Accident on one of the many roudnabouts in Bury St Edmunds. But should they be scrapped?
Bury St Edmunds: Removing seven roundabouts could solve town’s traffic woes
By Mariam Ghaemi
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
2:33 PM
SEVEN roundabouts in Bury St Edmunds could be replaced with traffic lights to mitigate future traffic growth, a councillor has said.
County councillor Mark Ereira, who represents the Tower division, told the East Anglian Daily that at a meeting on January 15 draft highways measures were put forward by consultants for Suffolk County Council to deal with increased traffic as a result of thousands of new homes.
Mr Ereira, who represents the Green Party, said replacing seven roundabouts in the town with traffic lights, extra slip roads off the A14 at three junctions and limited sustainable transportation measures had been suggested.
A spokeman for Suffolk County Council, which is the highways authority, emphasised that the traffic modelling is “very provisional,” adding it was looking at a “multitude of options”.
He said the draft assessment work would be published alongside the final round of public consultation on the Vision 2031 document, which is due to be launched by St Edmundsbury Borough Council in June.
Vision 2031, which is a plan to guide and manage growth in the town over the next 20 years and beyond, includes 900 homes between the Howard Estate and Fornham All Saints, 500 homes for Moreton Hall, 1,250 between Bury and Great Barton and 1,250 to the south east of the town.
Mr Ereira said replacing the roundabouts with traffic lights in Bury would be like “creating Harlow in Suffolk”.
He added: “I think they will have a dreadful, dreadful impact on the look and feel of the town. We are at the stage where we don’t have much in the way of traffic lights. The visual impact is dreadful, bearing in mind we have Bury in Bloom working extremely hard and well and diligently to make the roundabouts attractive features.”
Councillor David Nettleton, borough councillor for the Risbygate ward, said the suggestion of removing seven roundabouts in Bury and replacing them with “yet more pathetically useless traffic lights is dynamite”.
“We need 21st Century traffic management solutions to congestion not clapped-out thinking from the 1960s,” he said.
Mr Ereira said he wanted the information presented at the private meeting on January 15 to be made public, adding he believed the county council elections in May could be a reason for the secrecy.
The county council spokesman said there were no solid proposals at this stage, adding “it could all change”. He added the council could not give details of specific roundabouts for this reason.
A spokeswoman for the borough council said the highways assessment work would form part of the body of evidence that supports the Vision 2031 document, adding the public would not be consulted on specifics at that stage.
She said the consultation was to find out whether the plan as a whole is “legal and sound”.
She said there was still a huge amount of analysis and potentially further research to underpin the detail in the document, adding “we will take all the care, and time, that is needed before the next consultation”.
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6 comments
If the County ouncil insist on their love affair with traffic lights, isn't time they thought about some part time lights for the busy periods. I have lost count of the times I sit at the lights on the roundabout at Martlesham in the early hours, the lights on red and not another vehicle to be seen
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MB56
Thursday, February 28, 2013
the only problem with the roundabouts is when traffic that backs up from traffic lights blocks the exits from the roundabouts. Do these idiot planners have any experience of having to drivework on the crazy systems they dream up. oh no of course not but they do have an university degree. would be better to sack this lot and employ fromer bus drivers, lorry drivers etc who KNOW HOW ROADS WORK IN REALITY and would only probably only have to pay half the amount of wages
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returning fan
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
i am happy to swap the new traffic light system in Stowmarket for a roundabout or two from Bury.
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Robert Spencer
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
SCC seem to be wedded to the idea of traffic lights. They plan three complex sets of lights to replace three roundabouts on the A12 through Martlesham. More traffic lights in Ipswich have made it even more of a bottleneck. And now these plans for Bury. SCC traffic planners' track record is not good. They installed some lights on the A1214 in Kesgrave and had to take them out eventually when they caused too many delays. They made lane changes at the Seven Hills roundabout and for several years this resulted in long peak hour delays on the A12 southbound. Eventually they announced a new scheme - which was basically the the original layout and it's now much improved! How much has all this cost I wonder. I recall a friend in Seattle proudly telling me that the city was planning to replace many traffic lights with roundabouts as their studies showed they were more effective and more sustainable (less stopstart traffic = less pollution). I wonder who is right.
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Mousemat
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
No, no, no, no! When will they learn we actually need to be replacing traffic lights with roundabouts, not the other way round! The lights added at the Copdock A12A14 junction when all that needed doing was more lanes has simply blocked up routes that once flowed, such as coming off A14 Westbound-A12 and out of Ipswich onto A14 Eastbound. The traffic lights at top of the Thoroughfare and the ones on the junction into the Turban Centre in Woodbridge bank up traffic for hundreds of yards in all directions from almost nowhere. And as for the disaster that is traffic ‘management’ in Ipswich town centre… Traffic lights make no discernable difference at the peak rush hour times, whilst creating traffic queues when the roads are quiet.
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Mike Rotch
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Whatever the County Council do, it will no doubt be wrong for the people using the roads. Roundabouts keep the traffic flowing, traffic lights makes the vehicles stopstart, therefore adding to the congestion. This will increase hazards for everyone using the roads. Just look what they've done elsewhere around the County, Ipswich is a joke.
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Grumpy
Wednesday, February 27, 2013