Update: 25/ October, Tom emailed me to say he’s passed on my suggestion of box junctions to TFL
Update: 15/ November, Tom wrote to me with the response from TFL. The Highways team have looked at Rosehill and although regulations require more space for yellow box junctions than exists, they “acknowledge that some blocking issues do occur at this location and will investigate the possibility of improving the road markings including the provision of keep clear markings at the junction.”
Update: 14/ January ’14, when passing this morning I saw workmen in Hi-Viz with a laptop connected up to the traffic lights, I’d like to think they were tweaking signal timing to increase traffic flow!
Letter to Thomas Brake MP via http://tombrake.co.uk/en/survey/contact-tom-brake
Hi Tom,
on 11/10 I tweeted “gridlock of rosehill roundabout is bad by bike, on a bus/in car forget it! Traffic management box jucts CCTV enforced PLEASE!! ”
It turned out that on this occasion there was actually a fault with RTLs and the disruption was particularly bad. I do still stand by the suggestion though as at peak times on any work day I can see the congestion on roads leading to Rose Hill roundabout extend 1/2-1 mile in all directions. I’m not a traffic flow/management specialist but I see the issue being that after waiting so long to get to the roundabout so many drivers are keen to get passed the lights before they change again so when they do it blocks the progress of the next drivers with priority. This stops people getting off the roundabout and basically brings everyone to a stop. I feel if there were proper box junctions which were enforced people wouldn’t enter unless there was space to get out and traffic would flow when light priorities changed. Is this an idea you agree with and could experts be given resource to take it further? If you saved 20mins of everyone’s day waiting in traffic could only be a good thing.
If Rosehill actually falls in Paul Burtow’s area would you please pass on this suggestion.
Many thanks
Marcus Howarth