Opinion : Is this the most dangerous road junction in High Wycombe?

Yesterday yours truly decided to go for an extra long walk around the town centre at lunchtime.

The weather may not have been good but there’s nothing like a brisk walk to warm one’s self up.

It seemed like a good idea to venture up to Desborough Road to see how the road works were coming along. As your humble servant came close to Westbourne Street I was amazed to see two of the largest ‘Give Way’ signs that my good self had ever seen in my life. The signs were protecting the newly created junction.

Towering high into the air, far higher than my good self, it would be difficult for anyone to fail to see them. In fact it was as if the signs had come from a land inhabited by giants rather than mere mortals like us humans.

It was then I realised the danger associated with the junction they were protecting. Surely this is one of the most dangerous road junctions in High Wycombe?

Under the new road layout traffic come down Desborough Road (towards the town centre) has to give way to traffic coming up Desborough Road (towards Green Street) and round the new road layout into the A40 West Wycombe Road.

Desborough Road is now in the unusual position of being a road split in two. Indeed it’s a road you can no longer drive along in its entirety as there’s a great big junction dividing the once unified road.

In actual fact very few vehicles are using the new route up Westbourne Street and into West Wycombe Road, most drivers just want to follow the old route.

Vehicles coming down Westbourne Street (from the A40) wanting to turn up the western section of Desborough Road (towards Green Street) now have to cross the traffic coming from the eastern end of Desborough Road going towards Westbourne Street and the A40.

While cars coming from the western section of Desborough Road (from Green Street) towards the eastern end of Desborough Road now have to cross the traffic coming from the eastern end of Desborough Road travelling towards Westbourne Street.

Why on earth is this a ‘Give Way’ junction? Surely it should be a roundabout?

I can imagine the sound of screeching tyres and crash of vehicles colliding will be a commonly heard sound if this remains as a ‘Give Way’ junction cutting Desborough Road in half.

Come to think of it if Desborough Road is no longer a ‘complete’ road than perhaps half of it should be re-named to avoid confusion? I’m sure there are some deserving Councillors whom the new road could be named after or perhaps it should be called ‘Disasterplan alley’ after the road scheme that ended up dividing a road in half and, in my opinion, making it harder for local business to attract customers.

Or perhaps the road layout should just go back to how it was before it was messed about with as it worked very well and nobody was really complaining about it before the great and good messed things up with a new road design.

What do you think?

*My blogs are published every Tuesday and Friday evening around 8.00pm here on the WycombeToday.com website.

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