I heard today that the new A650 Bingley bypass road has opened ahead of schedule. Strange that given that the sign indicates completion in Autumn 2003.
The local MP described it as good news for the local community and for the environment as pollution will be reduced as cars arent in traffic jams.
Now there is some revolutionary news, traffic jams and artificially lowering speeds must increase pollution. Lets look forward to more congestion reducing roads opening.
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Reminds me of the new Bicester ring road. A dead straight full width road with crash barriers either side, bright new paint and shiny catseyes (tm) replaced an old narrow winding road full of potholes, with worn out markings and surrounded by footpaths and residential buildings.
Except the old road was a 60 limit and the new road was made a 30 limit. What a choice - stick to the limit and get rear-ended by someone who flatly can't believe you're going so slowly (very nearly happened on 3 ocasions) or drive at a speed suited to the conditions and put your licence at risk - we all know the mobile cameras go to the new limits and to the ridiculously low limits....
They've since changed it to 50mph, but I have to ask why £5m of our money was spent "improving" a road if the official view of its safety level was 60mph before and 50mph after.
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Just for info, the speed limit on the new road is 50 and NSL. Its 50 from Cottingley to the junction for Bingley and 70 from Bingley to where it joins the East Riddlesden bypass road (NSL as well).
It sure enough beats multiple junctions, traffic lights and 10mph if you are lucky.
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That IS good news.
But SeeFive please let us know what happens in future with one aspect which occurs to me:
The state of the roundabout at Saltaire when all the Bradford-bound traffic starts feeding it having recently been doing 50 mph instead of 10 mph!
I'm worried about it.
Probably more worried about it than (sings) "the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow..."
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Patently
Why not write to the chief highways engineer for the relevant authority and ask him, copying your enquiry to your local councillor? If we do actually question these decisions, someone somewhere might begin to realize that they should not act as if they have carte blanche to do what they like.
Report the response to us -- it might be good for a laugh. This looks like yet another bad, bad, bad traffic-engineering decision, of which there are more than enough in Herts. Every time they do such things, the credibility of the speed-limit system in general takes another knock, which is exactly what most motorists don't want. I sometimes wonder whether all highways engineers are obliged to give up their driving licences and set their brains to "Park" to qualify for their jobs.
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I was seriously tempted. Then I thought about the likely response.
I have raised issues with that local council before. The only response they provide is a justification of why they reached the decision, without taking the time to consider my concerns and address them. There seems to be a standard letter for each issue.
So, if I point out that a speed limit is too low, I'm worried that they'll simply explain that it's as high as it can safely be, and then go off and apply the same logic to all the other roads. Pretty soon every road in the area will be 20mph.
Anyway, I'm moving out of the area next month. If they won't listen, vote with your feet.....
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there was a similar situation when the A46 Lincoln to Newark section was upgraded from single to duel carragway.
Work started in November 2001 with signs saying completion summer 2003, those signs were changed to completion winter 2003 and then made a huge fuss saying the road was completed 4 months early i.e. summer 2003.
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there was a similar situation when the A46 Lincoln to Newark section was upgraded from single to duel carragway.
Yes, I think I've been on a few duel carriageways as well...
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I presume that there is good reason to bypass Bingley...:-)
Bit like the fellow who wrote to Terry Wogan many years ago to say his missus was known as the Slough turnoff.
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Two weeks since opening, no accidents, but already there are calls for scameras to be installed as a few people have decided to test the new road above the limit! Do the Councillors not know they are supposed to be placed in accident blackspots?
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Tonight's local paper - the area around the new roundabout at the Cottingley end of the bypass was gridlocked this morning resulting in major delays to traffic using the A650! It took a colleague an hour and a quarter to get home last night, it usually takes 45 minutes, one queue from Bradford city centre to the above roundabout - about 6 miles.
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The last 2 days traffic through Shipley (going from Leeds towards Bingley) has been much heavier than normal along Commercial Street.
I think Saltaire roundabout may be in line for traffic lights now.
The relief road cannot help commuters from Keighley towards Bradford and Leeds because the other bottleneck is still there; Saltaire and Shipley. However, I see evening rush hour being better now with traffic along the new road helping the situation.
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Maybe there will be more sightings of the Fairys now that people are sitting around longer in Cottingley?
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I presume that there is good reason to bypass Bingley...:-)
Trust me, there are lots of good reasons to avoid Bingley, although getting to Keighley more quickly has never seemed to me to be a particularly good reason for anything. YMMV.
I used to live there ... which I hope won't be counted as a reason to avoid it ... but as a town I found that it had little to commend it except its permanent traffic jam.
Maybe, though, without the traffic clogging it to bits it might recover a bit.
Claire
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