Thanks to Paul for this report and pictures …
The workmen were out bright and early on Sunday, a day early, to start Preston Road resurfacing works.
They took some neighbours by surprise as the County Council must have decided to extend the resurfacing work to the junction with Lambrick Way. A few cars which were parked on Preston Road had to be moved with haste.
With the beefy machinery in place and good weather it didn’t take long to remove the old tarmac down to the hard-core of the road.
Then it was on with the new tarmac and by mid afternoon the stretch from Lambrick Way to Kensington Close was done.
Work is overdue, let us hope the chicanes will be replaced with a more modern and appropriate design
However communication with residents has been appalling, even by OCC’s pretty low standards.
on 24 March residents were dropped off a letter saying among other things:
1. work was only from Drayton Road to Kensington Close
2. Access would be allowed between 19.30 and 9.30 each day to avoid disruption
3. Diversion would be via Wilsham Road and Saxton Road.
Neither of the first two has been observed, the diversion was inaccessible on Sunday while the section to Lambrick Road was closed, and signposting for incoming traffic inadequate or misleading.
For fairly obvious reasons, the western end of Saxton Road is completely inappropriate for a diversion, it would be better to use (and signpost) Caldecott Road, and also use Gainsborough Green so long as access was open at the Drayton Road / Preston Road.
These works were in the pipeline for a long time. As far as I know there is no plan to replace the contentious chicanes. The road surface was awful and really needed replacing.
I doubt if the layout of the chicanes will be altered during what is a re-surfacing operation. That they ought be altered is fairly clear; but I imagine that would require additional planning permissions.
It does sometimes feel as though there is not much joined-up thinking…
Whenever Preston Road is mentioned people state that the chicaines don’t work and are more of a hazard than a help. I couldn’t agree more!
How do we get it changed though? I have written to the council three times and keep being told there is no cash. It’s madness leaving them as they are, sooner or later someone will get seriously hurt, then magically they might find the cash to do something about it.
Preston Road was the first place I took County Council Highways staff to see after I was elected last year and I am glad that the resurfacing is now happening.
I also asked about looking at replacing the chicanes at the same time but was told that the County Council would have to a) run a full consultation process on alternatives and, b) find additional money to fund any changes. Both of these would have delayed the resurfacing which I didn’t think was the right thing to do.
One problem with any traffic calming measures is that all options are unpopular.
I’m certainly keen to hear suggestions about this, as well as about how the County Council might address the safety issues at the other end of Preston Road.
We are quite willing to have the speed bumps but these chicanes do not calm the traffic. They are dangerous as people do not read the signs and come through to meet traffic coming through. Cars also race to get through them. I am sure that they are going to cause an accident sooner or later I had to do an emergency stop as someone sped through when I was half way through a chicane.
Properly built chicanes are highly effective at speed reduction as. Why? Because restricted space forces reduced speed. A really good example of this is the work done thirty years ago in East Oxford (particularly in the roads around the parish church of St Mary and St John).
The chicanes in Preston Road invite drivers to spin their way through, so they are almost inevitably ineffective.
Speed humps are less effective unless they are extremely brutal. They then produce lots of work for garages who can look forward to an endless stream of cars requiring fresh suspension work.
Thanks for explaining the planning issue, Neil.