The thorny issue of whether traffic lights would ease car journeys through Woodmill recently re-emerged as city roadworks created a knock-on effect in Bitterne Park.

 

Cllr Royston Smith, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Itchen, has created an online petition to “gauge opinion of local residents and if necessary present to the council to help with their deliberation.” He's also set up an online survey that includes a wider set of questions and the option to voice opposition to lights.

These consultations appeared as many commuters looked for alternative routes from the east of the city into Southampton due to roadworks on Northam Bridge, with Bitterne Park seeing long queues since roadworks started – not necessarily the best time to be trying to reach a consensus on a long-term solution for the problem, according to John Jordan, Labour's former candidate for Bitterne Park in the forthcoming local elections.

While some think lights would ease their car journeys from Bitterne Park to Swaythling and back, one stumbling block is likely to be lack of funds when the council is already making cuts left right and centre: the estimated cost for lights in 2006, when we first started reporting on the debate, was thought to be a minimum of £100,000

To put this figure into some sort of perspective, this is nearly enough to run Cobbett Road Library for two years, while it's been reported that the city budget for 2014/15 will see “the axe fall on £14.4 million of services”, with the council needing to find savings of over £30 million the following year.

'Saturation point'

In November Townhill Park Residents' Association made a presentation to a full Southampton City Council meeting saying funds should be allocated to install lights and suggesting a trial period. Mr Houghton told councillors that increases in housing density under Townhill Park regeneration plans will increase traffic on the bridge, which he said is already “at saturation point”

“This problem will not go away, and it will only get worse as traffic volumes increase,” he suggested.

Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Jacqui Rayment's response then was that the chamber wasn't in a position to agree funding for any road schemes.

Of course, lights wouldn't just affect motorists, and they wouldn't just affect those living on the east of the river, or driving through Bitterne Park. Put another way, this issue doesn't just affect Bitterene Park ward and Southampton Itchen constituency: residents living near Woodmill, which are mainly in Swaythling ward, have in the past pointed out the implications they see for those living close by, as well as for pedestrians and cyclists.

“If you ask drivers who come through here if they’d like lights, by and large they’ll say that they would because they view the Bridge as a place that’s in the way from where they are to where they want to get to,” said one speaker at a meeting at Woodmill Outdoor Centre in 2007.

Boom-boom-boom

At their own delegation to the council in 2009, Woodmill residents said that for those living near the bridge, life would be made intolerable by night-time traffic light queues, and particularly by the “boom-boom-boom of in-car entertainment systems in the early hours”. They said they'd been told intelligent lights, which turn green as cars approach, cannot be installed due to the long cycle time and the heavy traffic flow, and that lights can not be turned off at night, as this would apparently “confuse drivers”.

Aside from current Northam Bridge roadworks, whether traffic 'flow' is generally increasing seems unclear: while the latest petition and survey put the figure of daily vehicle movements at 8,000, in 2009 Woodmill residents were claiming that: “Both the Traffic Flow and Accident Reports for Woodmill indicate that traffic flow has remained relatively constant at about 10,000 vehicles per day for the last 19 years, with or without traffic lights.”

'No silver bullet'

Since the issue has re-surfaced, some on social media have again suggested signage could be a simpler, and more cost-effective solution.

Labour's John Jordan thinks residents are split 50:50 over the traffic lights issue, and says there's no “silver bullet” to fix the problem. He thinks clear signage and possible width restrictions should be tried before a move to lights, which he says bring their own problems. He says he's seen signs in America that work very well, advising for example: “Four vehicles at a time, use bridge in turn”.

“The observed evidence, which I don't think is disputed, is that the bridge flows best when drivers adhere to the 'three at a time' custom. Familiar drivers – the majority of bridge users – know how this works and practise it accordingly. Not everyone going over the bridge knows this, however, and some drivers are less confident in executing it than others. Personally, I would like to see clear signs that explain the process.”

Signs?

So just how hard – or expensive – is it to get further signs put up?

The Department for Transport (Dft) told us that local traffic authorities are free to use 'prescribed' signs, such as those specifying width and length restrictions, at locations of their choice. 'Non-prescribed signs' – presumably such as those advising 'three cars at a time', or to 'drive slowly off bridge', would need the DfT's permission and apparently take around three months for approval. The cost would be for sign construction/installation only.

Bets are off, though, on whether the DfT would approve Zoe Carr's suggested wording for signs leading to the bridge, which she posted on Royston Smith's Facebook page:

“Only a fool breaks the 3 car rule,” was her suggestion.

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Sign image adapted (badly) from an original picture by Secret Pilgrim under CC2