Why the lights on Gomm Road junction?

1:43pm Friday 13th June 2008

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WE ARE supposed to live in a green eco-friendly county, preserving our electricity while fuel prices rocket out of control.

So why then do the authorities insist on placing traffic lights anywhere and everywhere?

Readers have complained in the past about the explosion of lights along the London Road in High Wycombe, and the subsequent jungle of green, amber and red monsters in the town centre.

I was therefore gobsmacked to see even more lights had sprouted up this week in place of the mini-roundabout by the Gomm Road junction.

I know Gomm Road intimately because our old offices used to be situated there. At a rough count, I navigated that mini-roundabout about 8,000 times over a 16-year period. And in all that time, I can't ever recall there being a problem.

The brand spanking new system had yet to be turned on by the time we went to press. Instead, bewildered drivers were left to negotiate the difficult turn this week minus the roundabout.

Okay, that's only temporary, but when the lights do come in, will we see any benefit at all to the London Road? And who will pay the fuel bills for the electricity that feeds them?

The A40 used to give drivers a clear and easy run to and from town. But then they plonked a ridiculous bus lane down for the benefit of a handful of buses.

And then they stuck up the bewildering array of lights which make the road more dangerous than before as you are left to merge in and out.

The worst part is the right turn that takes Beaconsfield-facing traffic into the Marsh retail park. There's actually no space for cars to turn right, so they block everyone else in the lane.

The town centre is also a confusing mess as a result of lights. The Eden roundabout gives me a headache. My passenger on Tuesday had to shout at me to stop at a bizarrely-sited set that most drivers are bound to miss as they weave round.

Of course, there are no lights in the only place on the London Road where they are actually needed. Drivers turning right from Chestnut Avenue have a nightmarish time getting out. Bizarrely, there are pedestrian lights situated a few yards down the road, illogically in the wrong place to make this junction safe.

The county council tells us these lights will provide a pedestrian crossing for people living in the new homes nearby. But they will also be another obstacle for drivers day and night and will make trips far longer than they need to be.

I normally sign off with a feeble joke. But it's not appropriate here because when Gomm Road goes online there's going to be no light relief for drivers anywhere in High Wycombe.

*THE county council said yesterday that the new lights at Gomm Road would eventually be computer controlled, along with the other sets of traffic lights along the A40, like the system used around Eden.

The mini-roundabout had to be replaced, as it would have disrupted the computer controlled flow of traffic between the other lights on the A40, the council added.

Editor's Chair was written before an accident which happened at this junction at 10.30am today.