sland Echo always welcome letters to the editor, which may of course not reflect the views of the publication and its staff.
Letter to the editor – 25th April 2021
Martin Woodward, Bembridge
“Many of us have to suffer the constant tailbacks from the Hare and Hounds traffic lights back to Arreton Cross, and this will inevitably worsen yet again in the summer season. Even in April, the traffic queue has frequently been halfway back to Arreton Cross. There is a simple solution to this problem, yet despite calls to Island Roads on the subject, they never seem interested in doing anything about it.
Article continues below this advertisement “Inevitably, due to the Covid situation, UK-based holidays will be predictably much higher this year and it will be a very busy time for the island. As we all know, even in normal off-season times, the island roads struggle to cope with the volume of traffic. It, therefore, seems logical to try and ease the problems wherever possible, especially when it would be a simple and inexpensive task such as at Downend Rd.
“Many of us remember the long and frustrating queues from the Hare & Hounds back up to the downs before Island Roads eventually listened and put the extra left hand lane in for turning left down to Arreton. That improved the situation considerably, and the same could be achieved by doing the same for traffic coming from Arreton Cross.
“With all the recent huge and expensive road ‘improvements’ on the island, surely it would be a simple task to do a very low cost widening of the small section of Downend Road at the Hare & Hounds traffic lights. All it would involve is a 4 metre wide strip from the field opposite the pub so that traffic from Arreton Cross could be split into two lanes, one to continue to Newport, the other to turn right onto the Downs Rd. This would avoid the traffic continuing to Newport being constantly held up by traffic turning right to the Downs. It would only need to be a very short section and would be very simple to do.
“The response I got when I called Island Roads (on more than one occasion) was of disinterest and that it ‘was not mentioned on their file’. I feel sure the farmer would be more than agreeable to sell such a tiny strip of land if it improved traffic flow to such an extent, which it definitely would do.
“Perhaps some pressure can be applied to achieve this, rather than have to endure the inevitable chaos when the tailbacks from the Hare & Hounds traffic lights will cause gridlock at Arreton Cross this season”.
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If the land was acquired why not put in a roundabout mini of course, nothing in it for the guys who design complicated traffic light systems I suppose.
You would think it’s an easy fix. But once the NIMBY crowd get involved with their constant NO NO NO chorus it’ll soon be stopped or costs spiral out of control. And this all depends if the owner of the land asks for a reasonable cost for the land needed.
One problem is that people miss is that ‘fixing’ that junction will move the problem to another. The real solution is to make it so that we don’t need to be using our cars all the time, free public transport. But that would require a government, local and national, to spend our money on us instead of giving it to big business.
the real solution is to prevent the housebuilding, which in turn reduces the amount of people here and subsequently the amount of cars on the roads
Well said Martin but we need to know who to approach on the Council get this matter sorted?
With an election on the horizon, maybe Ian Ward, the councillor with portfolio for transport and infrastructure might show an interest. I wouldn’t leave it until after the elections, though
Yes, there is a problem but one solution can be much cheaper. Make the junction from Arreton a “No right turn”. The traffic wishing to go on the Downs Road just has to go to the Robin Hill roundabout, do a 180˚, then turn left into Downs Road. Change the times for the lights accordingly (straight across given priority), left will not have to stop, and Bob’s your uncle!
Only cost: two bits of black glass with a straight-up green arrow, a few no-right turn signs, and umpteen warning signs for those that don’t read normal traffic signs. :-))
Perfect solution, minimal cost. Downside is eventually the Robin Hill roundabout might get blocked so no better off…
Roundabout should not get blocked, but approaching traffic on the roads from Newport and the tip would have to give way due to the need to give way to traffic coming from the IMMEDIATE right. So traffic on those roads could back up but perhaps that might persuade the council to do something about the queues for the tip once the booking system is abandoned.
The queues were never as bad before island roads renewed the traffic lights, and changed the sequence. Same in Wootton, at the Cedars, Church Litten, Newport, and Queens Rd/Pellhurst Rd Ryde. All traffic light sequencing on the Island now favours a single line of traffic, and or pedestrians. Quite often they all go red,and everyone is stationary. Absolutely clueless!
I believe it has been discussed for years by the parish council but the sticking point for any road improvements is the presence of a large gas main somewhere under the road, and no one is sure exactly where it is!
People commenting here need to accept that the current Island road grid is such that there will always be points of congestion with no solution without creating a problem elsewhere. The junction at Downend is one of those where traffic lights are best of a poor set of options, plus as a key holiday venue there will always be traffic. The only solution is to build more relief roads off the main grid but none of us want that and the budget does not exist. It is what the Island is. Move on.
Of course Island Roads won’t help, they created the problem several years ago when one of their number decided, without proper surveys or consultation to establish the Downend traffic lights.
Whilst true that it stopped traffic building up on the Downs road which, for some reason, seemed to be his only concern, it created a far bigger problem towards Arreton and at the Lynbottom roundabout onto and off Briddlesford Road which is a major route to both local car ferries.
I always felt it just needed a mini roundabout. Far cheaper, paint and a few signs. Sat at a red light at night? Pointless.
Island Roads are a waste of space.
They also want to sort out the Traffic going into McDonald’s in Ryde on a daily basis