Tuesday 28 February 2012

The roadworks which are helping improve traffic congestion in Denton


Roadworks can be a nightmare for motorists, but the not the current roadworks close to the entrance of the Morrisons store on Stockport Rd in Denton. Incredibly these roadworks make the usual tortuous crawl from Audenshaw, past Crown Point North and then on to Haughton Green quite enjoyable. The reason for this drastic drop in congestion in this area is because the ridiculous traffic lights and even more ridiculous bus lane close to the entrance to Morrisons have both been taken out of action so the roadworks can take place. Now these obstructions are redundant traffic flows far better. It is not just beneficial for users of Stockport Road, it is also easier to get out of Morrisons as well. Let’s hope that when the roadworks are finished the bus lane and traffic lights are permanently scrapped.

17 comments:

ukip said...

This is a terrible strech of road. I used to train/upgrade my drivers at weekends. I had two fail their HGV class 1 tests here. One failed for showing undue hesitancy/not making progress beause he could not get his 56 foot vehicle to the lights without blocking the yellow boxes or many Keep clear boxes. The second failed because he had entered the yellow box and two cars came out of the side street on the left, which made the end of his trailer overhang the yellow box!

Enviro 400 said...

I have 23 years experience as a professional driver and can confirm that in 95% of cases traffic lights create problems or make existing problems worse. Their proliferation, locally and nationally is driven by a combination of car hating socialists, 'Green' nutters (these two are often the same thing), the current health and safety hysteria and finally gross incompetence.
There is nothing 'Green' about creating massive amounts of emissions/pollution/noise from constant, unnecessary queues of traffic. That's apart from the health issues.

Anonymous said...

I believe the traffic problems we have in our major cities would be virtually non-existent if we pursued a course of depopulation.

Deporting foreigners, sterilising people with hereditary illnesses, executing/sterlising repeat petty offenders, establishing colonies abroad and criminalising sex outisde of marriage.

We could dismantle the tarmac and red brick monstrosities we live in and move to the country. It would be wonderful.

Britain Needs More Tolerance said...

F the roads mate Britain Needs More Tolerance.

Tameside Citizen said...

I have never thought of it from a HGV drivers perspective but yes, this junction would be a nightmare in a HGV while on test.

Another thing that I find frustrating at this spot, or at least I did when the traffic lights which cause the congestion were in use, were the cheeky drivers who would speed all the way to the Crown Point lights in the usually empty lane designated for turning right onto Manchester Rd and then at the last minute try and force there way into the queue of traffic heading towards Haughton Green. 9/10 times I could spot these through my door mirror as they always approach with an aggressive style of driving. I never let them in if they try and to intimidate me I adopt the approach of ‘hit me if you dare’ because I am not moving to let a cheat like you get in front of me. They always bottle it in the end when they realise their intimidation has failed. Sadly they normally succeed when a day dreamer starts off slowly and they barge in front of them but every now and then they do get stuck and have no option but to turn right which I find kind of satisfying.

Anonymous said...

Amen to That TC!

You can also add to your list those who, when heading onto the M67 after coming off the M60 from Stockport, use the middle lane of the roundabout and then cut right in as the inside lane splits.

Also quite easy to guess which cars are definitely going to do this; usually by car or driver type!

Tramageddon said...

Re the latter, if you're referring to the two right hand lanes you used to be able to use the left hand of the two to access the M67. A couple of years ago they re-marked it in an attempt to force all the traffic for the M67 to queue up in the right hand lane to increase the length of the queues. Like many drivers I ignore this deliberate lunacy on the part of the authorities and use the left hand lane if the right hand queue is excessive and carefully indicate and move over.
If the authorities aren't right in the head on any issue, as is increasingly the case these days, I ignore them.

Anonymous said...

So some drivers must be choosing to drive according to the road layout that they think should (or used to) be there, rather than the one marked on the road.

This explains the frequency of 'near misses' when they follow their imaginary road without indicating as you do. Not always the most helpful approach when piloting a couple of tons of metal in your direction!

Tramageddon said...

Better than blindly obeying anti-car cranks and lunatics because they happen to be in a position of authority. About 40% of drivers ignore this particular road marking anyway and virtually everyone seems to be aware of it as there are hardly ever incidents.

Anonymous said...

No officer, I did not just change lanes without indicating on this busy junction, causing the mass of twisted metal and injuries you have caught on camera.

If you watch again, you can quite clearly see that I was simply refusing to blindly obey anti-car cranks and lunatics such as yourself, just because they happen to be in a position of authority.

From my own expert analysis, I have managed to conclude that 40% of drivers ignore this particular road marking anyway. Furthermore, is it not obvious that my imaginary '40% of drivers' means that virtually everyone seems to be aware of it as in my expert opinion, there are hardly any incidents.

No officer, that family from Sheffield should have been aware of my right as a local driver to drive where I damn well like. I am sure that when they recover, they will be glad to confirm this for you.

Tramageddon said...

They love people like yourself who blindly obey and who find the idea of the authorities being wrong or mentally unsound petrifying.
I'll stick with the left hand lane when the right hand queue reaches back onto the M60, highly dangerous in itself, as well as totally unnecessary, and directly caused by the lunatics in positions of power who no longer have the capacity for balanced judgement and have replaced it with hysteria and fundamentally irrational 'agendas'. This now applies to virtually every department of local and national governance. But you're not interested and will continue to blindly obey, why? because they're 'the authorities' which is clearly 'reason' enough for some, and it's easier than thinking for yourself.
If thousands of drivers deliberately use the left hand lane every day that tells you everything you need to know, that there's something fundamentally wrong with the new layout.
The other day 'the authorities' left a drowning man in a three foot deep park pond and prevented anyone from entering whilst they waited for a water rescue specialist team, a textbook example of the modern plague of cranks and lunatics in authority and utterly unthinkable only a few years ago.

Peter Jamieson said...

I use it six days a week. When you could use both lanes it worked great, now there's a massive queue at peak times. No way did they not know what would happen and it was done on purpose. There's a lot of this sort of stuff now and they won't leave the roads alone when often it would be better.

Off your f***ing knees said...

By the way if you use the left hand lane, signed M60, when you reach the first set of lights on the actual roundabout the road is marked M60 AND M67 which PROVES it's a load of bollocks.

Anonymous said...

That's because it is painted AFTER the marked (inside) lane splits.

Your observation PROVES nothing.

Forcing your way into the lane under discussion, (as many people who are just too important to wait seem to do) also results in slower traffic having to remain in the fast lane on the M67 approach ramp, which delays everybody.

As for all the juvenile rebellion and 'sticking it to the man', it is amazing the lengths some people will go to justify their own entirely selfish behaviour.

Off your f***ing knees said...

No it isn't, it's BEFORE the split, which means the original marking is contradictory. Even if it wasn't, answer the points about why it was changed in the first place, or indeed answer ANY of the points raised, as it's created much longer queues, often back down to the M60. If everyone slavishly obeyed such official lunacy/incompetence it would be even worse and more dangerous, fortunately some people can think for themselves, but if it makes you feel secure to mindlessly obey.
I believe 'carefuly indicate', not forced was the phrase used. And also address the issue of HGVs etc in the outside lane who have to then revert over to the left slowing down and holding up the traffic again, increasing the length of queues on the sliproad. Before they ALL used the inside lane and there was no problem.

David Poole said...

I use this roundabout at least forty times a week and can tell you that it does now say it before the split, but when the lanes on the slip road were first altered the markings on the roundabout itself DID stay the old way for a long time, i.e. they said you COULD go right round onto the M60 in that lane, as it is in reality the same exit as the M57 East anyway.
The Highways Agency shouldn't have stuck their daft oar in in the first place and the markings on the slip road should have been left as they originally were. A lot of people know the score and just use whichever queue's shortest.
In any case changing lanes at the point in question from left to right isn't an illegal manouevre as you perform exactly the same manouevre if starting from Manchester Rd West and heading for the M67, which shows that the people in power HAVE been playing silly buggers with the markings.

R Y said...

The REAL danger is all those HGVs now having to go from right to left when before they could just stay in the left hand lane. Absolutely crackers, no wonder it get ignored.