Drayton Road at 8:55 am. The traffic arriving at the Caldecott Road roundabout is beginning to flow at a more reasonable rate now the school rush is about over.
At the other end of Caldecott Road the traffic going over the Iron Bridge is still slow.
Neither route out of South Abingdon has right of way. Nothing has been done to improve the situation in the last years. It has become clear that there is no easy solution. Many ideas have been put forward and considered. Proposals have either been considered too expensive, too dangerous, or likely to hold up cars on more major routes.
Oh how I wish there WAS a fix. It normally takes me fifteen minutes to travel from Preston Road to the McDonalds roundabout and then only 10 minutes to get to Oxford. Something wrong with the figures there!
Should have put in a filter lane by the double roundabouts and made the MG park either smaller, or on the other side of the bridge. There is also plenty of room for a filter lane at the roundabout by McDonalds. I have to turn right there, but get stuck behind everyone going left towards Tesco and the A34.
The town council did offer the mini-park to widen the access to the Drayton Road roundabout for traffic going west. If I recall, the reason the county council did not accept this offer was that the real problem was at the roundabout McDonald’s roundabout, though I think the main problem was for traffic carrying on to the west. This is one of the main reasons for the diamond interchange at Lodge Hill because it would reduce the traffic coming from right/north and thus make it easer to get through that roundabout. However, the town council has now gone ahead with the refurbishment of the mini-park, including an MG mozaic.
As you said it has been getting worse over the years…something should be done and soon!
there’s only one real answer – less cars – you can’t keep making extra road forever
Less cars, more bikes.
You are not stuck in traffic. You are the traffic.
yeah, less cars… not very practical for those of us who dont have the luxury of working locally tho is it..
the diamond interchange would make a big difference, but looks like it will never happen..
I see our new MP sold us down the river with that one !
the practical answer is to get out of bed earlier and miss the jams.
Or…if you live locally, walk to school! We take around 15 mins to walk to Carswell School from Mill Road – if we were to go by car we would have to leave 15 minutes earlier and then sit in a jam. More often than not, we’ve had to dive into the car park on West St Helen’s Street and walk up to school.
I know this isn’t an option for people who then go on to work, but if you can do it, then why not?
anonymous coward…you are right. There are NO plans to alleviate the traffic in Abingdon. Indeed the traffic in Abingdon needing alleviating is not even in/on the “top 10” traffic issues that need sorting within the Vale. Like many issues affecting Abingdon, the people who can make the decisions don’t perceive there to be a problem…so nothing will ever get sorted. (and that’s when the financial climate is/was ‘good’…let alone now, when there’s no money)!
The very very best there is is the ‘County Transport Plan’…which, it seems, will sort all of the traffic issues in Abingdon by us all walking, cycling, and some more busses.
Although…to play devils advocat…the traffic is never as bad when the schools are off…so we know it isn’t because of us all “driving to work”…the traffic is fine, in general…it’s the school run that’s the issue….
I would like to think that somewhere there is a bunch of councillors (from all sides) sitting, shaking their heads, asking themselves how it came to pass that they couldn’t all work together for the commom good of the Abingdon people that they all represent, and failing us so badly, their position is untenable. But no…the drive to cling on to power will result in it all being “the fault of the CC” – say the vale…or “the fault of the vale”…say the CC…
Meanwhile…we’ll all vote the same predictable way come what ever election is next. Where-as really, the fact they haven’t all been able to sort anything between them, in all this time (in fact it has got worse) should shame them…and motivate US!
Sadly I couldn’t agree more doozer.
Whilst the lib-dem councillors attempt to raise a petition, I can’t see what good it will do, other than raise their own profile. There seems to be no understanding of the traffic problems in Abingdon by the real ‘powers that be’, or how simply they could be improved
‘Our’ new MP seems to have rolled over and accepted the nonsense that the diamond interchange isnt needed, and gone off to live in Westminster.
Given her very slight majority, I hope she’s lined herself up a new job for when the next election comes around.
I’m sure the main reason she got voted in was that the previous encumbant was never seen locally… people will remember that she’s the same..
For my part, I’d love to be able to work closer to home, but theres no chance ! 🙁
I already do one day a week at home to cut my ‘footprint’.. and if I want to go into Abingdon I try and walk or cycle, as its much quicker than driving.
Sadly I have to get around it in the morning, so the best solution is to leave earlier, and get home earlier, as long as I’m out by 7.15 then Abingdon traffic is fine, but dont tell anyone 😉
Sometimes tho, I do have to wonder what planet our local councillors are on ! 🙁
Nidely said doozer.
You are correct about the ‘school run’ as I noticed that ages ago, but what can be done? It’s always bad on Friday afternoons though and on Sunday mornings sometimes (DIY visits to Fairacres???).
All this proposed money being spent on revamping the precinct and bringing people into town seems a bit backwards as folk just won’t be able to get here in the first place…..unless they’re prepared to queue! of course!
…I heard somewhere about an idea…an idea that may well go someway to alleviating some of the traffic issues…from what I recall, it was something about a link/bypass from the A34 behind tescos…going behind South Abingdon…and then a bridge over to Culham….removing all of the A415 through traffic.
In these dire financial times…most of this would have been funded by Moto services (or something) as there’s some EU necessity to have a service station at this point approximately on the A34. In order for them to get this lucrative service station, they’d pay for the road!
The biggest stumbling block, I believe when this was suggested to ‘The Council’…wasn’t about funding. It was that the land owner would probably not be interested.
Guess what?
Go on.
Guess who the Land owner is for most of the suggested route…
You won’t believe it…
Remember…everyone’s is “working to sort Abingdon Traffic issues”…
The Land belongs to…The Vale! And they didn’t know!
I don’t know if this is true…no doubt someone will correct me…but it’s what I heard.
The fact remains that building roads to alleviate congestion has NEVER worked and never will.
We could level the whole town and turn it all into a car park and the Clarksons would still want more.
the land by tescos is often underwater – so it’s a non starter of an idea really.
Tim, whilst to an extent i agree…just as we’ve all been busily building more roads to alleviate ‘X’ amount of traffic…more and more traffic has come on to those same roads as car use has also increased over the same time…so, fair enough.
Although has every single instance of building more roads NEVER worked…or just some?
Having said that…if all the “extra” walking, bicycle journeys and bus journeys are to increase as desired by the County Transport Plan to make a meaningful difference to Abingdon and it’s air pollution levels in town, it’s shops and it’s shopers (as is surely the grand plan as, as we know…everyone is working on this for the same greater good – that of Abingdon)…then the current traffic needs to move from the town centre to somewhere else as much as possible. If all the ‘through traffic’ from the A415 didn’t come via town…it can only help the ‘plans’ for the centre (be they in some way pedestrianisation, thorough cycle routes or better busses)? Extrapolating your negative POV on extra roads…Is it not better that Abingdon has a chocker ring road…than a chocker centre? Maybe that will just annoy someone else? I don’t know…just food for thought…
CCC – Whilst I also agree that Tesco and it’s surrounds are built on top of a flood plain, I would pressume that rather than a 30ft drop from the A34 straight down onto a new road on that flood plain, there would actually accomodate some sort of embankment…or something…that would allow for the very flooding that the flood plain is for. Thankfully the civil engineers etc would take all this into account – surely? Therefore…lets look for reason to do it…rather than reasons not to – perhaps…or indeed any other suggestions, fully (or mainly) funded (by Moto etc), to help Abingdon?
As a great man once said…”Success come in cans – not can’ts….”
I for one am all for finding ways and means and reasons TO sort Abingdon, not for finding reasons and excuses not to… (and I’m not even a councillor)!
Looking at this from the outside (and my lovely Hampshire market town has it’s own congestion problems too) it’s a great shame that the ‘powers that be’ aren’t you lot. Diverse opinions? Check. Willingness to work together to sort out a workable solution? Check!
It’s true that where I live the council may as well meet in the local Con club and do away with the democratic process but people seem to want to work together for the town at town, district and county level. This always seem to have been missing from Abingdon even in the mists of yesteryear when I lived there. A great shame.
All very well building yet another road behind the flooded Tesco’s, but no doubt the area between there and the edge of Abingdon will then be ‘infilled’ with even more houses – producing even more cars!!!! Sorted? I think not…..
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