In fairness to the County Council, and I am not one to defend them too often
lol, they are up against the same challenges as we all are as residents here.
Our modern day lifestyles have changed so rapidly the comments about the roads
not being able to handle the volume of traffic is so very true.
Sadly, however, it does seem many of the of the alterations made to control the
flow of traffic [particularly Oxford and its immediate surrounding areas] cause
massive tailbacks of traffic and/or accident hotspots. Example the Headington
main road alterations; the Windmill Road traffic lights always have been a
nightmare, now with the extra traffic lights and pedestrian crossings in a half
mile stretch of road, some are less than 150m apart! - it is no wonder the poor
motorist faces a gridlock every day of the week, a tad more than traffic
calming. Yes we need to be able to cross the road, but do we really need seven
in such a short stretch of road?
The Lime Walk alterations where I live, and parallel roads has, as the vast
majority seem to agree, been a failure, so far, as the traffic now has a
bottleneck at All Saints causing delays, which results in the cars accelerating
rapidly once past it to make up time. Not sure about that? Watch if you have
time in the busy periods, it is quite horrifying.
Without going through all the possible ways to keep everyong happy, a difficult
task in any circumstance, there IS one sure option that would certainly work,
in more ways than one, and that is two speed cameras, funded by the
police/county council? One of these half way to the All Saints crossroads, on
both sides would have the desired effect β word would soon get around β and
they would also generate some much needed revenue. The 20 MPH zones
unfortunately do not work as they are not enforced in any way at all.
This will no doubt be an ongoing issue for everyone, even the Windmill Road
traffic lights junction is already βoverloadedβ, yet there is no other suitable
route. Lets hope someone does have one of those rare brainwaves that is
affordable and will work.