Work on the new pedestrian / cycle crossing near the Wootton Road roundabout is well underway. The lights have been installed on Dunmore Road, and the corner made tighter to slow traffic down.
Work is now progressing on widening pavements for dual pedestrians / bike use towards Abingdon and Witney College. Crossings near the college, and paths the other side of the college, are also being improved.
In the past there have been a number of accidents involving cars and cycles near the roundabout. To cut future accidents, the scheme should slow cars at the junction, and allow less confident cyclists to use the Toucan crossing.
Will the cyclists use them or will they ignore them just like the cycle tracks
Thanks for this update Backstreeter, I’d been wondering about the logic of making the A34 bound entry from 2 lanes to 1, whilst sat in the queue every day from 7am onwards..
It’s certainly worked in terms of slowing traffic down, as it now backs up beyond Hanson way..
Genius traffic planning, that’s now fast making the ringroad as bad as the town centre.
And The Vale wants to add another 600+ houses to feed into this road and roundabout, can’t wait…
Too many pedestrians use the (cycle) paths, according to most cyclists I hear complaining. It looks like people can’t just get along and say excuse me when passing.
I suspect the children who walk or cycle from Wootton/Whitecross to the Abingdon schools each day will still cross after the roundabout and ignore the new crossing. Who could blame them when the new crossing leads precisely nowhere and they still have to cross the Wootton road to reach it! I drive past it every day and the whole thing baffles me too.
I’m with you Rachel – currently lots of children cross the top of Wootton road on the way to Larkmead via Copenhagen Drive. This isn’t going to help them cross any more safely. For a while I thought it was in two phases and the crossing across the Wootton Road was going to be started anytime (to fit in with the deadline posted on the roadsigns) but now I realise that we are only getting the one crossing which, like Rachel has already said, leads nowhere and some kids will still have to cross another road to get home. Seems incomplete and ready for an accident to me.
…I haven’t particularly looked at the plans..but isn’t all this crossing work being carried out to fit in with all the new housing going in there soon – (that’s being ‘consulted’ upon/ hasn’t been given permission yet).
Complete waste of money. This is just a pointless vanity project to make councillors think they’ve actually done something. A fraction of the cash could have repaired the road surfaces on that road to a standard vastly improving the safety of cyclists both child & adult. There are a selection of particularly lethal potholes south of the school getting worse every week while the hi-viz tabard squad have sent the builders in to make a footpath a few inches wider.
Shared cycle pedestrian paths DO NOT WORK as “say excuse me when passing.” does not work as either pedestrians don’t hear you over the traffic, have headphones in or simply ignore you as they try to garrote you with 10 foot dog leads.
jb, I agree with you, I use the sustrans path to walk from my estate (Used to be called Barton Court Farm Estate), to Waitrose, or Abingdon. It is not marked for pedestrians/cycles. I usually move out of the way for cycles, if I am aware of them, attitudes of some cyclists to pedestrians, (I see the same attitudes in Oxford every day).
there is a very good reason why most cyclist do not use the existing cycle lanes in Abingdon. They are generally far too narrow and do not allow an arms distance from the road side, or space to avoid an opening car door, they are full of pot holes, broken glass, and cars see them as a great place to park. If you ask them to move, the normal response is to look mystified and ignore you. Currently all, transport plans are only aimed at motorists, with scant planning made for pedestrians or cyclists, our town centre is a concrete island