Data from Windsor traffic light trial will inform new scheme

Traffic lights were manually operated for the third weekend in a row and faced their biggest test with the influx of thousands of people for the Ascot Red Bull Air Race.

The lights in Windsor were manually operated at the junction of Clewer Hill Road and Winkfield Road, and the junction of Imperial Road and St Leonards Road.

At the same time, data about the traffic flow was being collected.

Cllr Colin Rayner, Royal Borough cabinet member for highways and transport, said the tests had been ‘a great learning experience’.

With the data collected, he announced three different schemes of traffic management for the Imperial Road junction will be brought to public consultation later this year.

He said the plans are ‘in the very early stages’ and will be presented to full council ‘in August or September’.

He expects any plans to go to public consultation in October or November.

Cllr Rayner said: “These plans would tide us over for the years until we get pinch point funding.

“We’ve got to do something for the junction, the residents have suffered enough.”

The traffic lights will go back to automatic operation this weekend to compare how the traffic runs.

Cllr Rayner added that this winter ‘bus stop lanes’ would be reinstated in Imperial Road.

He said: “The bus stopping lanes were removed a few years ago and now when a bus stops and cars try to overtake it is very dangerous.”