There was a sign near St Helen’s Church trying to stop motorists going towards the Iron Bridge in the wrong direction. Traffic heading from South Abingdon is allowed over the bridge one way. The road is too narrow in two places for anything more.

There are two bridges connecting South Abingdon with the north, and the the other bridge on Drayton Road is closed overnight for resurfacing work. So traffic heading south had to find another way round.

But a lot of cars, going south, were risking going the wrong way over the Iron Bridge. That led to some tooting of horns.

When the police arrived they told several car drivers off for coming over the Iron Bridge the wrong way. They then started turned cars back before they could break the law.

Full moon tonight. There have been two full moons this calendar month. Thanks to Peter, from Abingdon Camera Club, who sent me this picture

The Drayton Road between Mill Road and the double mini roundabout will be resurfaced during the school holidays.

From this shot near the Ladygrove Meadow (and summer fair) it does appear that the surface is cracking up. This section of road has been flooded, and had to carry more traffic than most.

More is to come with the Morland Gardens development pending. The arguments of local people, ALL local Councillors and the local MP, Nicola Blackwood, who know the Drayton Road traffic problems, have had no effect, against this particular development.

Oxfordshire County Council need to look deeper than resurfacing to fix Drayton Road.

When I left Abingdon at 6:50am this morning there were people in cars, at junctions, or sitting on fold-up chairs, at junctions, counting the traffic. Returning home twelve hours later they were still there, or just packing up.

Andy pointed out that additional traffic sensors (across road strips) have appeared recently on the ring road, Vineyard, High Street, etc. He wonders if these have to do with the proposed new houses to the North of Abingdon. Or is it just the Council’s love of counting traffic.

There is a website where you can download the annual traffic counts from various static traffic counters in Oxfordshire – with about half a dozen in Abingdon.

From 2000 to 2014, there is not the obvious Oxfordshire upward trend in vehicle use that I expected. But that could just be more a reflection of the level of economic activity.

Julie wrote to me wanting to float an idea about the Dunmore Road traffic, if the new local plan gets ratified and farmland, outside the current peripheral road, is built upon.

Julie says …

Instead of building a bus lane on the Dunmore Road, use the money to build a proper ring road further away from housing, so that the new proposed housing north of the Dunmore Road can be within this circle, making the people who might live there feel more a part of the community.

The benefit of doing this would be less disruption when building. The ring road could go from the Wootton Road roundabout, right alongside the A34, joining at the new interchange, a shorter distance of road to build.

The roads from the proposed development should exit onto the new ring road, making it pleasant for people living there to walk to the Dunmore Road, which would return to being to a tree-lined estate road with nearby shops, parks etc.