John said “There is a lot of activity at the Boundary House Traffic Junction. Perhaps one of your knowledgeable followers can tell is what is going on. It seems curious that money is being spent on this junction – where as a user I have never noticed a problem – when there are potholes galore waiting for attention!
Better publicised is the work to begin this week at the Wootton Road / Dunmore Road roundabout. There will a new toucan crossing on the Dunmore Road, and the pavement from the roundabout to beyond Abingdon College will be widened to include a cycle lane.
This £300K scheme is funded by the Department for Transport and Oxfordshire County Council to improve cycle safety. The Abingdon northern ring road has had more than its share of cycle accidents and fatalities.
“Think Bicycle!”
It would make a far greater contribution to cycle safety on both those roads to fix the potholes. The Oxford Road is a like a third world track and Wootton Road south of the John Mason school has a selection of literally lethal trenches. Every one of these obstacles requires you to cycle round them. An accident waiting to happen for kids who forget to look over their shoulder first and drivers who give cyclists no enough room. Obviously though the useless muppets who pass for road planners would rather spend their time on grandiose vanity projects that will be barely used.
Don’t know what is happening at junction, but 4-way temporary lights are in place….The traffic lights appear to be taken down??.
I know it makes things very slow coming out of Appleford Drive/Alexander Crescent, had a funeral in All Saints Methodist Church on Thursday afternoon, with the trip to the ‘Crem’ for 16:00, Traffic soon built up, especially those trying to get to Rush Common School with the cars trying to get out of the church car park.
I do know they were late starting, and the work will take weeks!!!!!
I agree that the potholes south of John Mason School are an accident waiting to happen. And of course no wide cycle lane here…
The extra cycle lane south of the roundabout may improve cycle safety from the point of view of keeping bikes out of the way of cars, but it will put more pedestrians in the way of bikes. When cycling along the shared cycle path on the other side of the same road, I have been told by parents that it doesn’t matter whether their children are walking in the cycle or the pedestrian section.
A new shared cycle path would be a wonderful opportunity for some community education in their use – both for cyclists and for pedestrians.
The proposed cycle lane up the Wootton Road is an absolute planning travesty (and I write as a cyclist). The path down to the college will be a shared pavement with pedestrians – never a good idea. But far worse the crossing at the end of the Dunmore Road which will lead…precisely nowhere; to the short 10m long pavement on the other side which is not connected to anything. If the crossing had been put at the end of Copenhagen Drive it would at least have connected the 2 existing pieces of Wotton Road cycle path. If the council had really wanted to make a difference they should have put in a segregated cycle path up the Wotton Road north of the Long Tow turning. Unfortunately I only saw the planning application after it had closed so was unable to comment.
For info: Next week they’re resurfacing between Frilford Heath and the Frilford lights – with total road closure between 0930 and 1500 each day.
In fact, Abingdon could be in for a feature on the “Cycle facility of the month” http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/facility-of-the-month/index.htm
The road surfaces almost everywhere are a disgrace. Wait ’till there’s frost! Perhaps they are!
Shared pedestrian cycleways are truly a joke AbingdonVoter. Only an idiot would think that mixing people walking in not very straight lines mix well with bikes travelling several times faster. Obviously someone will say “you need to ring your bell”, well that doesn’t actually work when they’ve got headphones in, bobbing blissfully along on their mobility scooter or trying to garrote cyclists with their 14 foot long dog leads… perhaps they’d like to go for broke and put the buses down the path too.
I do like the roadside sign “Crossing works” Is that an oxymoron ?
LOOKS LIKE WE’VE BEEN HACKED!
Hacked big time…..
All of the articles
According to the Web page Highways Agency:
REFURBISHMENT TO EXISTING TRAFFIC SIGNAL JUNCTION. Members to note that … Location :- Boundary House, 69 Agent. Oxford Rd. Abingdon.
From just after Midnight the spam filter got blocked by something so all the spam comments got through. I will probably add another anti spam device soon. I have unapproved all comments from Midnight until 9:45 but some comment counts are now incorrect. Apologies to anybody who put a comment between midnight and 9:45. They are waiting approval now.
This is what they are doing to Boundary House traffic lights.
– Replacing poles and fitting new signal controller. (hopefully one that works! The old system did not work well for learner drivers who stop too far back and motorcyclists who are not large enough to trigger it.)
– Installing new extra low voltage equipment with Led signal heads. – to reduce power consumption.
Upgrading pedestrian crossing to Puffin type crossings. (I believe these are the sort that don’t stop the traffic if there is nobody going to cross)
All good stuff but should this really be a priority when the junction is working reasonably well. I suppose the fact that it’s the Oxford Road, Norman Avenue, South Avenue, North Avenue, Pickler’s Hill area may explain it.
I cycle regularly, and really struggle to stay on half the time through Abbey Meadows which is part of the National Cycle route. Its horrid trying to dodge the poor pedestrians and dog walkers whilst not falling off, most of whom don’t know its a cycle path and don’t appreciate your coming past, no matter how slowly. Plenty of room to widen that and sign it properly if the council wanted and they should get a grant as its part of the National cycle route.
My other route round the back of Waitrose is another problem area – more paint required to keep people “in lane”.
To keep people out of cars cycle routes need to be smooth and wide enough to keep pedestrians out.
Sign of the times perhaps….
The Temporary lights were not working this morning…
Slow traffic on Oxford Road, Norman Avenue, South Avenue, North Avenue, Pickler’s Hill area.
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Reading about Puffin crossing, seems to be lots of sensors used, for people crossing. or standing at the crossing. Don’t know if they will improve the flow.
Hopefully they will improve the road markings for right hand entry into Northcourt Road (driving from Lodge Hill end). and right hand entry into Appleford Drive.
Pelicans don’t monitor pedestrian flow across the crossing; Puffins do – hence the additional sensors. Generally, Puffins are more efficient.
Like others, I assumed that when work was to start in the middle of last month on the Oxford Road by Boundary House we would see the beginning of a much needed resurfacing of Oxford Road. What a delusion!
Narrowing of junction at Wootton Road end of Dunmore Road
Is a disaster. It now takes twice as long (up to 15 minutes) to travel the length of Dunmaore Road at rush-hour.
I agree that pedestrians and cyclists should have a safer means of crossing but surely a lights controlled set-up would have been better on all sides of the roundabaout.