Woodseats the nightmare continues

[dawny1970]

Maybe they are thinking about a mini roundabout there's enough room for one of those but with the large numbers of vehicles using that junction I could see an awful lot of drivers getting very cross with an awful lot of other drivers as no-one would want to slow or give way to other users. I assume the increase in the number of pelicans was considered important as Woodseats has a lot of pedestrian traffic

 

And it would be nice if people use them instead of darting across the road amongst the traffic!!!

[Daven]

And it would be nice if people use them instead of darting across the road amongst the traffic!!!

 

To be fair, I think that most folk do use them but usually the traffic is moving so slowly that anyone who is nimble on their feet could quite easily get across the road without using the pelican.

[WallBuilder]

I'm not as nimble as i was so always use the crossings even if the traffic is stationary I wait till the lights say it's my turn to cross, nothing worse for a driver to be haltedd at a pelican with no-one still wanting to cross. The one by the school and Yorkshire bank is one of the neew one's as that used to just be a ttraffic island with a crossing patrol woman at school times to help get the kids across, she was almost run over more than once so a pelican is much preferred.

[bassett one]

the whole lot is a shambles and we need a dual carriage way into the city centre and keep woodseats a shopping area only,as traffic will only increase year on year and we dont have a tram service on that side of town ,so theres no choice bassett one

[Electerrific]

Where exactly would you put a roundabout at Woodseats though ?

At the junction of Abbey Lane/Meadowhead, widest area if some pavements are chopped out?

 

Have you seen the old pics of that area c.1900? Plenty of room even today?

[JME52K]

I drove down from Meadowhead today at around lunch time, it was horrendous and took us twenty minutes to get on to Abbey Lane. It's always busy on Saturdays but people were driving down in the bus lane, then cutting into the outside lane. I am not aware of anyone ever getting a fine for doing this so half thought of doing it myself, but I would probably be the first person to get caught!

[WallBuilder]

the whole lot is a shambles and we need a dual carriage way into the city centre and keep woodseats a shopping area only,as traffic will only increase year on year and we dont have a tram service on that side of town ,so theres no choice bassett one

 

Surely though from Meadowhead there is already a dual carriageway, okay you have to go via Gleadless and manor but it's there all the way to the parkway. The tram should be extended from Herdings over to Norton, Greenhill and then bradway then it should drop down to meet a new tram line coming up the Sheaf valley which could be run up alongside the existing railway line The other option for all the people who drive into town to work but don't actually need their car for work would be for them to use the many buses that run through that area.

[heeleybird]

I was always taught that two into one didn't go... perhaps that's the problem with Chesterfield Road / London Road. From Norton roundabout meadowhead there's two lanes that goes into one lane then back into two lanes, albeit at certain times a bus lane, then at Morrisons we're back into one lane and it's like this all the way down Chesterfield Road. Two lanes past Sainsburys Homebase then forced back into one lane at Heeley Retail Park, two lanes past Ponsfords then back into one lane at the bridge.Looking at this logically its probably just the best way of slowing the volume of traffic into the city centre, keeps it a a steady controllable flow by the time it hits Arundel Gate.

[Doctor Drew]

I don't think the blame can be aimed at the planners but more at the car owning public, traffic volume has increased an awful lot. I seem to remember that a lot of people said that the traffic coming down from Meadowhead was all snarled up because of the lights which didn't allow a left turn on to Abbey lane, the lights and priorities have now been altered and yet at times there is still traffic backing up the hill.

 

If that's the case, car volume went up by a really big jump the day the new system started. Congestion increased by a pretty big factor. I know there are more cars on the road but that isn't the reason for an overnight change.

[Planner1]

If that's the case, car volume went up by a really big jump the day the new system started. Congestion increased by a pretty big factor. I know there are more cars on the road but that isn't the reason for an overnight change.

I don't think that is true.

 

I recall at the time, a while after the scheme was complete, the Council measured journey times and they had actually decreased over the whole corridor.

 

I also recall many people on here arguing that this was because people had diverted to other routes during the works and hadn't gone back to their old route yet. That doesn't sound like more congestion from day one, does it?

 

Many people perceive that congestion went up, particularly towards city, because the queue was relocated further back up towards Meadowhead, where it could be managed an public transport given priority.

 

There were always queues at Woodseats, well before the scheme came in and nothing will change that except increasing the capacity of the road, which usually means more lanes, especially at junctions (or a bypass). More vehicles want to use the road than there is capacity for, that's why there is congestion, which has been the case for many years. There is no magic bullet that the Council can use to change that. What they did was try to manage it better and prioritise public transport.