Tag: traffic congestion

Let’s have a bit of give and take and respect each other


From a recent article in The News.

DRIVERS have criticised cyclists for not using a designated cycleway – arguing it is a safety hazard and causes traffic jams.

Motorists say traffic queues are building up on Hambledon Road between Waterlooville and Denmead as cars wait to overtake cyclists.

What a weird article this is with suggestions that cyclist are responsible for traffic congestion in and around Waterlooville.

According to this article the main complainant, leastways the only one that is quoted, is a Ms McGeady, of Linda Grove, Cowplain.
She is quoted as saying

‘Drivers have to take their life into their own hands, zooming round bikes and worrying people coming in the other direction.

Well Ms McGeady, I have news for you. Your not supposed to “zoom” round cyclists. You are supposed to drive around them with due care, giving plenty of room. You are supposed to leave plenty of time for your journey so that you don’t have to “zoom” around.

‘The other day there was a little old guy who was cycling almost in the gutter and there was a queue of cars trying to get round him.

‘Everyone was winding down their windows and asking him to use the cycleway.’

I will be 60 this year and when I was a youngster we had it drummed into us that you should not ride your bike on the pavement. From the sounds of it this “little old guy” was of a similar vintage and he too, probably, has it ingrained in his psyche.

I have personal experience of using this road to get to and from my place of work over the last 30 years. I too have experienced hold ups on this road. However, my experience has been that it is motorists that are causing the hold ups.

Not because they are driving badly.

This road has seen a steady rise in the volume of traffic over the last 30 years that I have been using it. The housing developments in and around Denmead are contributors to that increase. At peak times the traffic can build up very quickly, especially if there are vehicles slowing down to make turns. For example a single car waiting to turn across the traffic to enter Soake Road, Closewood Road or Sunnymead Drive will quickly cause the traffic to build up.

Of course the new traffic lights are a contributor and when the new housing developments are complete the additional traffic volume will far exceed any hold ups by cyclists.

Ms McGeady made a complaint to Hampshire County Council after seeing a cyclist on a racing bike on the road.

She said: ‘There was a cyclist with a very expensive racing bike and the full kit.

‘He was not using the cycleway. You have to say why?’

No, Ms McGeady, you don’t have to say “why ?”.

As John Holland, chairman of Portsmouth Cycle Forum, says

‘A cyclist has a right to be on any highway, apart from a motorway, just like a horse and cart has.

‘A vehicle is there by licence.

and the most sensible comment from John Holland

‘If you are driving down a road and there is a cyclist and you have to slow down, by how long does it delay your journey? Twenty seconds, five seconds?

‘Let’s have a bit of give and take and respect each other.’

Safety warning as cyclists steer clear of new cyclepath – Transport – Portsmouth News.

83 Additional Homes Proposed For Waterlooville


Is this the straw that broke the camels back ?

CONCERNS about traffic congestion and overdevelopment were raised as plans to redevelop a convent and its grounds went on show.

But Ian Roberts, highways consultant, said the road network could cope, with 34 vehicle movements estimated from London Road at peak times and eight movements from the Hulbert Road side.

Does that figure take into account the extra burden that is being placed on London Road by the Berewood development or the potential additional burden being placed on Hulbert Road by the proposed development at Dunsbury Hill Farm ?

Where on earth does the “34 vehicle movements” figure come from anyway ? Surely there must be an assumption of one vehicle for every home at the very minimum. I appreciate that not every vehicle will be on the move at peak times. The highways consultants must be assuming that many of the new residents will be either walking into Waterlooville town centre or hopping onto a bus to take up the employment opportunities mentioned by John O’Donovan.

John O’Donovan, the developer’s planning consultant, said: ‘I would suggest it is an ideal site for housing.

‘It’s very close to Waterlooville town centre, to employment opportunities and to the bus corridor.’

So what are these employment opportunities ?

These would be the same opportunities that the folks in Leigh Park, the new residents of Berewood and the current residents of Waterlooville and the surrounding areas have their hopes pinned on.

More than 50 residents packed into Havant’s council chamber as developers laid out initial proposals to build 83 homes on the site of the former St Michael’s Convent….

I’m glad to see that so many folks are taking an interest in their local area. We, the Waterlooville residents, have been too quiet. As a consequence the planners and the developers have had free rein and we are paying for it.

It comes as Peter Holloway, a spokesman for residents in Hermitage Gardens, said he would never have bought his house last year if he knew so many houses were in the pipeline.

He said: ‘We knew something might be built there but when we contacted Havant Borough Council we were told they would not be allowed to build any more than 57 houses and the part of the land nearest our garden would not be developed because there is an old apple orchard there, a sewage pipe running through it and it is so steep.

‘Now we’ve found out they want to build right at the bottom of our land, 26 more houses than we were told.

Sounds like the council were acting like the old-fashioned brush or encyclopaedia salesmen. Get a foot in the door with the low numbers, then jack them up once the flow of opinion is headed in the right direction.

Council officers said the land was earmarked for 57 homes in the latest local plans – but this figure was ‘indicative’.

Presumably “indicative” is the councils “get out of jail” card.

Fears raised as Waterlooville homes plan goes on show – Politics – Portsmouth News.