Jofftastic » roadwork hell - Jofftastic - Musings and rants of a Peterborough blogger

View Peterborough on Google Streetview

Joff — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:50:39 +0000

Pretty much a year to the day when I first heard that Google’s Streetview cars had been spotted in Peterborough and the images have now gone live on Google Maps!

Have you had a look yet? Do let me know if you find anything interesting happening in Peterborough that day – I know that may be a long shot…

Paston Parkway Footbridge

Joff — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:23:02 +0000

This story begins on the A1139 where the Paston Parkway meets the Frank Perkins Parkway. The roundabout serves virtually all of the traffic from the A47 that is heading to the South of Peterborough or beyond to the Southbound A1 or A605 / A14. Being fairly wide and as visibility is usually quite good, traffic can be at a rapid pace if you’re caught unawares and are a bit slow on the old gear change. Generally speaking, it worked and I don’t think there were any more accidents there than were to be expected.

This was fine for years until some bright spark decided it would be a great idea to slap a petrol station on this notoriously busy roundabout, adding an extra entrance/exit between two of the busiest approaches. Not only that, the petrol station became some kind of bastardised Somerfield with a KFC restaurant nestled in behind. It’s probably worth mentioning that the backdrop for this setting is a glorious landfill site which has a fine whiff to it if the air is in the right direction. Mmm fried chicken.

Before you read on, this story is covered much more accurately at the Paston Parkway J8 (Eye roundabout) website so you may find it beneficial to visit that site once you’ve finished digesting my spiel…

Obviously an attraction like this is hard to resist with motorists flocking to their site in their thousands on a daily basis (probably). But the town planners had failed to anticipate one thing: the desire for residents in the Welland and Dogsthorpe areas to consume Zinger tower burgers and nip to the Somerfield for some groceries – a desire that would see them risking their lives crossing four lanes of fast moving traffic.

Fast forward to today and a campaign is in full force to have a footbridge installed to allow residents their fried chicken fix without risk of walking in front of a moving vehicle.
Whilst it does seem a little OTT just to allow pedestrians to a site that was never intended to serve the pedestrian population, it would be the most practical solution to the problem. Peterborough City Council however laugh in the face of practicality and prefer to make life a bit of an adventure!

You really couldn’t make up the solution the council have decided to opt for: a signal-controlled pedestrian crossing, across the lanes of a dual carriageway (both directions) leading up to and exiting one of the busiest roundabouts in the city’s road network. Just imagine the frustration of motorists as they leave the roundabout at the (I believe) legally permitted 60mph only to find a set of red lights and scores of people crossing with bags of shopping.

Oh, I forgot to add – the site has more recently been redeveloped as some kind of garden centre extravaganza named “Peterborough Garden Park” with Van Hage as the flagship retailer. With space for over 400 cars the developers are hoping for some serious footfall to the site, so why haven’t the council forced the developers to provide the footbridge as part of the deal?

Fun times.

Further reading – Paston Parkway J8 (Eye roundabout)

Peterborough Park and Ride

Joff — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:26:11 +0000

Only an absolute fool would attempt to drive into Peterborough for Christmas shopping in the weeks running up to the big day (less than 9 weeks to go by the way…), which is why it’s great that for another year Peterborough City Council’s Travelchoice have announced that from November 1st to December 27th a free Park and Ride service will be in operation.

Now you can leave your car in a secure car park on the outskirts of the city and sit back whilst someone else does the driving for you! As the roadworks around Peterborough are horrendous yet again, using the Park and Ride bus service makes more sense than ever!

Saturday services will be run from the Diligenta (what used to be Pearl) car park, in Lynch Wood, and from outside Perkins car park, in Oxney Road (near Sainsburys), to Queensgate Shopping Centre. The Oxney Road service also stops at Midgate.

Also, from November 30th until December 21st, an additional Sunday service will be in operation.

Peterborough Nene Parkway Chaos

Joff — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:50:37 +0000

Ah, the joys of roadworks in Peterborough.

Just when motorists breathe a sigh of relief as the Fletton parkway FINALLY comes to an end, another load of works start up a bit further down the road.

You just have to laugh really, there’s nothing else to do whilst sitting in queuing traffic. Maybe the council could organise a troupe of roadside entertainers for us all to watch? Oh hang on, they’ve done that – you can see them wearing their high-vis jackets and standing around getting a tan.

Peterborough Roadworks Petition

Joff — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:59:15 +0000

An update to the roadworks saga currently blighting Peterborough’s road networks – there is now an online petition registered at 10 Downing Street.

Whilst it’s unlikely this will have any impact what so ever, it highlights how strongly people feel against this mess Peterborough Council has left us in.

The council should thank themselves lucky though as arsonists struck only last night, setting fire to the roadworks on Oundle Road. Quite a sad state of affairs when people turn to destruction of property to get their frustration across. I don’t think it will be long before we see copycat attacks or even attacks on other motorists!

Sign the petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/PboroRoadWorks/sign and lets sort something out.

Plotting Peterborough roadwork chaos

Joff — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:19:23 +0000

Google Map of Peterborough Roadworks

I’m not sure if the above link is going to work, but I’m trying to demonstrate how chaotic negotiating Peterborough’s road network is at present. I don’t think Google allow others to edit a public map, so if you are aware of any other roadworks in the city, please let me know.

Peterborough ET in traffic jam EXCLUSIVE!

Joff — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:23:34 +0000

Talk about stating the obvious! Didn’t anyone else realise that simultaneous roadworks on over half of Peterborough’s main trunk roads would cause congestion? This has been happening for weeks!

Best thing is where traffic diverted onto London Road then get caught in roadworks on London Road – top marks to whoever dreamed up that diversion!

Peterborough Roadworks claim first victim

Joff — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:21:27 +0000

As I predicted only last week, the roadworks in Peterborough along the A1139 Fletton Parkway have caused their first accident. Hunstanton resident Malcolm Page was travelling along the road towards Orton Southgate last Friday when a dust cart crushed the Volvo he was driving, trapping himself and his two dogs.

Roadworks are never good for motorists, but this current breed is littered with up to four dangerous Gatso speed cameras in each direction that cause drivers to initially slow down, then take their eyes off the road to check their speed and that they’ve not been caught by a camera.

Once “safely” past each camera, drivers then speed up to the next one before braking hard to avoid the tell-tale double flash of a speeding fine.
Meanwhile, traffic is joining the roadworks via slip roads which under normal circumstances are a death trap due to careless drivers and trains of HGV’s in the nearside carriageway.

And we’ve got this until April 2008!