IN the time since my previous
letter the various councils
have told me that “there isn’t
the scope to provide facilities
such as the Dutch examples...”


They claim that they would
need public and political support
to provide Andover with
Dutch quality infrastructure
that reduces road danger
(rather than increasing it, as I
contend is the case with their
shared-use cycleway proposal).


I have written to the councils
again, this time to propose,
instead, that they conduct
a pilot project with these
two aspects:


Firstly, that the speed limit
is set to 20mph for Weyhill
Road and its surrounding residential
areas.


Secondly, that three bollards
are erected across
Weyhill Road each side of the
railway bridge.


This inexpensive pilot project
would still permit local
people to walk and cycle to the
shops, the schools, the train
station, the council office and
the town centre – they would
cross the railway bridge,
which is about half-way along
Weyhill Road – as normal.


People who choose to drive
to get to the same places can
still do that, too, albeit by
using the ring road for the
longer journeys, which it
turns out doesn’t add much at
all to journey times – about
one minute according to an
online route planner.
 

This inexpensive pilot project
would have the benefit of
making the entire area more
liveable: the very nature of
Weyhill Road would revert to
what Ron Wood referred to in
his letter, namely for use by
‘local traffic only’ as per the
councils’ very own signs!


Andrew Reeves-Hall
Whitchurch