Traffic Lights in Hill Lane

I was recently contacted by a resident about the phasing of the traffic lights in Hill Lane. The ones at the junction with Milton Road didn't seem to be in synch with the Archers Road/Hill Lane junction and as a result, it was proving almost impossible to turn right from Milton Road into Hill Lane. The traffic waiting to turn left into Hill Lane was being prevented from doing so because the right-turning traffic wasn't moving.

This was causing some cars wanting to turn left to pull into the wrong side of the road, passing the right turning traffic and cutting in front of them to turn left into Hill Lane.

I reported this the Council's traffic enginners who had already spoken with concerned parents of children at Springhill School.

The reason the phasing between the junctions is noticeably poorer since the Hill Lane/Archer Road junction changes is directly associated with the introduction of the all round pedestrian stage and the loss of time to traffic on all arms.

The Council have now implemented some changes in the linking of the two sets of signals, Hill Lane /Archers Rd and Hill Lane / Milton Rd. This seems to have eased some the problems. Further minor tweaks to timings are likely to take place over the next week as traffic settles down.

These changes will not completely eradicate all the problems although it does seem to have had a significant impact.

The situation will continue to be monitored and should further action be required the Council will consider what further changes might be needed.

Roadmarking are also going to be refreshed following a discussion with the operators of the school bus services and complaints that buses were "often" forced to mount the pavement when turning left out of Milton Road.