A1 at Southoe now like “murder mile”, parish council chairman says

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• Lets.think.this.thru hits the nail on the head: “Calls for a motorway on the A1 current route are unrealistic.” It is regrettable that Alan Marnes has difficulty in grasping this, and simply repeats his “motorway solution” with minor variations in three separate news reports, whilst continuing to demonstrate that his “thinking” is far from logical. “Solutions” which transfer the problem elsewhere achieve little in terms of real road safety. Mr Marnes claims “I don’t know who we have got to sit down and make understand what the problems are here” followed by claiming to see “drivers approaching the bends at speeds of up to 90mph” and that the road “needs to be straightened”. Perhaps he should start by actually defining what the problem is! Is it beyond his grasp that if [some] traffic is approaching the bends at 90mph then at least one problem already exists before the bends for Lees Lane and the associated central reservation crossing, and that straightening the road will not only potentially mean that [some] traffic will pass the Bell Lane junctioncentral reservation crossing at 90mph, but could well be travelling even faster by the time they reach Diddington? The problem in essence lies not with the bends, speeds per se, nor the central reservation crossings but with lack of basic hazard perception on the part of many drivers. Driving in a manner that takes into account the road [e.g. bends, camber], the vehicles speed, visibility, road weather conditions and in particular the potential actions of all other road users are fundamentals of the Highway Code and hazard awareness and apply to all road-users on all roads. Mr Marnes would increase his credibility substantially by calling for specifically targeted increased funding for Police road traffic units to enforce existing legislation on the existing dual carriageway sections of the A1, without which other potentially desirable measures which might fall within the budget parameters of the Highways Agency such as lower limits of 5060 mph at approaches to current junctionscentral reservation crossings would be demonstrably of limited effectiveness, as evidenced by the numbers of drivers who exceed the present 50mph limit at Buckden.

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  John Emm

  Monday, March 4, 2013

• Lets.think.this.thru hits the nail on the head: “Calls for a motorway on the A1 current route are unrealistic.” It is regrettable that Alan Marnes has difficulty in grasping this, and simply repeats his “motorway solution” with minor variations in three separate news reports, whilst continuing to demonstrate that his “thinking” is far from logical. “Solutions” which transfer the problem elsewhere achieve little in terms of real road safety. Mr Marnes claims “I don’t know who we have got to sit down and make understand what the problems are here” followed by claiming to see “drivers approaching the bends at speeds of up to 90mph” and that the road “needs to be straightened”. Perhaps he should start by actually defining what the problem is! Is it beyond his grasp that if [some] traffic is approaching the bends at 90mph then at least one problem already exists before the bends for Lees Lane and the associated central reservation crossing, and that straightening the road will not only potentially mean that [some] traffic will pass the Bell Lane junctioncentral reservation crossing at 90mph, but could well be travelling even faster by the time they reach Diddington? The problem in essence lies not with the bends, speeds per se, nor the central reservation crossings but with lack of basic hazard perception on the part of many drivers. Driving in a manner that takes into account the road [e.g. bends, camber], the vehicles speed, visibility, road weather conditions and in particular the potential actions of all other road users are fundamentals of the Highway Code and hazard awareness and apply to all road-users on all roads. Mr Marnes would increase his credibility substantially by calling for specifically targeted increased funding for Police road traffic units to enforce existing legislation on the existing dual carriageway sections of the A1, without which other potentially desirable measures which might fall within the budget parameters of the Highways Agency such as lower limits of 5060 mph at approaches to current junctionscentral reservation crossings would be demonstrably of limited effectiveness, as evidenced by the numbers of drivers who exceed the present 50mph limit at Buckden.

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  John Emm

  Monday, March 4, 2013

• If there's the money to striaghten the bends, great. however I think highways is waiting for the final upgrade to the A1 from Stotfold to Alconbury which must be in the planning stage somewhere because this is the last section to be done to eliminate all gaps and roundabouts etc. However im sure it will be years in public consultion and lots of people will object to someof the new routes, I think the A1 will have to be diverted to the west in parts anyway as part of the upgrade, because it must bypass sandy and buckdon. Calls for a motorway on the A1 current route are unrealistic. With regards to the issue in hand. It would be interesting to see some figures on the cause of all the accidents? The near misses I have witnessed were caused by motorists trying to cross The A1 and twice by people joining at the old Bell pub and misjudging the gap as theres no slip. Maybe the best thing for Southoe is closing the gaps and stopping A1 access from Bell Lane but improving the slips on and off Lees Lane. This would be acheivable and cost effective. Same tpye of improvment for Diddington just up the road

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  Lets.think.this.thru

  Sunday, March 3, 2013