http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/districts/poole/9346283.Motorists_call_for_removal_of_Fleetsbridge_Roundabout_traffic_lights/

Driving through the Fleetsbridge roundabout in the last week since the traffic lights have been removed has been an absolute joy. No unnecessary stopping multiple times for several minutes. Saved time, reduced fuel wastage and pollution. Fantastic. But that’s what we’d expect, it’s a roundabout! Sadly it is part of a £75,000 project to simply “upgrade” the lights.

Steve Tite says it’s all about safety. Seven accidents a year (in 2000) down to 2.68. Once again we see mind-blowing simplicity and naivety from our road “experts” in Poole and Dorset. What about the downward trend anyway in accidents over the last 10 years? Like Dorset Road Safe who seem to think that the only reason accidents have reduced is because of them, Mr Tite seems to think the only reason for reductions at the Fleetsbridge is his traffic lights! What about the negative effects on other roads? Drivers diverting and having accidents somewhere else because they don’t want to waste so much time here. Drivers becoming frustrated / late and therefore taking more risks elsewhere. What about finding the correct balance? What accident counts are you looking for, 0? How about closing the roundabout, that should do it? How about working intelligently with other agencies in Dorset to provide more proper road policing and newer technologies?

What we see at Fleetsbridge, a perfectly effective and efficient roundabout brought to it’s knees by traffic lights is exactly what will happen at Canford Bottom. As far as I can work out, the justification was done by Mouchel (here we go). They do construction projects, don’t they? They would hardly be likely to come up with any study showing such changes would not be beneficial. Why was it not done independently? The justifications ring alarm bells ring with me: They seem massively optimistic, for example reducing car queues from 300-400 to just 20! This simply is not realistic. And even if flow improves through this roundabout, there are roundabouts each side which will determine the overall flow.  £5.7M and a year of pain, just to make the roads less efficient. Great.

I’d be delighted if Steve Tite or anyone else would respond to this. If I am wrong, and all of this has been properly thought through, I will be delighted to apologise.