Is there any way people from Bradley Stoke can petition or anything about sorting out the roundabout by Hatchet Road and Gypsy Patch Lane?
In the morning it will take me 30 minutes just to go straight across the roundabout. It gets jammed packed no one will let anyone out meaning lots of beeping and frustration.
It needs to be organised or something as it’s so stupid it hurts :(.
Do you have any ideas how we can get this out to the public of Bradley Stoke so they can help put a stop to this?
Rhian Priest-Dibben
[Ed: Happy to help by putting this story up for comment.]
I think 1 problem is the amount of pedestrian lights straight across the roundabout from Bradley Stoke to Parkway. I understand the need for safety for pedestrians, but the lights stop 30-40 cars from moving for the sake of 1-2 people crossing. Another problem is that which makes the rush hour. The school run. This will not change. And lastly, its the amount of people travelling to work at Rolls Royce and Friends Provident etc. I hope the council don’t think about putting traffic lights on this roundabout. I have seen this happen on most of the roundabouts on the ring-road to improve traffic flow. All it has done is create more problems. I always feel the council wants to frustrate drivers so much that most give up and walk or take the bus to work.
If people stopped and let other drivers out on to the roundabout then traffic would flow better. Also as Simon Kneller said, the pedestrian crossing stops traffic and also the school run. The traffic during the school holiday is much lighter with no queues at all.
I live just off ratcliffe drive and the main issue here is there is only one route in and out of Stoke Gifford. Far short of building a relief road which isn’t going to happen what can change. My morning commute takes me along gypsy patch lane towards the A38 and I think one of the issues that doesn’t help is buss stops on this single carriage road. 9/10 the buses sit there in rush hour causing more congestion.
I know it’s been suggested traffic light control on that roundabout won’t help but I disagree. Traffic management is needed and will help as stops people blocking the yellow box junctions.
As a resident in stoke Gifford for 2yrs the increase in traffic has been notable and think another solution would be to make a entry onto north road from the winterbourne road. This would take a lot of traffic away from the Hatchet rd roundabout. Will anything change… Nope!
Traffic lights don’t stop people stopping on the yellow hatches look at the roundabouts and junctions at Aztec West especially the Hilton junction. It is poor driving and no enforcement of the rules. The police do nothing about people who flount the rules until they cause an accident unless they are speeding of course. If lights are installed the poor drivers will rush to get through usually going through on red and block the road even more. I agree with the switching off of the speed cameras but traffic light cameras had a use and would provide a deterrent to the poor drivers jumping traffic lights and prevent the accidents waiting to happen!!!
I used to get frustrated. Now I cycle to work. Baileys Court to Filton in 15 mins regardless of the traffic.
Unfortunately the traffic delays are due to volume of traffic. The only solution is for people to make fewer car journeys.
Too many houses, no new roads, no foresight by South Glos Council’s traffic planners.
And it’s going to get a whole lot worse in the next decade
This is never a problem when it’s the school holidays.
Either parents are taking the kids to school even when they don’t live that far away, or the school is too far away for the kid to walk.
Traffic lights at every exit would let the traffic flow evenly preventing tailbacks?
Longer delay on the busiest exits depending on the time of day.
Well – I usually don’t have problems on this roundabout. Until this morning.
I came from Little Stoke and turned right to Gypsy Patch. There was a tiny queue on GPL, but as I came up to the box junction the exit was clear so I drove over.
But … somebody else decided they wanted to get out of the roundabout before me from Stoke Gifford and just pulled out right in front of me. I drove around him as he was supposed to give way only to spend the next few minutes driving towards Rolls with someone gestering rather rudely in my rear view mirror.
The daft thing is – this guy didn’t need to pull out as had he waited two seconds there was absolutely no traffic behind me.
I think he was probably annoyed about me pulling around him and stopping him pulling out – but when I’ve got right of way, and I’m avoiding a collision, I don’t see why I should be bullied to let people out of junctions.
By the way, nobody has mentioned the problems the narrow bridge on GPL causes to the traffic. Old chestnut, but needs sorting.
When I moved to Bradley Stoke last year i was starting work at 8:30am, i was finding it very frustrating just to get to work as there was so much traffic, it didn’t help having 8 traffic light from Brook Way Roundabout to Almondsbury interchange, it would usually take me at least an hour just to get into the centre of Bristol!
Due to the frustrations I switched my start time to 7am which meant I would be leaving home at 6:15am, and it is so much better as there ino traffic at all!! I even get to finish early! Win.
Its not only the GPL roundabout that needs fixing. All the exit roads out of Bradley Stoke are choke points.
How South Glos allows all the traffic out of Bradley Stoke North to Aztec West to funnel down to one lane is laughable. Now they want to introduce a bus only lane for more empty buses. Why dont they introduce some extra general traffic lanes. Oh I think we all know why!
I think the gypsy patch bridge also helps back up traffic, the number of buses coming out of the bus depot making the bridge traffic stop is annoying. Widening the bridge may help. Traffic is light at 7ish if you fancy working earlier!
I now start work at 6.00am which means I leave at 5.30am, obviously pretty much no cars on the road, however when I used to start work at 9.00 this roundabout was a nightmare which caused the most delays to my journey, I think the main issue is the pedestrian crossing on Hatchet Road, if the lights are red traffic backs up on the roundabout as there is nowhere to go, doesn’t help the drivers block the roundabout when people are only trying to turn right onto GPL.
Unfortunately there is not an alternative that I can see as many people use the lights on Hatchet Road and as people fly around the corner when its quiet a zebra crossing is out of the question.
In regards to the bridge, the main issue is the hesitant drivers who don’t know there car width when driving through, often slowing down or waiting for other cars to drive through. This will never change as it is too costly on the train operators using that line to have Network Rail shut the line to arrange works to the bridge.
It’s all part of the grand plan to convert roads into cycle paths by making life hell for car users.
For me I have to commute into Bristol and drive via Parkway, traffic is awful between where I live (Stean Bridge Road) and Parkway for my entire commute into the city. I have to leave for work extra early and am always the first in the office 45 minutes before my day starts just so I can get in on time without being stressed.
Traffic is significantly worse during term-time; during school holidays I can easily cut my commute time in half (combination of no school run and parents on holiday). The main cause of the problems appear to be multiple pedestrian crossing points along Hatchet Road and the mini-roundabout by Parkway station.
The only workable solution would be to install part-time (7-9:30am) traffic lights on the Gypsy Patch Lane roundabout to manage and control traffic flow along Gypsy Patch Lane and Hatchet road.
For me personally I can’t wait for the Stoke Gifford bypass which I am sure will help many commuters bypass the Parkway, Friends Life, MOD and UWE area. Unless significant infrastructure upgrades are put in place by South Glos the whole area will grind to a halt when they build thousands of homes on Filton airfield.
Don’t hold your breath for a bypass around Stoke Gifford we are still waiting for the tram system which we were promised over 20 years ago. Still we have a terrific cycle network put in at great expense so on your bike and make the most of the freedom before ‘they’ decide to installl cycle path speed humps to slow you down even further.