We have sent the following comments to the County Council regarding raised entry treatments proposed in the Access to Headington consultation. The end date for comments is today Friday 8 April.

Response to consultation on changes to junctions as part of the Access to Headington project

Following public meetings, local street surgeries, phone calls and over 130 email messages our response to the proposal to construct new or amended existing road humps across the side roads at their junctions as described in the published TROs. The proposals for side raised entry treatments (SRET) from Headley Way and Windmill Road have given us the highest number of responses, with only a handful of residents being in favour.

From the correspondence and phone calls received, the public meetings and local street surgeries we have recorded the following reasons for objecting to the changes proposed to the junctions:

• Will do little to stop drivers speeding in the 20mph residential roads
• No clear understanding of who as priority on the SRET – pedestrian, cyclist or vehicle
• Waste of public monies – a pedestrian crossing is still needed further along the Marston Road to the shops
• The platform at Copse Lane junction would deteriorate very quickly given the weight and number of busses
• Will do little to increase pedestrian movement and cycle journeys
• Sight lines impaired for all users

In addition the TRL Limited report 2006 (commission by Transport for London) showed that there was an increase in collisions with motor cycles at junctions with SRETs and an increase in right hand turn collisions when turning into side roads.

This response is in addition to the comments already submitted to the Access to Headington project as shown in the first paragraph below.

 

Raised entry treatments

We dispute that raised entry treatments to side roads aid pedestrians for the following reasons:

• There are near misses as priority is unclear and these treatments are not well understood
• Drivers need clear lines of sight when pulling out into busy roads; this may mean they need to wait on the raised entry bumps until the road is clear
• These are frequently poorly installed by contractors and require remedial drainage work because of puddles either side after rain
• They are sometimes used by cyclists to access pavements on which pedestrians should have sole access
• In our experience, existing treatments have given poor value for taxpayers’ money in the past and the money could be better spent elsewhere
• One resident told us these treatments are dangerous in wet weather for motor cyclists and knew of two incidents where riders had come off their bikes