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Shrewsbury council discusses future of Smithfield Road crossing
Monday 7th March 2011, 7:30PM GMT.
Creating the new crossing on Smithfield Road in Shrewsbury.
Calls have been made for an urgent review into the future of a new central reservation in Shrewsbury, with critics calling for it to be ripped out.
Critics claim the central reservation is dangerous and causing traffic chaos.
Councillor Peter Nutting will ask fellow members of Shrewsbury Town Council tonight to join him in calling for a report to be commissioned into the pedestrian crossing in Smithfield Road.
He says the crossing should be removed, just six months after it was installed by Shropshire Council.
But Mr Nutting said Selby Martin, of Shrewsbury, who is also vice president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England Shropshire branch, was due to speak out in support of the crossing at tonight’s council meeting.
Councillor Nutting said he would be asking members to support a review into whether the pedestrian refuge — which was installed as part of the £1.8 million Cycle Shrewsbury project – should be there.
He said: “Selby is very much in favour of cycling and believes the crossing is a positive thing for cyclists.
“I am a cyclist too but this is just in the wrong place.
“It’s hardly ever used and I’ve hardly seen anyone on it. Nobody uses it but it causes problems for traffic. I want them to do a proper assessment of it. The trials carried out last summer before it was installed were inadequate.”
Mr Nutting claimed that since the refuge was put in place it has caused snarl-ups as far back as Copthorne Road. Taxi drivers have also previously claimed it was unsafe.
Mr Nutting said the refuge should be ripped out.
But Richard Harman, for Shropshire Council, claimed at the time that the crossing had been trialled in the summer it was shown to have “limited impacts” on traffic.
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Yet another waste of money by our useless council just like the money they’re spending on Heathgates roundabout to beautify it,maybe the money should go towards filling all the potholes therefore saving any claims from disgruntled motorists !!!!
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more of our money wasted!
oh well, they can always demand more, it’s not as though they have to shut swimming pools or anything is it?
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Richard Harman is simply wrong! When it was trailed last summer it caused nothing but problems and loads of people said so – but Shropshire Council went ahead anyway because it entirely suited their own agenda (As usual). Please get rid of this obstuction.
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When this totally unnecessary crossing was trialed in the summer it caused nothing but
tailbacks,every one i spoke to said the same.
We were all sure that would be the end of it
well surely that was the whole point of the trial was it not?
But to everyone’s amazement the council went ahead with it.
I have never seen anyone use it,it causes tailbacks all the time.
Traffic in a stop-start que causes more pollution than driving at a steady speed.
AS for making life easier for cyclsts (i am one as well as motorist)they would have to ride on the pavement,Is that illeagal?
Some idiot on the radio said “it will link Roushill to Frankwell carpark” well only if you jump off the footbridge and then cross the road.yes think about it.
It should be removed and the morons who agreed it should pay from their own money.
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Rip it up and send the genius responsible in the Highways Dept on their way with a nice fat early pension..out of our money.
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good old Shropshire Council. i think they decided to trial it in the school holidays when traffic levels were less than normal, but nothing suprises me with this council. look what theyve done to the traffic lights at the junction of smithfield road and castle gates. theyve altered the timing that much that it takes about 5 turns off the lights at raven meadows to get out into the traffic flow due to the other set only letting 4 or 5 cars through before its back to red again. then you have inconsiderate motorists blatantly driving through red or parking on the yellow boxes either side of the lights so you cant get out anyway if its on green
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Actually, I think that the crossing has had exactly the effect that the council wanted. More people are going out of town to go round – as they should; the speed of the traffic along smithfield rd has greatly decreased. Personally, I think the amount of traffic lights in that area are more of a problem.
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Many people have to drive through town.
As for the speed on Smithfield road it should be controlled by enforcement,i see boy racers with noisy exhausts all the time.
Why penalize those who drive through town with care and exhaust systems that would pass an MOT test?
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Once upon a time, experts were employed to use their judgement and make decisions. Like it or lump it, that’s how it was.
These days, every potential stakeholder and his dog is an expert, apparently, and has to get involved somehow. As a result, the cost of doing stuff gets pushed up to astronomical levels, wrong things get done, right things that need to be done don’t get done at all and things that were done wrongly in the first place don’t get undone because of death by committee. I suspect that this crossing is about to fall into the latter category.
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I cannot remember the last time I came into Shrewsbury shopping why? Because of the chaos along Smithfiekd Road. It is so much more effortless to go to Telford. I am sure I am not the only person who thinks this. What a shame for the town.
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HA!!!! well what did we all tell you council??? This was a stupid idea from the start. Why will you not listen to the public?? some other things you could put right include..
- The traffic lights on Emstrey Island
- The traffic lights on Meole Brace island
- The completley random changing lights by the Shrewsbury hotel.
Can someone who knows what they are doing please step up to the mark.
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Meole Brace lights is a bad example. Since the lights it is so much easier to get through. Far less traffic queuing and you don’t risk life and limb trying to get onto the roundabout.
There was a traffic survey taking place at the Shrewsbury hotel lights yesterday so you might be in luck there.
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Have you got the right lights when you say Meole Brace lights, Julian?
These lights were installed about 20 years ago due to the opening of Sainsburys nearby and have increased queueing on a, formerly, not very busy island.
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Wheres Tandy now with his Health and safety issues
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FYI Shropshire star, it’s called a pedestrian refuge not a central reseevation.
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These would be the same idiots who put the pedestrian refuges on the Harlescott crossroads. I travel down Harlescott Lane almost every morning, and the one there is causing traffic to back up all the way over the railway line. This normally happens when people want to go right onto Whitchurch Road, but can’t get into the lane because of the refuge. The rest of the traffic behind may want to go straight on to Featherbed Lane or left onto Battlefield Road, but can’t get past those people waiting to go right. I think I’m going to take photos of this over a few mornings and send them into the council as evidence!
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I really don’t think theres anything wrong with it,
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I remember Meole Brace island before the lights were installed. It was a nightmare.
It is completely indefensible to compare the amount of traffic using it now to 20 years ago roadrunner. Even ten years ago the retail park was not that busy. Argos and Sainsbury appear to be the main massive incentive to shoppers.
The taxi drivers have deemed it unsafe! Since when did a taxi driver consider safe as part of the highway code? They really mean that they cannot change lanes in order to overtake/get ahead along there anymore.
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“I remember Meole Brace island before the lights were installed. It was a nightmare.”
It was a nightmare before the A5 bypass was built, yes, because all traffic going to wales used it but once the bypass was built, then the island was virtually deserted until the lights were fitted.
I used to live nearby and used it daily.
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Me too, it was a nightmare.
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It was a a nightmare before the PRH was built as well when critically ill people from East Shropshire were trying to get to the only A&E department in the county.
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It’s amazing the amount of vitriol expended on this issue.
I cycle this route at about 8:30am most days on my way to work and the refuge has made Smithfield Road safer for Eastbound cyclists.
Previously you’d have Mr or Mrs Impatient racing past in their car then cutting into the left hand lane and slamming on the brakes or slowing to join the queue for the town centre. With the refuge in place drivers are still getting along this road fine but without the brief burst of unnecessary acceleration.
The refuge has NOT increased congestion. If anything, the queues in the two Eastbound lanes beyond it are shorter than before. Traffic speeds on Smithfield Road are more sensible. This road is most definitely safer with the refuge in place.
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As a cyclist, I think that this had reduced the safety for cyclists. Being a grown up and able to ride a bike, I prefer to cycle on the road. Apart from being quicker, I have concerns over cyclists and pedestrians using the same space at locations with inadequate footway widths, as is the case with Smithfield Road. The refuge now means that cars and cyclist are channelled into a reduced space as they pass the refuge which is detrimental to cyclists, I doubt sufficient lane widths have been provided.
If there is so much demand for a crossing point at this location then why not put a Toucan Crossing in?
I also think that Shropshire Council need to look at the signal timings in this area as I think this contributes as much to congestion if not more than the refuge.
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Having sat in the queues many a time, both before and since the refuge was installed, my opinion as a CAR driver having to wait is that the congestion is far worse now than before.
Perhaps you have been cycling down there with your eyes closed?
Of course you won’t be queuing on a bike but for the cars, that refuge has caused nothing but problems and I have yet to see a single person, either on foot or cycle, using it to cross Smithfield Road!
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Cycling on Smithfield Road with my eyes closed???
Heavens, no! I’d have been dead a very long time ago. Sadly, a cyclist needs to have their wits about them along there even more than most roads in town.
Most car drivers are notoriously poor at estimating how long they have to wait for anything. Many find that 15 seconds is far too long when the vehicle in front has only two wheels. Why risk a life to get to work 15 seconds earlier?
I’m sure that if you had to wait as long as people do at pelican and toucan crossings for a brief 15-second chance to get across a busy road you’d have a very different take on it. You should try crossing Roman Road opposite Woodfield Avenue on a weekday morning – the light phases there most certainly favour the traffic over waiting schoolchildren, parents and commuters.
I ride along Smithfield Road daily at 8:30 in the morning, and drive along there when I need to. Whether you personally appreciate it or not, the refuge has NOT made the traffic worse; it has merely persuaded some drivers to use the accelerator a little less aggressively than some of them would like to.
@Hugh Jerner: there isn’t a huge demand for crossing here but the refuge allows someone to cross one direction at a time before waiting for a gap in traffic travelling the other way.
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Please do not take this away it is a big improvement for cyclists. I am sorry that you car drivers are going to lose ten seconds here but you will probably have to stop at the lights anyway after you have raced along Smithfield Road at breakneck speed.
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Well, stopping at the lights will not be an issue for the average cyclist will it, they ignore them in the main, as they do one way streets, lights front & rear.
But back to the topic, I think it safer, as it reduces the numbers of drivers lane changing to gain micro seconds. You see not just kicking the cyclist, bless them
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Getting very angry about this, The rewards from suppliers / manufacturers of Traffic Lights, Bollards and road infrastructure dressed up as CPD Seminars / trips, Golf, Car Racing etc can be unbeleivable to normal folk.
Me thinks its time for a serious revue. MOD waste money like water, Culprits need investigating and if best value is not achieved then they get fired, No job reference and pensions are clawed back!
Its getting close to naming and shaming. You guys know who you are :(
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