20 May (Part 2) - Chaos by design
Bexley council’s road design team’s priority is to introduce
as many pinch
points as possible. Too many junctions which once allowed two vehicles to pull up alongside are now the scene of
day long traffic congestion. Presumably
creating roundabouts which cannot be navigated by large vehicles is sheer
incompetence, but with Bexley council one can never be quite sure.
With Harrow Manorway being the only North South route into Thamesmead and Crossrail
likely to increase traffic levels by the end of 2018 and Sainsbury's
in two months time, sensible people would not expect the road width to be reduced,
especially when there is no shortage of adjacent spare land. But Bexley is
intent on inflicting misery whenever it can.
At mid-day yesterday en-route to East Ham I joined the
northbound traffic queue just south of the BP petrol station expecting to be held up for three or four minutes. I
wish! 17 minutes later I passed the roundabout where on the far side there was a
queue only to the Barge Pole pub. I can only assume that drivers were choosing
to divert via Yarnton Way or Eynsford Drive. The northbound queue must have extended up Knee Hill by then.
The reason was that a large articulated lorry heading to the Crossrail base in Felixstowe Road could not get around the new roundabout. Traffic
flow had been diverted to the eastern side of the roundabout. i.e. the correct side and not as shown in this morning’s pictures below.
When the driver attempted to turn left into Overton Road he could not because of
the queue of traffic that had built up there too. Does it really take
nearly six months to build an inadequate roundabout?
