03:06PM, Thursday 23 June 2022
The long-awaited A308 corridor study has been published – addressing the 700 responses from residents who gave feedback on the road’s various problems.
The A308 corridor study sought to evaluate the traffic impacts of the A308 stretch between Bisham Roundabout and the M25, which runs through the centre of Maidenhead, the Bray area, and Windsor.
It opened to public engagement in September-October 2020, when participants were invited to drop pins on an interactive map to identify areas of concern and leave comments.
The resulting report has found 263 road safety issues, 155 cycling issues, 131 traffic issues and 65 walking issues. Overall there were 735 public comments.
Following this, Project Centre, which conducted the study for the Royal Borough, identified 10 priority sites:
Project Centre said the main areas of concern identified were road safety, followed by cycling and traffic.
“The high level of traffic has also given rise to issues with noise, community severance and rat-running along residential streets/local centres,” the report states.
Public transport services are ‘not sufficiently quick or frequent’ to be competitive with equivalent car journeys. Walking and cycling links are also ‘sub-standard’ and provision is ‘piecemeal’.
“As a consequence, cyclists often choose to remain on-carriageway, contributing further to the congestion,” said the report.
The journey time for the bus route 16/16A (between Maidenhead and Windsor) is ‘of particular note’, with a time of 60 minutes between the towns.
This is ‘not comparable to a similar journey by car,” said Project Centre, and thus leads to more people opting to drive.
There are also no bus priority measures for buses during the rush hours.
The section of the map with the most comments was the point between Stafferton Roundabout to Oakley Green Road/Windsor Road, largely relating to development.
The most comments relating to speed, followed by the need for crossings, covers the section from Maidenhead Road to Oakley Green Road/A308 Windsor Road.
Straight Road to the Kings Road roundabout had the most comments regarding difficulties of turning.
A second engagement exercise from December 2020 to January 2021 was to pin down ‘highest priority’ sites for improvement.
The top three were: link 10, between Holyport Road and Monkey Island Lane; junction 13, between Bray and Fifield; and junction 10 in Clewer Village.
Top concerns included road safety, air quality improvements and housing development impacts.
Project Centre highlighted some possible improvements that could be made.
At link 10, speeds could be reduced by ‘clearly changing the character of the road’ with a gateway feature in advance of Monkey Island Lane.
“Furthermore, the existing posted speed limit is considered excessive given the residential character of the link and active frontages. It is recommended this is reduced to 30mph,” Project Centre wrote.
A five-week consultation the A308 improvements is now open, finishing Sunday, July 31. To take part, visit www.rbwm.gov.uk/consultations
Written responses can also be sent to Tim Golabek, Service Lead – Transport and Infrastructure, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1RF.
Councillor Phil Haseler, cabinet member for planning, parking, highways and transport, said:
“The council is fully committed to investing in the borough’s future with improvements to ensure its infrastructure supports the current and future needs of residents, businesses and visitors.
“The objective of the consultation is to ensure we have chosen the right locations to look at initially and explore with the community these improvements to help cut congestion, improve highways safety and promote sustainable travel."
There will also be drop-in consultation events taking place to allow residents to find out more about the options prior to sharing their feedback online.
These all take place from 6pm until 7.30pm at:
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