£300m traffic jam busting scheme made journeys longer, Highways England admits

[Micro The Maniac]

One of the problems with this roundabout is splitting the west-bound traffic so that any traffic turning into Queens Gate Road does not interfere with the traffic continuing along Government House Road.

Absolutely... a point some of us made, during the consultation phase for Queen's Gate. Ho hum.....

[JonH]

I'm incredulous that anyone is actually surprised by this - anyone who has seen one of these "pinch-point" projects and has half a brain cell to rub together can work it out.

Black Dam in Basingstoke - £11m+ Prior to the works, M3 bound traffic backed up past the A33. It still does. Traffic often backs up on the spur road that they added a capacity constraint to. Of the 4 approaches, only the inbound route from the M3 has seen any improvement of note - but only if the traffic light phasing works...

Queens Roundabout in Farnborough - as mentioned - the traffic light phasing briefly worked and allowed traffic to flow, clearly someone found out and ensured that was changed. Heaven knows the impact on pollution at peak time.

Living in Basingstoke, I have been inundated with road "improvement" schemes and am increasing of the opinion that 1) UK Highways Designers are psychopaths with an inbuilt hatred of car drivers and 2) have a veiled interest in increasing road rage and RTAs. Works done on two roundabouts in Basingstoke - Crockford (Redman) and Binfields - show such breathtaking incompetence I do wonder as to the motivations. The former's traffic light phasing abruptly changed today to massively increase congestion, the latter has a particular lane layout that goes against all rational roundabout convention and has precisely zero signage to direct anyone.

Of course, any effort to raise concerns with either Highways England or Hampshire Highways usually elicits a response of such sneering contempt, one again wonders what veiled interests are in play. I now actively avoid Black Dam and Binfields where possible due to their being deliberately designed to facilitate poor/dangerous driving behaviours.

Perhaps Highways Designers enjoy those car crash compilation videos on YouTube in a certain way....

[Micro The Maniac]

Black Dam in Basingstoke - £11m+ Prior to the works, M3 bound traffic backed up past the A33. It still does. Traffic often backs up on the spur road that they added a capacity constraint to. Of the 4 approaches, only the inbound route from the M3 has seen any improvement of note - but only if the traffic light phasing works...

Sadly, I have to use this most days

There is plenty of space to retain the third lane on the approach to J6 - then to have lane 1 as a dedicated left turn into lane one of the on-slip, lane 2 as left turn or straight on, and lane 3 as straight on. Oh, and to sort out the 24/7 50:50 timing on the traffic lights to something more appropriate!

As it is, everything has to give-way at the roundabout for a flow that probably has an AADT in single figures. And I don't mean single thousands!

[JonH]

There is plenty of space to retain the third lane on the approach to J6 - then to have lane 1 as a dedicated left turn into lane one of the on-slip, lane 2 as left turn or straight on, and lane 3 as straight on. Oh, and to sort out the 24/7 50:50 timing on the traffic lights to something more appropriate!

As it is, everything has to give-way at the roundabout for a flow that probably has an AADT in single figures. And I don't mean single thousands!

Exactly what I wrote in an email to Highways England after they had accidently revealed to me that the "three lanes from the roundabout to J6 M3" was an absolutely pack of lies.

Their response was to say that the London bound slip road onto the M3 did not have the capacity to accept 2 lanes of traffic from the junction. Except it does have 2 lanes until the top and the Southampton bound slip road is (as far as I can tell) identical in length, incline and is fed by two lanes off the J6 roundabout!! Still, I am sure their modelling said everything was fine and no further thought was given.

Having been nearly smashed off the road on numerous occasions by people changing lanes last minute when heading London bound, I consider the whole thing unfit for purpose and add my traffic to local roads to J5 instead. Observation suggests I am not alone in this behaviour. But HE of course don't GAF.

Edited to add, with regards to the give way you mention, that could well change if the proposed MSA on the J6 junction gets the go ahead. That should have a pretty significant negative impact at peak times.

[Micro The Maniac]

Black Dam in Basingstoke - £11m+ Prior to the works, M3 bound traffic backed up past the A33. It still does. Traffic often backs up on the spur road that they added a capacity constraint to. Of the 4 approaches, only the inbound route from the M3 has seen any improvement of note - but only if the traffic light phasing works...

Sadly, I have to use this most days

There is plenty of space to retain the third lane on the approach to J6 - then to have lane 1 as a dedicated left turn into lane one of the on-slip, lane 2 as left turn or straight on, and lane 3 as straight on. Oh, and to sort out the 24/7 50:50 timing on the traffic lights to something more appropriate!

As it is, everything has to give-way at the roundabout for a flow that probably has an AADT in single figures. And I don't mean single thousands!

Since the Black Dam hamburger opened, it has seen a stead flow of accidents - not helped by the awful sightlines to the various sets of traffic lights (which means you see the green of the next set, not the red of the immediate set!) and the curious phasings that seem to ensure competing flows cause blockages, with long red-phases which all but encourage amber-gambler behaviour...

There have been five serious collisions in the past three days...

There is a growing local campaign "to do something about it"