Measure
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Description
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CROSSINGS
Toucan crossing
outside Nos. 31a & 33 Oakley Road.
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This crossing
facilitates the safe crossing of Oakley Road (B4009) for children
living to the south. A School Crossing Patrol (SCP) is stationed
some 150m to the west, but is away from the desire time for pupils
going to Mill Lane school. The crossing is located on the proposed
cycle route and is close to the alleyway leading to the ‘quieter’
roads on the way to the school.
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Zebra crossing,
near Duck Square, on Station Road.
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This crossing
is near to the St Andrew’s school entrance, which is the present
site of a SCP. The crossing will add to the safety provided by the
SCP, who can ensure that the traffic is not disrupted unnecessarily,
or too often, at peak times. Station Road (B4009) is busy especially
at peak times, and a crossing would also benefit the community at
other times making their way to the Doctor’s surgery or the village
library.
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Zebra crossing,
outside 10 Church Road.
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This is proposed
to provide a safe crossing facility for children to the south going
to St Andrew’s school. Although traffic is relatively light, Church
Road is used as an alternative to Station Road and crossing can
be difficult at these times.
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CYCLE ROUTES
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To encourage
cycling it is necessary to provide safe cycle routes. Existing carriageway
widths are not sufficient for incorporating mandatory cycle lanes
and the BWTS Group indicated that parents would not feel safe with
on-carriageway cycle lanes due to the volume and size of traffic.
Shared use facilities are therefore proposed along parts of Oakley
Road, Estover Way and Mill Lane. A schedule of the lengths proposed
for conversion is shown in Annex 3. Objections to these shared use
facilities are shown in Annex 2. On-carriageway facilities have
also been included in Mill Lane and Estover Way to indicate to drivers
that cyclists are likely but off-carriageway facilities are available
on the other side of the road. Other roads are not considered to
have sufficient traffic to require cycle lanes.
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ROUTE SIGNING
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Safe routes
are proposed to be signed (examples are shown in Annex 4). Whilst
it is expected that parents and children know their way to the schools,
the purpose is to sign the ‘Safe Route to School’ to encourage use
of these routes rather than the more busily trafficked main roads.
The signs have been kept to the minimum size and number possible
in order not to clutter the area.
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TRAFFIC
CALMING
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The area outside
Mill Lane school is of a different character to the B4009, but is
trafficked to relatively high levels when children are going to
school. There are anecdotal reports of cars travelling too fast
and, on at least one occasion, passing the School Crossing Patrol
Officer while she was standing in the road. A controlled crossing
was considered here, but not thought to be appropriate in such an
area. However, some form of crossing was needed as the SCP may not
be present at all times. Traffic calming is proposed in the form
of build-outs and chicanes. This would narrow the carriageway, making
crossing shorter and along with advance build-outs, slow down traffic
approaching the crossing point. These features would also provide
a degree of calming at other times, which would be appreciated by
local residents. In addition, it may deter drivers from using this
route as an alternative to the B4009.
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