A trial of temporary traffic lights on Salford’s busiest roundabout is being extended for a further 12 months.
The lights at Worsley Courthouse roundabout are set to be extended after their initial six month period has proved successful, by improving traffic flow and safety for the 14,000 vehicles that pass through at peak times.
After being installed in February, data shows that general traffic journey times in the morning have improved on all approaches from between 27 seconds to three minutes and 26 seconds quicker.
In addition, morning bus journey times have reduced by between 20 seconds and up to eight minutes.
The afternoon results show there has been an average 10 seconds increase in general traffic journey times on the Worsley Brow approach, a fear which some residents voiced at the start of the trial.
Councillor McCusker, Lead Member for Planning, Transport and Sustainable Development said: “The results are very good so far. The initial data is also showing us there are no significant impacts on journey times.”
The signals are on Monday to Friday between 15:30 – 18:00 to assist with the afternoon peak traffic. Outside of those hours, including weekends, the signals are only activated if significant queues are detected on Worsley Road or Barton Road by one of the sensors.
He continued: “We are making the decision to continue the trial so we have detailed seasonal statistics before we make a final decision. Our overall aim is to reduce the time people have to sit in traffic and to do this in the safest way possible.”
How have these times been assessed. Walkden Road is far worse as it the volume of speeding traffic cutting down Lumber Lane and Greenleach Lane, most of them far exceeding the 20mph limit which GMP won’t enforce.
What is to be about this? Lumber Lane is the subject of residents petition about volume and speed of traffic before the increase following the temporary lights.
How is this going to be rectified? It’s not just Mail road traffic which should be considered.
What a load of crap, I often am stuck in masses of traffic in the middle of the day coming from Walkden. With some traffic going all the way from Worsley college in Walkden, it is quicker for me to drive through Ellenbrook to Boothstown and back up to Worsley than sit in the traffic for ages. I am having to add at least 20 minutes onto my journey and I never drive at peak time. I have sat through it but then when I’ve gone through Worsley to winton there have only been a couple of cars waiting on the opposite side. It never matters what the locals think, Salford council will do whatever the hell they want to, just like they always do!
Afternoon traffic along Barton road is extremely intense with queues starting near to New Lane. This is further increased by weather conditions and in winter time by darkness. At what location(s) was the 14000 traffic assessment derived ?
To get on/over the Court House roundabout from the Winton direction, is a test of acceleration/nerve – to slot between constant speeding traffic down Church Brow, traffic from the M60 off slip at the roundabout and fast traffic from Swinton.
I trust that the person(s) in charge of improvements have experienced the problems of the roundabout directly and have arranged a complete traffic assessment, inclusive of all roads and that the council proposals have been determined by a full assessment process.
In my opinion the three lanes at the Church Brow onto the roundabout should have been left as two lanes – trucks, vans and cars at speed is quite a squeeze. !