Evesham: More views on traffic congestion in the town

The A46 is not going to see any improvements in the near future and with future local house-building projections our town is going to suffer more traffic.

To be clear I have written to both county, district and local authorities. None have replied or discussed the situation.

If you study where schools, shops, etc, are sited, there will always be a massive demand for car use in our town and more particularly south-direction traffic which has to cross over the river.

With a bit of thinking ‘outside the box’ we could use Workman Bridge by bringing back two-way traffic, perhaps by altering traffic flow in Swan Street and Oat Street and making Mill Street two-way.

Yes, there would be some repositioning of bus stops and taxi ranks but think of the benefits — we are now using both river crossings, reduced traffic through the town centre, reduced travelling time and also less pollution.

Let’s talk about this and urge our ‘traffic experts’ to talk to us.

Peter Gladstone

Evesham

IN reply to the letters from Michael Parker and Julie Jones.

I normally disagree with many of the diatribes from Mr Parker but a town-wise 20mph zone has merit but as part of a wider ‘system’.

I’ve visited Switzerland several times as my son and family live there.

I would like to see a Swiss-type system introduced but across the whole of the UK with national change in legislation.

The most obvious change is the very frequent use of cheap £300 yellow zebra crossings compared with the white £50,000 ones in the UK and £250,000 for a ‘controlled crossing’.

The yellow crossings not only allow pedestrians to cross where they want to, rather than some convenient spot designated by a traffic engineer, but act as a reminder of the enforced speed limit.

Traffic lights would be removed as would the polluting ‘stop/go’ they create.

People would also feel safer cycling in the traffic as although cycle lanes are a ‘good idea’ there really isn’t the space in much of Evesham, especially in the short term.

There’s too much of an obsession about speed limits rather than what’s really important — ‘transition times’.

There’s much else we should copy from the Swiss.

I understand Julie Jones’ concerns but the apparent ‘car-only’ based solution she appears to advocate will lead to even greater gridlock.

Interestingly from what I’ve seen, the Swiss have much better provision for those with a disability.

Robert C Hale

Evesham

EVESHAM should never have had a one-way system, it’s never worked.

To resolve the continued chaos on Evesham’s road network, including the A46 bypass, why will they not make Swan Lane and Mill Bank two-way?

They could then add in a weight restriction of 7.5 tonnes that then gives people on the High Street access to Port Street if you live Bengeworth end of town, freeing up Abbey Road for people living by Morrisons end of town or Hampton residents to get there quicker and helping a bit to redirect traffic from the bypass.

I’m guessing there are a few reasons for this — the cost to change the lights and road line marking and no one wants to admit it was a stupid idea to make it one-way in the first place.

But, with the ever-increasing number of people trying to use the bypass to get home quicker and that being slow or at a standstill in busy periods, drivers get impatient and overtake on the hatched area and, like we all know, lives are lost.

Why can’t they just try Swan Lane and Mill Bank two-way as a trial?

I would love to hear what councils and highways have to say.

Also there is nothing in Evesham for kids to do.

You have the old Vauxhall building going to waste which would make a great Burger King.

But there are some saying they don’t want noise in town or added rubbish.

The old Aldi or old swimming pool could be a great place for ten-pin bowling and a water slide swimming pool.

Also the shopping centre is in disrepair. Very sad times for Evesham.

Chris Houghton

Evesham

What do you think? Write to letters@eveshamjournal.co.uk.