Sheffield’S £65M Ring Road Too Slow

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/sheffield-s-65m-ring-road-too-slow-1-6414260

It cost £65 million and was supposed to reduce congestion in Sheffield’s traffic-choked city centre.

But figures obtained by The Star show some journeys on the new section of inner relief road from Shalesmoor to the Parkway are taking twice as long as the old route.

Just over six years after the new road was completed, business leaders say it is not good enough and will need extra investment to relieve bottlenecks.

They are also concerned about the number of traffic lights - which has substantially more sets than the former route via West Bar.

Sheffield Council’s own figures show morning peak time journeys between 8am and 9am along the new inner ring road took seven minutes and four seconds - almost four minutes longer than the three minutes and 20 seconds on the old route.

Richard Wright, executive director of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said: “All these traffic lights do not appear to let traffic flow.

“The old road was not good enough - but these figures would indicate we haven’t got it right now either.

Once more the centrally planners prove they know nothing and are in fact clueless.

Still only £65m down the drain to lengthen car journeys by 3 plus minutes. An impressive achievement and clearly vindicates the old road clearly wasn't good enough.

[zugzwang]

http://www.thestar.c...-slow-1-6414260

Once more the centrally planners prove they know nothing and are in fact clueless.

Still only £65m down the drain to lengthen car journeys by 3 plus minutes. An impressive achievement and clearly vindicates the old road clearly wasn't good enough.

Not to worry. If they whine loud enough Osborne will write out a cheque for £100m and let them have another go.

[Bloo Loo]

Not to worry. If they whine loud enough Osborne will write out a cheque for £100m and let them have another go.

Lincoln has a lot of lights that just seem to stop traffic for the fun of it.

[Executive Sadman]

I guess they built it how it is to appease the green lobby or something. A kind of halfway house. You drivers can have your new road, but it'll have to be built to a real shitty standard.

Theres plenty of land, it runs through old industrial areas and could have easily been built to a higher standard (ie, with grade seperated junctions)

I wonder how derbys new improved inner ring road section is doing (Lara Croft way! Last time they allow the public to choose the name of a road...) Its mostly only single carriageway, but doesnt look to have as many lights/junctions as sheffields one.

[Stainless Sam]

Oh dear oh dear, the Sheffield Star has been moving inexorably toward the Daily Mail school of swivel-eyed lunacy for some time but appears to have taken a mighty leap this time. Anyone who's never even seen the road but has an Aunt Sally to throw stones at, just wade in, why dontcha?

In bygone times, I wouldn't have gone near that part of town even in the middle of the day, let alone at rush hour. I still avoid some sections at the worst of times (like to road down from the hospitals to join up with the new ring road).

I'll guess that the Shalesmoor section is the busiest part, 'cos it's where four/five road systems converge but it's massively better thanit used to be. In olden days, you couldn't have got through it in 7 minutes by helicopter, let alone car.

All the rest of the new parts of the road system are is just fine and dandy, considereing the massive increase in traffic since the ring road went in. Sure, the Parkway could do with being 3 lanes, not 2. Yes, the roandabout near the university/Jessops is an excercise in close your eyes and think of England. Of course, it would havve been so much better if they had diverted the 3 rivers that converge just past Shalesmoor and allowed a straight through route. Overall, it's a massive improvement.

Quit with the griping.

Now if anyone wants to winge about Sheffield's potholes, count me in.

.

[Travisher]

20 years ago Sheffield was an impossible place to drive into the centre of so I never went there again after the first time.

15 years ago One could drive through and around Cambridge with ease. Now a ten minute journey takes half an hour. It is a deliberate obstacle course built to prevent visitors. If you come from Birmingham on the A14 the first sign to mention Cambridge is after the Brampton Hut roundabout. Harwich and Felixstow are signposted all the way.

Oxford is the same.

Peterborough is a wannabee obstacle course. They intend to reduce Bourges Boulevard to a single lane with pedestrian crossings removing the pedestrian bridge. If only one lane is obstructed currently, the whole town grinds to a halt. All the buses use it to get to the bus station so that is really going to work well.

Renewing the lease on the town centre office looks increasingly less likely.

[@contradevian]

Huddersfield has a 'necklace of death' strangling the town centre which would put Brands Hatch to shame. Abandon all hope any business setting up on the inside

[AteMoose]

Lincoln has a lot of lights that just seem to stop traffic for the fun of it.

Oh thats a timing thing... and its intentional....

You can either time traffic lights to produce a green wave and keep traffic moving

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7998182.stm

or you can time traffic lights to stop traffic at each light

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37666

Many councils configure lights to repeatedly stop traffic at each light for pollution/traffic reasons. If you make it more annoying to drive you get more people walking or taking public transport. The red wave policy tends to be enforced by left leaning/green councils, green wave tends to be enabled by tory councils.

Edited February 3, 2014 by AteMoose

[jammo]

Oh thats a timing thing... and its intentional....

You can either time traffic lights to produce a green wave and keep traffic moving

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7998182.stm

or you can time traffic lights to stop traffic at each light

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37666

Many councils configure lights to repeatedly stop traffic at each light for pollution/traffic reasons. If you make it more annoying to drive you get more people walking or taking public transport. The red wave policy tends to be enforced by left leaning/green councils, green wave tends to be enabled by tory councils.

I would have thought cars stopping and starting and therefore producing much more pollution would be against green agendas? Same thing with other deliberate obstacles such as speed bumps. Mind you, there's one of those "open space" villages near me which has no road markings and very few signs, just a few to say everyone has the same right of way or something. Anyway that doesn't seem to work as everyone on the road whether cars lorries bikes or people are equally selfish and self-important and so it's not much quicker than traffic lights. Still is though, and at least if you hold back far enough from the car infront you can keep rolling at a steady pace and not come to a complete stop (thus saving fuel and the environment a bit). One of the stupidest things about traffic lights is ones on crossroads which say each opposing side can turn right at the same time. Obviously everyone has to wait until it is red until they actually can go. Retarded, like the person who invented the things surely.

[FedupTeddiBear]

Oh thats a timing thing... and its intentional....

You can either time traffic lights to produce a green wave and keep traffic moving

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7998182.stm

or you can time traffic lights to stop traffic at each light

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37666

Many councils configure lights to repeatedly stop traffic at each light for pollution/traffic reasons. If you make it more annoying to drive you get more people walking or taking public transport. The red wave policy tends to be enforced by left leaning/green councils, green wave tends to be enabled by tory councils.

In the town where we live, if you drive like hell as the lights go green you can just make it through the next set before they go red. This way you can get through without too much frustration. Result is a number of cars haring round the roundabouts. Edit: just to clarify - most of the roundabouts have traffic lights at various points around them.

Kind of defeats the object.

Edited February 3, 2014 by FedupTeddiBear

[FedupTeddiBear]

Oh thats a timing thing... and its intentional....

You can either time traffic lights to produce a green wave and keep traffic moving

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7998182.stm

or you can time traffic lights to stop traffic at each light

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37666

Many councils configure lights to repeatedly stop traffic at each light for pollution/traffic reasons. If you make it more annoying to drive you get more people walking or taking public transport. The red wave policy tends to be enforced by left leaning/green councils, green wave tends to be enabled by tory councils.

This also reminds me - I grew up abroad, where my father was quite senior in the city council. I remember him talking about a new bloke who had been hired to do the traffic light sequencing. This bloke was fired because he could not get it right and succeeded in causing traffic jams all over town - would have been quite a hit in London.

Edited February 3, 2014 by FedupTeddiBear