Gurnite Stewart is telling us that it took him forty-five minutes to get from Tradespark to Boathpark on Friday. He reckons the whole traffic light set-up in Nairn is a disgrace and we have the worst lights in the Highlands.
How was it for other Gurnites on Friday? Anyone else have problems? Time for the engineers to plug their laptop into the Lochloy Traffic lights again?
UPDATE: as usual there is a spin on this.
UPDATE: 30/10 Stewart reports men with laptops at the traffic lights today, 'Here's hoping,' he told the Gurn.
5 comments:
As far I could tell the lights were going through the full sequence all the time. i.e. every time the lights would turn red to allow pedestrians to cross when they was no pedestrians there. Traffic was past Balmakeith Industrial Estate to the east, goodness knows where it was to the west. McDermot's turn off likely.
Maybe that's the problem; invisible pedestrians?
Traffic on Friday night was far worse than usual. But, heading from Achareigh to Forres at 17.50, I decided to go round the traffic. Turning off the A96 at Tradespark, and travelling via Kildrummie, Howford Bridge, and Raitloan, I rejoined the A96 at the east end of Auldearn at exactly 18.00, ie. ten minutes, which I thought wasn't too bad. There were no other vehicles in the back lanes.
Maybe I shouldn't have said that - no doubt others will be joining me in future.........
Part of the problem is that two of Nairn's four sets of traffic lights (Leopold Street and Lochloy road) are automatically timed and programmed essentially for traffic, while the Harbour Street/Brae crossing is a pedestrian-controlled light, so presumably not synchronised with the other two. And the lights by the car-park exit just below the new Community Centre might be timed, push-button controlled, neither or both, and are probably not linked to any of the others!
The results are obvious. Traffic can't flow if the lights aren't all synchronised, and drivers (like Dan and lots of others including the timber-trucks) opt to take the narrow back-road through Cawdor, Geddes and Auldearn.
Short-term answer? Get rid of the lights by the car-park exit/Cty Centre completely (and close it off so that all cars come and go via the Somerfield entry/exit); give the Harbour Street/Brae junction a proper 4-way set of traffic lights, and synchronise them with those at Leopold Street and Lochloy.
Medium term? Mini-roundabout at Lochloy, and proper roundabout at Sandown junction.
Complete removal of all the traffic lights would indeed be a solution (and has been proven elsewhere), even though it seems counter-intuitive. But no-one is brave enough to do it.
Long term... of course, a bypass. But we shouldn't let the eventual hope of a bypass be an excuse not to make these other changes in the meantime.
If we get Sainsbury's, and Transport Scotlands recommendations are implemented ( & I don't really see how they could be ignored) then we will get another four new sets of traffic lights :
Moss-side Road/ A96 Junction
Seabank Road/A96
Albert Street/A96
Grantown Road/A96
All of these must be interlinked..............but I don't know if the existing lights also have to be integrated into the control system.
So it's possible that, along with a nice new supermarket, we may get the greatest possible help in campaigning for a bypass..unfortunately , that'll mean gridlock for a few years......but we'll get that bypass earlier as a result :)
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