Cheadle and Gatley Lib Dems are moving
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by Lib Dem team on 23 February, 2015
At Mark Hunter’s public meeting about the Kingsway/Gatley Road junction the three agencies Mark got along (Highways Agency, TfGM and Stockport Council) gave a joint presentation just giving the background, before we opened it up for people to offer their own thoughts and ideas.
This is that presentation. Apologies that in the conversion to be viewed online some of the graphics have gone slightly wrong, but I think it’s all fairly explanatory. It sets out three main things
We’ll be reporting back with the ideas raised, and the next steps in making improvements, including the big study planned for this summer.
9 Comments
If I am reading the modelling correctly, then it would appear that it confirms what I and other local residents have been saying for ages. In Scenario 4 & 5, right turns are provided, with the green time coming from the east/west overall time. And it appears to do what we thought it would do – providing a safe turn, reducing queuing east/west and with no impact on north/south.
However, they appear not to have actually modelled what has been suggested – right filters in both directions – but only modelled the constituent parts separately.
I would just like to add my support to John Hartley’s comment. I find it incredible that a scenario 6 has not been modelled ie indicative right turn arrows from the Gatley arm and the Cheadle arm simultaneously with the green time taken from the E/W arms.
This seems to be such an obvious solution that I am hard pressed to understand why it has not been considered.
A further improvement down the line would be to widen the Cheadle arm to have a left turn only lane. This would not be used to provide an indicative left turn arrow but simply to allow some traffic to turn left south bound at the same time as other traffic is going straight on towards Gatley.
Hi Brian,
As I understand it, there are a number of safety problems with having the two running simultaneously on a junction of this size. Having said that, we think all the options should be explored and it’s worth doing some more work to see if it can be made to run safely.
Hi Iain,
There must be many less safety issues in this proposal than the present system which has traffic turning right simultaneously from east and west without the benefit of indicative right turn arrows.
I am encouraged that you think that John Hartley’s suggestion merits further consideration.
Regards
Brian Clark
Iain, it can’t be any less safe than what happens now? Running right turns separately will I presume then impact on NS traffic which is counter productive.
I’m afraid this presentation shows tfgm’ s blinkered thinking.
The synagogue on the corner of the the bypass and Gatley Road is still effectively cut off. There is no direct pedestrian route to access it. Many people take their life in their hands by crossing the A34 the other side of the pedestrian crossing, and even if you do use the pedestrian crossing when crossing Gatley Road the island in the middle of Gatley Road is too small to accomodate many pedestrians, apart from the fact that it can take up to 10-15 minutes to cross both roads.
Theo, we all take our life in our hands crossing, not just synagogue visitors. It should be obvious by now that adequate pedestrian provision is not an option, I’m afraid.
The problem with the Cheadle to Gatley traffic flow is that when the M60 grinds to a halt the drivers head for the A560, the result being a long queue through Cheadle down to the A34 traffic lights. Improving throughput through the lights will only encourage even more drivers onto the A560 in an attempt to save time. During bank holidays, school holidays etc there is not a problem with queuing from Cheadle towards Gatley.
There is a growing number of drivers heading from Cheadle who travel down the wrong side of the road in a futile attempt to gain a few metres in the queue turning right towards Manchester. There is going to be a serious accident due to the speed of travel of these idiots and those turning out of High Grove Road let alone us folk who attempt to exit from our houses.
My vote would be to improve the flow on the A34, make it more difficult to turn right towards Manchester and therefore discourage car volumes. In addition introduce a 20 MPH speed limit from the A34 up to Cheadle High Street. The problem at present is that most drivers ignor the existing 30 MPH limit by a wide margin due to the fact that the mobile speed camera parks in the middle of the conjested Cheadle High Street.
The approach road from Gatley Railway Bridge to the Traffic Lights at Kingsway for turning left gets choked up , and the answer is ti widen the inside Road right back from the traffic lights to the railway bridge, – this would mean taking some of the garden from a few houses – just as it has been done at the Synagogue – but the owners of these gardens should be greatly compensated .
Another idea which is nothing short of revolutionary is to do away with the traffic lights altogether and replace them with Fly-overs !!!!