The answer is a resounding “No”. At about 8.15am on Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 and 11 January 2012 the traffic was backed up from from the Priory Roundabout to Bramcote Hills Garage. On Thursday 12 January at about 8.25am the traffic was backed up from the Priory Roundabout to the Sherwin Arms Roundabout and beyond such that was difficult to turn out of Thoresby Road towards Beeston. This is as bad if not worse than it was prior to the works. This situation is bound to increase the rat run traffic through Bramcote village and along Hillside Road.
Have other routes improved in the morning? Wollaton Vale towards the Priory Roundabout was a problem and continues to be so.
What can be done about this? An urgent review of the traffic light phasing throughout the day needs to be undertaken although I am not confident this will lead to any improvement at the morning rush hour.
The scheme appears to have been a terrible waste of Tax Payers’ money. In addition, until this problem has been resolved, the local Councils should forget any thought of house building in the A52 corridor and its environs.
Well, they all reckon this traffic problem will be solved when the tram is up and running and terminates at Bardills park and ride or whatever they’ll call it and the World Place Levy is in place…..And pigs might fly
And the ” new improved” lights at Moor Lane on the route into Nottingham needs careful attention as cars still continue to speed through when the light is displaying red.
I think the fact there are now safe places for pedestrians to cross both Woodside Road and Wollaton Vale is a positive. Pedestrians used to have to wait an age for traffic to give way to them to cross and now they can do that safely without having to dash across when a “gap” in the flow of traffic appeared.
The lights may be holding up traffic but at least people can now cross in safety.
Nice point Deborah but the whole idea was to improve pedestrian crossing and the traffic flow. It seems the only benefit is for pedestrians to cross Woodside Road and Wollaton Vale and the traffic problem has got worse. So hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent on not achieving anything. Let’s face it. It’s been a disastrous failure.
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I totally agree. Another case of failed theory on behalf of the Council and Highways Agency.
Traffic was still backed up from Priory Island to Bramcote Leisure Centre at 10am this morning (17th Jan). If the Field Farm and Stanton Developments go ahead there could be another 1000+ cars joining the queue every morning. That must also have some effect on pollution targets for the county. Even the bus drivers are complaining and they have a lane all to themselves.
Rick
This is nothing to do with the council. We got no say on this whatsoever. The Highways Agency simply wrote and said that they were doing this work, and we had to accept it.
David
I spoke with one bus driver (Premiere) and he says that at 08.30 in the morning he is getting through better than ever before. Maybe once the Workplace Parking Levy comes into being more people will find it cheaper and quicker to use the buses and then those who still wish to use their cars will not perhaps get held up so much.
On my travels from Priory Island to QMC island it seems that the lights at the Priory are not on green for long enough for the traffic travelling on the A52. As this road carries the most traffic the lights should be sequenced in its favour. When I travelled into town on Monday 16 Jan at 18:30 ( something I have been doing for over 2 years) the outbound A52 traffic was queued back from Priory Island to QMC island (something I have never observed before). Can we get the Highways Ahency to have a look at the sequencing?
Clive
I quite agree. I was coming from the QMC to the Priory Island the other day and noticed that the lights were only letting about 4 vehicles through before changing (in each lane). This isn’t enough. I will write to the Highways Agency asking them to look at this.
David
David
Any news from the Highways Agency. I travelled into Nottingham on Monday 13 Feb at 18:30. I had to wait for 3 changes of lights to get through at the Priory. I timed the changes at around 10 seconds.
No answer at all yet. I’ll post it here as soon as I hear from them.
It seems to me that stupidity is the norm these days…We have the tram coming through eventually and the WLP (Workplace Levy) coming into force to apparently stop people bringing their cars into the city or force employers to pay for the parking , and yet the plans presented are for a massive new car park in the centre of Notingham…Please tell me, am I missing something here..I thought I was intelligent but I’m beginning to wonder
Hi David
Would you please also see if the Highways Agency could put up some “40″ signs on the inbound route between the Leisure Centre and the new improved lights at Moor Lane.
As I previously commented cars simply go through these lights on red. The new taller light which was fitted seems to have made no improvement.
As far as I can see there are no “40″ signs on this fast downhill stretch.
I’ll include that in the letter
At present I find the situation far worse than before. I don’t think the lanes are clearly marked on the approach to the Priory Island so there is much swapping at the last minute. Both left hand side lanes can be used to go straight over the the QMC but the last bus stop opposite the shops appears to extend the bus lane too far. Then, when you are finally acros,s there is hardly any distance for the two lanes to merge to become one. It is a shame that they didn’t review the flow and put in variable direction lanes – i.e. the morning there are two lanes going towards town and the opposite in the evening, rather like the A38 into/out of Birmingham.
When they start work on the tram line and affect the University Boulevard flow, then it is going to be grid lock. A shame there isn’t a bridge from prior from Clifton/453 to Beeston Rylands.
My understanding when the work started was that the Highways Agency quoted an improvement in journey time (I can’t remember but think it was small single digits) that would result from the changes. The work caused huge disruption and I imagine cost a small fortune and seem to me to have made journeys in to Nottingham longer…at least at the Priory roundabout. David…can you write and ask whether the HA will publish a post implementation survey to show whether things have got better or (as most of us seem to believe!) worse
Thanks
These “improvements” were said to “save upto 8mins on your journey.” I only need to use this road into Nottingham outside the rush hours and in the evening. Most of these trips now have the 8 mins added on to my journey! Why are modern day installations of traffic lights always 24hr, when this is not needed. They only need to be in use from,say, 7.30 to 9.30am and 4.0 to 6.30 pm. At other times reverting to the “give way to traffic on the island” is perfectly adequate. The same applies to the A52/M1 interchange. One can sit for ages waiting for the lights to change when wishing to turn down to Long Eaton or enter the M1 slip road. It all used to be so easy.
The bus lane on the Q.M.C. coming out of town is a waste of lane capacity, I have yet to be on a bus that has used it, they take the middle lane. Who dreams up these costly ideas?