planning.

Certainly more dangerous now and holding up traffic, I can see drivers looking for alternative routes along the residental and school roads around the area.

Now what really worries me is that surely, if anyone could change this then the new "lead councillor for strategic planning and transport" can, and he has even admitted in this article that he didn't think it would work when he saw what was going on. So why on earth did you not stop this waste of effort and money, Mr Willis when you got the job 4 months ago???

Dr Watson, Reading
01/09/2010 at 22:15

OMG - The traffic was free flowing before they put these dreadful lights up. It is bumper to bumper everynight I go home we even had to queue on Sunday during the day!!!!! What are Reading Borough Council thinking off. A complete waste of time and OUR money.

The poor people having to look out onto the traffic not to mention the fumes they must be getting.

It has also added another 10 wasted minutes onto my journey home. I have already tried alternative routes.

Lets hope they will see sense and put the roundabout back!!