The Greater Bristol Bus Network plan could see changes made to the busy Aztec West roundabout and the stretch of road between there past Woodlands Lane and along to Bradley Stoke Way.
South Gloucestershire Council has issued a new consultation asking residents about the scheme which would see new bus lanes built.
If the plan goes ahead the carriageway would be widened between Aztec West Business Park and Woodlands Lane.
A new bus lane would be built which would “allow buses to avoid the queues and delays that occur … during the weekday morning and evening peak periods”.
The council says there would also be an “extra general traffic lane is to be provided on Bradley Stoke Way from Aztec West roundabout to the Woodlands Lane junction in an eastward direction”.
But, controversially, the plan could also see traffic coming from Bradley Stoke towards Aztec West roundabout banned from making right turns into Woodlands Lane.
The consultation says the move would be to “further reduce congestion on Bradley Stoke Way” but could cause extra congestion along nearby roads.
Details of the scheme in full:
The carriageway will be widened to provide new eastbound and westbound bus lanes between the Aztec West Business Park and Woodlands Lane. An additional bus lane is proposed eastbound on the exit from the business park. This will allow buses to avoid the queues and delays that occur on the approaches to the roundabout during the weekday morning and evening peak periods.
In addition to the new bus lanes an extra general traffic lane is to be provided on Bradley Stoke Way from Aztec West roundabout to the Woodlands Lane junction in an eastward direction. Additional general traffic lanes are also proposed on the northbound and southbound sides of the Aztec West roundabout gyratory.
To facilitate these changes and further reduce congestion on Bradley Stoke Way westbound, the right turn lane into Woodlands Lane from Bradley Stoke Way is proposed to be banned.
18 responses so far ↓
1 Matt Morris // Mar 31, 2008 at 9:40 pm
A bus lane? In Bradley Stoke? There’s not enough blooming roon for the cars that are there!! There are most definately living in cloud cuckoo land with that one!!
What other inventive ways do you think they could slow the traffic around here down with?
Muppets!
2 Andy // Apr 1, 2008 at 7:37 am
An extra lane between the Aztec West roundabout and Woodlands lane doesn’t seem too bad an idea - buses stopping at the bus-stop on that short stretch cause a great deal of problems sometimes.
3 Dave // Apr 1, 2008 at 7:47 am
Isn’t it time to get rid of the roundabout and just have traffic lights. I’m sure traffic flow would be a lot better if it was just a straight light controlled intersection.
4 Steve P // Apr 1, 2008 at 12:53 pm
The righthand turn out of Woodlands Lane should be banned as well. This turning right causes much of the congestion on the westbound carriageway, especially as the timing of the lights is in favour of traffic exiting Woodlands Lane.
All traffic should turn left at junction of Woodlands Lane and Bradley Stoke Way to the roundabout by Aldi.
5 Chris (editor) // Apr 1, 2008 at 1:41 pm
The trouble is, Steve, I wonder if the residents along Pear Tree Road will agree? Banning the right turn to Woodlands will send a lot of extra traffic down that road.
6 Brian // Apr 1, 2008 at 2:19 pm
As well as Bowsland Way. All that it will achieve is to change from two moderately blocked junctions to one very blocked one. It can be hard enough getting out of Bowsland Way in the morning without adding to the number of cars using it plus those having right of way at the roundabout from Pear Tree. Absolutely stupid idea.
7 Chris (editor) // Apr 1, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Add to that the ‘cut through’ route would go past a school as well, I can see it being chaotic during rush hour!
8 Steve P // Apr 1, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Ok, bad idea……..but it was only an idea!
Lets hope SGC don’t have a bad idea like making the proposed extra traffic lanes 2+ share lanes!!
9 Andy // Apr 3, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Is this available on the southglos.gov.uk website anywhere? There are signs up at the Aztec West roundabout telling you to visit http://www.southglos.gov.uk/consultation, but I can’t find anything about this proposal there.
10 Andy // Apr 3, 2008 at 5:47 pm
No sooner said that, then found it! Click here
11 Andy // Apr 3, 2008 at 5:48 pm
(sorry for messing up the formatting!)
12 Andy // Apr 3, 2008 at 6:54 pm
The proposal diagram is in Autodesk format, so I’ve converted it into a JPEG and put it here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22735196@N03/2385907978/
13 Chris (editor) // Apr 3, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Don’t worry, I fixed it! Thanks for converting the Autodesk file - my Mac was having right problems with it. I’ll post it as a story in its own right shortly.
14 Matt Morris // Apr 3, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I do think that the right hand exit out of Woodlands Lane onto Aztec West does need something more done - the amount of times people go through Red on those lights - including Buses is shocking. It’s only a matter of time before there’s a fatality there!!
As for this buslane - still think it’s madness!! Why not reduce pressure on that roundabout over ways? Like perhaps having more than one exit out of Aztec West!!
15 Dougie Cook // Apr 6, 2008 at 7:31 pm
I agree with Andy’s original comment about no right turn out of woodland lane but see the problem this would cause. I feel a camera at these lights in all directions would ensure a better, fair traffice flow to all and would either stop or make peiople pay fr jumping the lights. I feel a bus lane would be a terrible idea as everywhere else one has been installed has seen more not less congestion.
16 Giraffen // Apr 7, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I think the east bound lane is a good idea, though they should also include a layby bus stop just to the west end, between the two Atzec West roundabouts, as the bus does tend to block the lane heading out of Aztec to the M5.
I believe the west bound lane may have a problem. It ends with an “except buses” section. So you’ll have buses trying to filter from lane 1 to lane 2 and then cars filtering from lane 2 to lane 1, in order to turn left. Now in theory this shouldn’t be a problem. However if you think to the bus lane on the downs that leads to the top of white ladies road. People don’t always wait until the end of the bus lane to filter left, which can be dangerous. I’d rather see the bus lane end with the curb coming out, to finish the lane, and then going back in to be the start of the left turn lane.
17 Mike // Apr 11, 2008 at 6:19 am
Shouldn’t the road improvements be up and running, proven to work etc before any more house building is allowed? Any minor shunt causes gridlock due to the poor road design and lack of foresight by planners. Congestion will only get worse with the new shops by Tesco.
18 susan slade // Jun 8, 2008 at 4:46 pm
In the rush hours the queue to the roundabout at Aztec west ususally goes back to the tesco roundabout. I live in Cooks Close and it is difficult to get in or out of my road at those times. If the proposed bus lane is implemented while the bus service into Bristol is so appallingly bad and so expensive that it is not a viable alternative then the traffic situation will only be a lot worse.
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