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.

The transport consultation ‘Connecting Oxfordshire: Local Transport Plan 2015-2031’ ends on 2nd Apr 2015. So there is still time to respond at https://consultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/CO_LTP4/consultationHome

The plan includes a scheme to provide south-facing slip roads onto the A34 at Lodge Hill in Abingdon, a scheme that sounds more likely to go ahead if recent pronouncements are correct.

The transport plan also talks about moving Park and Rides car parks away from the city of Oxford towards the towns. The first will be at Bicester. Then there could be one at Lodge Hill, with room for 1600 cars for people coming from the south. The last time a park and ride was proposed for Lodge Hill, in 2004, it would have held half that number.

The plan also mentions a lorry park at Lodge Hill – dependent on the slip roads going ahead.

The transport plan also safeguards a tract of land to provide a South Abingdon relief road if significant additional development are allocated to the south of the town in future. This would involve a direct link from west Abingdon to the A415 to the east.

Meanwhile work is progressing on improvements to the Milton Interchange. The A34 northbound will be closed overnight between Chilton and Milton (towards Oxford) on the 28th March from 9pm to 5am, and southbound between Marcham and Milton on the 29th March from 9pm to 5am.