Letter: How the Gyratory Should Be Fixed

Published on: 18 May, 2013
Updated on: 18 May, 2013

From Paul Rogers

I response to the article, ‘Exhibition Wants Your Views on How to Improve the Guildford Gyratory’ I believe they should:

Look at maximising the flow of traffic away from the gyratory
Re-open the pedestrian subway at Debenhams, put lights and cameras in it (this should have been done before)
Close the crossing and force all pedestrians through the subway, to keep the A281 flowing away from the town.
Remove the pedestrian crossing at the A31 junction: find/create an alternative for pedestrians, modify the subway there if possible
Widen the junction at the mini roundabout over the bridge to allow the traffic to flow out of town on the A31
Increase the yellow boxes at all the traffic lights and put cameras on them to catch people sitting in them: too often the lights change and no one can move, especially by Weatherspoons
Look at widening the road at Onslow Street near the police station and change the left hand lane so it does not stop at the lights and also at the roundabout. Keep the traffic flowing away from the town
Re-sequence the lights to let less traffic onto the gyratory during rush hours. Invariably the lights let so much traffic onto the gyratory that when they change nothing can circulate
Put a one or two second delay on the red lights at the Walnut Tree close, the station exit. Both sets need to stay on red for a short time so drivers get a chance to pull out of Walnut Tree close onto the gyratory
The pedestrian crossings all around the gyratory cause issues. Look at reducing them in number and providing alternative pedestrian routes. Currently, one pedestrian can completely stop the gyratory

Responses to Letter: How the Gyratory Should Be Fixed

Bibhas Neogi Reply

May 18, 2013 at 12:32 pm

Mr Paul Rogers should offer his services freely to Guildford Borough Council and Surrey County Council as they may not be employing qualified engineers and planners with experience and expertise similar to Mr Rogers’? After all there is nothing special about town planning and traffic engineering, is there? Anyone can come up with solutions on the back of a packet of cigarettes.
Dave Bremner Reply

May 20, 2013 at 4:35 pm

I am amazed. People are asked to make comments and suggestions on the Gyratory System, as Mr Rogers did, and the response? A juvenile retort from a Mr Bibhas Neogi. Did Mr Rogers touch a nerve to illicit that sort of response?
Bibhas Neogi Reply

May 20, 2013 at 7:49 pm

People were asked to fill in a questionnaire that asked why and how they travel through the gyratory, are they short journeys and their three most important issues. It did not ask views on how to re-design the entire gyratory.

Guildford Borough Council and Surrey County Council have professionals that are well capable of ascertaining the issues and what could possibly be done to improve matters within the anticipated budget of £5m. They have illustrated four possible scenarios of how they consider the gyratory could be improved. I would not have thought the Councils would be so wanting in expertise, that they would ask people to tell them what the problems are and how to re-design the gyratory.

If I am not medically qualified I would not go round advising others what medicines to use to cure a particular illness. Why then people who are not qualified are so keen to ‘advise’on traffic issues and how to design to deal with such issues.It is insulting to the County professionals and their Consultants.
Paul Rogers Reply

May 21, 2013 at 1:54 pm

Re Neogi Bibhas’s response –

I am sorry… I was just offering a few suggestions based upon queuing around the Guildford gyratory morning and night for the last ten years!

However, I’d be interested to know… these county professionals and their consultants, would these be the same county council professionals and consultants that built a pedestrian underpass next to Debenhams, the underpass that allows pedestrians to cross the road without stopping the traffic flow?

Or are these different professionals and consultants? The ones that filled the same underpass back in and forced the pedestrians to cross the road stopping the traffic flow?

Or perhaps they are a new set of professionals and consultants? Ones that will dig the said underpass out again and get the traffic flowing again.

Just wondering?

Paul Rogers CEng.
Dave Bremner Reply

May 21, 2013 at 3:17 pm

Re Neogi Bibhas’s response –

My goodness Mr Neogi is a touchy chap is he not?

A genuine airing of views with no malice and he comes out all guns blazing.

I thought in cases like this we all aim for the common good, not try to score cheap points against someone.
Peter Bullen Reply

May 21, 2013 at 5:46 pm

To pour a little oil on these troubled waters … perhaps my suggestion of an elegant pedestrian bridge at the bottom of the High Street, featured in Guildford Dragon NEWS on April 13, might help ease some of the gyratory problems. Trouble is, I’m a complete layman…
Bibhas Neogi Reply

May 22, 2013 at 9:20 am

http://tinyurl.com/Debenhams-subway

This link is a report on the decision to close Debenhams subway and ‘improve’ the crossing according to the report by GBC & SCC Committees.
Simon Davison Reply

May 22, 2013 at 5:09 pm

From the view of another victim of the Guildford traffic, one has to question whether Mr Bibhas is in some way connected with the mentioned ‘Guildford Borough Council and Surrey County Council’ after such a negative and striking response to Mr Roger’s suggestions.
Jim Allen Reply

May 23, 2013 at 1:31 am

I see a full traffic survey is due in 2014, so why rush now only to discover, in the future, the result is all wrong?

Obviously the bus station should be located by the railway station, as opposed to the the shopping centre which only needs set down/pick up. Such a relocation would, in itself, fundamentally change traffic patterns in Guildford during the rush hour. And the bus lanes should be removed. They reduce available road width and fail to provide the same necessary function as on the roads of central London where buses are very frequent.

Surely what is needed as the first step in the process of discovering where cars entering the Guildford central area (i.e. about a mile radius from the town centre), come from and go to is an ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) census?

And please note, Surrey County Council are the traffic experts who said a car park will fill up but never overflow but if it does its not their problem its GBC’s.
Bibhas Neogi Reply

May 23, 2013 at 3:32 pm

I had been a victim of Guildford traffic for many years just like Messrs Rogers, Bremner, Davison and countless other commuters whilst I had to drive through the town centre picking up my wife on my way back from work. Thankfully I retired seven years ago and do not have to make these journeys any more.

I thought of creating a website with my suggestions in the hope that some of the ideas would be helpful when considering what to do about the gyratory, in the future. Funding from the central Government of £29m was earmarked for its improvement but sadly that was withdrawn when the roads programme was cut. It seems now that there may be some very modest funding available to do a little but not all the improvements that are ideally needed. For further improvements, as you know, the G-TAM Study has now been announced by the councils.

In these columns of The Guildford Dragon NEWS, links are highlighted in red. If you wish to view my efforts spread over the last three to four years in developing various ideas on my website, just click on my highlighted name. Various parts of the website had been visited by up to 300 people during this time but not, I suspect, those of you who have recently posted here on this subject. Please do, I hope you would find it interesting and its contents the result of logical thought process helped by a reasonable degree of technical knowledge.

And no, I’ve never worked for SCC nor GBC but I’ve worked for the Dept. of/for Transport and The Highways Agency all 37 years of my working life since I became a Chartered Engineer after finishing my higher degree.