The new road that has been opened in Lawley is a nightmare, some bits of dual carriage way, a pathetic speed limit of 40mph down to 30mph – on a dual carriage way it is a joke. It is another junction whereby during off peak time syou will be waiting a red lights and there is no traffic about.

When will this Council actually listen to drivers, I beleived that when we got rid of the Labour crowd we would have a Council that would listen to people. But no they go along in their own small smug world ignoring people.

I also blame the local paper for not challenging the Council and getting a response from them – that makes sense as to why we cannot have prt time traffic lights.

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What they have done to the “eastern primary” ** is nothing short of a disgrace.

This was a perfectly good dual carriageway, with a national speed limit of 70MPH. – and I’ve been using it for 32 years!!

Now it has been reduced over some of its length to a “single lane road”, with the access slip roads made much more difficult to use -i.e the “direction” or “line” “forced on you”** to access the main carriageway is not ideal – and the speed limit reduced to 60MPH (referring specifically to the “open” dual carriageway section)

** Forced by the acres of white hashes BOUND BY SOLID WHITE LINES SO YOU AREN’T SUPPOSED TO CROSS THEM – (see highway code rule 130***) -as opposed to dotted white lines, ….which most people don’t seem to understand, incidentally

Further more …

Reducing the speed limit to 60 MPH has resulted in “overtaking” vehicles in the offside lane doing virtually the same speed as those they are overtaking.
So … what you get is a snaking queue of vehicles, all following TOO close in frustration , WAITING to get past those slower vehicles on the inside lane !!

I have often followed a snaking queue of vehicles ALL the length of this road, becuase they won’t “overtake” and return to the “available lane” on their left.

Whilst it may be argued that to “overtake” might require a temorary speed in excess 60 MPH to complete the maneouvre in REASONABLE TIME (Assuming a speed differential of around 10 MPH – which implies that the speed of the vehicle(s) on the inside lane are travelling cc 50MPH,

I would argue that:

To complete an overtaking manouvre in less time, and then return to the available lane on your left quickly, and efficiently , is FAR SAFER, and LESS irritating to other drivers, and in my humble opinion, represents a higher standard of driving than “sitting there” with a “holier than thou” attitude at 55mph, holding everyone up.

I have used this road since 1973, and have NEVER, NEVER until now….. had problems with it.

As I’ve said before, WHY OH WHY don’t our road planners ask people like me, with 44+ years of driving experience and close on 1,000,000 miles travelled ….. what WE think should be done?

To sum up – this road is worse than it ever was, and cannot be said to be safer.

Footnotes:

** YES – I’ts always been known, as far as I’m aware as “the eastern primary”

***
Highway code rule 130:

Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 26]
130
Areas of white diagonal stripes or chevrons painted on the road. These are to separate traffic lanes or to protect traffic turning right.

if the area is bordered by a broken white line, you should not enter the area unless it is necessary and you can see that it is safe to do so
if the area is marked with chevrons and bordered by solid white lines you MUST NOT enter it except in an emergency

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It is upsetting as I believe for many years that Telford has had a great traffic system. But now it is being ruined. My drive to newport from Dawley now is all 40mph roads – they used to be 60 (again a dual carriageway at 40mph). It seems the more congestion the developers create the sooner they will be able to enforce congestion charging. What a shame. Am I right in saying that in early new town days there were awards won for the traffic systems?

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I remember, about 15 years ago, an article in the paper where the council boasted that you could get from one end of telford to the other in 10 mins….that would be anything from 20 mins to half an hour now. I’ve spent 20 mins getting from Ketley Brook to Cock hotel before now.

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Brian2 said:

“’they had had to bring in consultants to advise where and how the lines were painted and junctions created because no-one in the highways department had road design knowledge.’

So why are we still employing these clowns? If they can’t do the job then sack them. They would soon be out of work in the private sector.”

….I’m assuming the consultants, who did such an appalling job, came from the private sector?

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First mistake “Good visibility is vital when joining a motorway” this isnt a motorway! its a dual carriage way

Well i would like to give praise to the local authorities T&W with regards to how clean the central reservation is and in general the whole of the EP.

Reduced visibilty at junctions ensures the driver has to give full attention rather than being dependant on lights and signs as tried and tested in Sweeden althoug they removed all signs / traffic lights etc (google will explain the rest)

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stgeorges lad said:
“Reduced visibilty at junctions ensures the driver has to give full attention rather than being dependant on lights and signs as tried and tested in Sweeden althoug they removed all signs / traffic lights etc (google will explain the rest) ”

Let’s hope Google doea a better job than you chief!

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