I hope you had a lovely summer and saw some sunshine, either at home in The Lavingtons or further afield.
There were lots of local events held across the area and thankfully I got to enjoy several in between work and childcare. It was good to catch-up with many of you on my travels.
As I reported at the start of the summer, traffic lights will be installed at Black Dog crossroads in the spring. With that project developing at pace behind the scenes I wanted to discuss the cause of accidents at the junction and why some suggestions won’t work or can’t be delivered.
Poor judgement is the cause of every accident I have seen in the last ten years. I can’t think of a single incident that wasn’t caused by someone pulling out from Worton or The Broadway in front of a vehicle on the A360. The errors are usually explained by poor visibility and/or excess speed of A360 traffic, however, the fault always rests with the driver pulling out, even in cases when the vehicle on the A360 is speeding. This might not seem fair, but it is a fact of highway code and motoring law. We all make mistakes.
A roundabout was explored early in the project but given what we now know about the impossibility of acquiring extra land from a neighbouring landowner, that idea is impossible. Furthermore, the DfT says that roundabouts on a 50mph road need to be illuminated and so aside from being impossible from a space point of view, it would also be significantly more expensive (the bulk of the traffic light installation cost is running power to the site so a roundabout has this cost PLUS the significant engineering costs. Traffic lights therefore are the best option available given the constraints that exist.
All sorts of temporary mitigation steps have been suggested including lowering the speed limit. This is something I have been pushing for since my election and unfortunately the decision does not solely rest with Wiltshire Council. Wiltshire Police have a veto and they have chosen not to support a reduction. Of course, reducing any limit does not guarantee every driver will comply anyway. This creates a more dangerous situation where the driver sat at the Worton turning might assume all cars are doing 40mph and pulls out accordingly, failing to spot that the other car is travelling much faster than even the previous 50mph limit.
I am exploring what temporary signage might be installed to cover the short gap between now and the traffic light switch-on. I don’t believe a sign will make any difference to someone’s decision to pull out in front of a moving vehicle, however, it might help encourage A360 traffic to stick to the speed limit and have their foot hovering over the brake. I will keep you posted as I find out more.
