At the 'exhibition' at the Town Hall in December we queried, amongst other things, the removal of the turning point for buses half way down Broad Street. We were assured that a 'computer program' had ascertained that the buses could turn at the top of Broad Street in one sweep. Most people know, of course, that like calculators, computers will produce facts based on the information that is input.
On Sunday morning, a quiet time in the town, I witnessed a bus, a shorter one than the normal buses, attempting to make this manoeuvre and although it was close, the driver did have to reverse in order to make the turn. This did not amuse the traffic that was held up or had to reverse to give him the space to do this.
If, as was stated by the contractors/council, this computer program is absolutely correct and it is easily possible to drive a bus around the top end of Broad Street in one sweep, then may I suggest that the contractors/council take over the training of the bus drivers so that they can learn how to achieve this?
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On top of this is the placing of a Zebra Crossing on the corner of Bridge Street and Broad Street, which at the time of the 'exhibition' people raised concerns over. Now the works are apparently complete, we see that the area from the central car park on Broad Street onto the High Street has been extended and it looks as though plants/flowers/shrubs are going to be planted there, thus obstructing further the view to the right for drivers turning out of Broad Street into the High Street/Bridge Street. This adds to the danger of this crossing. Just over the weekend I heard many people state that they would not use that crossing as it was in such a stupidly dangerous place.
The reasons are many and all centre around the fact that this is a very broad junction due to the overall width of Broad Street; there is a lot going on at this junction for drivers to be aware of, not least vehicles pulling away from the kerb opposite, outside the bank and further to the left from outside Tesco's as well as traffic leaving the Angel car park; there are also the vehicles from the left that are wanting to turn right into Broad Street and, with the planted area this all adds to obstruct the view to the right and specifically of the crossing. At busy times it is necessary for drivers to exit this junction quite rapidly, when they see a gap in the traffic, or risk sitting there all day, however, this just adds to the fact that someone on the crossing will not be seen by the driver until it is too late. This has nothing to do with bad or stupid driving, it is just a fact of life that in today's conditions junctions such as this at busy times of the day are difficult to negotiate without additional and unnecessary hazards being placed there to exacerbate the situation.
It would be very welcome and refreshing, just for once, to see a little common sense applied in these instances by both the council and the planners, as well as a little more notice being taken of the opinion of local people who regularly use such junctions both as drivers and pedestrians, as they are the ones that have the best experience of how the area works at different times of day.
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