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roadtester wrote:I think the A34 is a less tractable problem, given the difficulty of doing anything much near Oxford.
As has already been said the best option would be a link road between north of Didcot and M40 j8. It would also as an advantage link Didcot and surrounds, where there is a lot of houses and jobs growth, to the motorway network as j6 and j7 or going via Henley to the M4 are quite inadequate.
The existing D2 probably wouldn't then need improving as long as they don't do the link road on the cheap, e.g. it needs freeflow links at the M40 and grade separation throughout.
I didn't want to believe my Dad was stealing from his job as a road worker. But when I got home, all the signs were there.
I just noticed on Google Maps that if you zoom out to the point where only the motorways have any prominence, the A34 is still prominent along with the A1, A2 and A14. Says something about the road methinks.
What's the history of the abandoned slip road just south of Abingdon? Came across it on Google. I understand it was where the D2 Abingdon bypass ended before the D2 was extended southwards? What was the layout here? There is evidence of later alterations (reduction in width or part of it blocked off?). There is also evidence of relatively recent use in the form of visible white lines. Did the slip road continue to be used after the D2 was extended?
Richardf wrote:What's the history of the abandoned slip road just south of Abingdon? Came across it on Google. I understand it was where the D2 Abingdon bypass ended before the D2 was extended southwards? What was the layout here? There is evidence of later alterations (reduction in width or part of it blocked off?). There is also evidence of relatively recent use in the form of visible white lines. Did the slip road continue to be used after the D2 was extended?
According to Jonathan in this old thread, it stayed open for a number of years after the Chilton section opened.
I have an old Landranger that shows it in its original usage, when it appears to have carried two-way traffic and been temporarily part of the A34 mainline. Going south, the dual carriageway ends at the north end of the "slip road". The dual carriageway past Chilton is shown as under construction. Southbound traffic from Drayton presumably had to give way to traffic off the bypass. I don't know whether traffic from the south for Drayton was allowed to turn right across the southbound traffic off the bypass, or whether it had to continue to the A415 interchange and approach Drayton from the north.
SteveA30 wrote:Are accident stats divided up be cause? There have been a quite a few 'phone' accidents now, nationwide.
Phone use collisions are under reported, primarily as its difficult to prove without confiscating the phone and no driver will admit to being on the phone prior to a collision.
So Big L was right to be sceptical, it wasn't about the quality of the road.
Not directly of course, but it is possible to speculate whether he would have slammed into the back of traffic ahead if there had been a crawler lane so it wasn't travelling sub-50 at the time. Could have made no difference.
I guess he wasn't aware (or just forgot) that he was on camera.
So lets have ideas for improving the A34 ! Here's my idea, probably it's been mooted before, and I'm sure locals to Abington are well-aware of the congestion in and around the town-centre and A34 / A415 junction. This arrangement gives substantial traffic-flow benefits without any property demolition -
- new route of A415 by-passes the town-centre
- extra capacity at a new 'staggered' A415 / A34 junction, no demolition of tesco required !
- easy access for Drayton & Sutton to A34 Northbound
- easy access from Abingdon Business Park to Eastbound A415, avoiding the town centre
Richardf wrote:What's the history of the abandoned slip road just south of Abingdon? Came across it on Google. I understand it was where the D2 Abingdon bypass ended before the D2 was extended southwards? What was the layout here? There is evidence of later alterations (reduction in width or part of it blocked off?). There is also evidence of relatively recent use in the form of visible white lines. Did the slip road continue to be used after the D2 was extended?
Yes, the Abingdon bypass used to end at the B4017 and the Steventon to Chilton section to the south opened later. I think southbound there may have been a "loop" style slip road.
sotonsteve wrote:
Yes, the Abingdon bypass used to end at the B4017 and the Steventon to Chilton section to the south opened later. I think southbound there may have been a "loop" style slip road.
Of the maps discussed in recent posts above, one shows a straight slip road on the southbound side, the other shows none, with the western slip road being presumably two-way. Neither shows a loop.
What a load of rubbish. Lots of demands for the A34 to become a motorway, claiming only that will help safety improve. Suggestions that Lorry drivers can use hard shoulders to rest?? And newsflash- motorways are losing their hard shoulders.
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darkcape wrote: And newsflash- motorways are losing their hard shoulders.
They aren't in Oxfordshire where the roads are permanently 20 years behind the times ...
There is a real issue with lorries parking in the existing laybys as they struggle to get out of them. There have been suggestions in the past of building a lorry park.
I'm sure that many people have seen the video of the lorry driver who was looking at his music player rather than the road.
Not wishing to take away any blame from that driver at all. It did occur to me that, if the car driver had not been quite so close to the lorry in front, then she wouldn't have been pushed into / under it , and might have survived.
I don't want to blame the victim at all.
You can't really control what's happening behind you, and the advice for being tailgated is to slow and leave a larger space in front.
How much space in front of the victim's car might have made the collision survivable? What would be a recommended gap if stopped in traffic behind an HGV?
andrewwoods wrote:I'm sure that many people have seen the video of the lorry driver who was looking at his music player rather than the road.
Not wishing to take away any blame from that driver at all. It did occur to me that, if the car driver had not been quite so close to the lorry in front, then she wouldn't have been pushed into / under it , and might have survived.
I don't want to blame the victim at all.
You can't really control what's happening behind you, and the advice for being tailgated is to slow and leave a larger space in front.
How much space in front of the victim's car might have made the collision survivable? What would be a recommended gap if stopped in traffic behind an HGV?
Thanks
Andrew
I don't know the details of this specific case, but the general scenario you've outlined underlines why, if you are being tailgated or have any other reason to be concerned about the driving of the person behind you, the best thing to do is gently ease off the gas and increase the distance to the vehicle in front of you.
andrewwoods wrote:I'm sure that many people have seen the video of the lorry driver who was looking at his music player rather than the road.
Not wishing to take away any blame from that driver at all. It did occur to me that, if the car driver had not been quite so close to the lorry in front, then she wouldn't have been pushed into / under it , and might have survived.
I don't want to blame the victim at all.
You can't really control what's happening behind you, and the advice for being tailgated is to slow and leave a larger space in front.
How much space in front of the victim's car might have made the collision survivable? What would be a recommended gap if stopped in traffic behind an HGV?
Thanks
Andrew
Realistically you would have to leave a gap and also turn your wheel to the left to hope to be shunted to the side. The stopping distance of an HGV at full pelt is something like 60 metres (assuming the driver was even braking initially) which isn't a viable distance to leave approaching a queue. A passenger car in the way is barely going to reduce any stopping distance.
Although I'm a fan of defensive driving I really think regrettably this is a hard collision to avoid because it is difficult to judge the approaching speed of vehicles in your rear view mirror with enough time to take evasive action.
I didn't want to believe my Dad was stealing from his job as a road worker. But when I got home, all the signs were there.
I think there's definitely something to be said for leaving that bit more space in front when queuing - it also gives you the option of quickly switching lanes or driving onto the verge more easily if you spot a vehicle coming up behind you that clearly isn't going to stop.
I'm not sure it would have made much difference in this case, though, given that the driver of the truck didn't appear to slow significantly if at all before hitting the car. A longer gap might have made a bit of a difference in a more "equal" i.e. car on car collision, but it's worth bearing in mind that Mercedes has a system that senses such an impending rear impact and puts on the brakes to stop a car rolling forward when hit, allowing the crumple zones and other measures to operate rather than allowing the car to be shunted forward. That seemed odd to me when they first introduced it but obviously they will have done the research before introducing such a system.
So lets have ideas for improving the A34 ! Here's my idea, probably it's been mooted before, and I'm sure locals to Abington are well-aware of the congestion in and around the town-centre and A34 / A415 junction. This arrangement gives substantial traffic-flow benefits without any property demolition -
Surely now the true outcome of this crash has been reported mobile phone use, that makes a clear case nothing on the road was to blame! so is the whole point of this thread a little bit meaningless now? was a clear case of people jumping to conclusions, a local road to me the A64 I have always pushed for improvements as have many locals, we had an accident in July that claimed 4 lives and we could have Jumped straight on the band wagon but we shall await the outcome of the investigation before using it to call for improvements!
