Letter: A Ring Road Is Not The Answer

Published on: 8 Feb, 2017
Updated on: 8 Feb, 2017

From David Goddard

In response to the letter: Guildford Needs a Ring Road

Basingstoke’s ring road is no ideal solution, and not an example for Guildford to follow. Their rush hour congestion is just as bad.

Guildford needs the gyratory system rephased again or we should use a smart system. The current phasing is ideal when all outlets are clear, 60 seconds for the central gyratory and 30 seconds for feeder roads, but how often are the outlet roads clear?

Also Basingstoke was designed where as Guildford has grown within a very compact site.

Look at the A3 hospital junction, the slip road always queues onto the A3 every morning, yet more and more permissions are granted to build research and university sites.

The A3 needs to be developed to allow trouble free flow even when a breakdown or accident occurs. Every day when there is a blockage on the A3, much of the traffic will try and divert through Guildford doubling the load and once again we have the jam.

Responses to Letter: A Ring Road Is Not The Answer

Paul Bishop Reply

February 8, 2017 at 9:19 pm

Bypass Guildford with a tunnel to take the A3 through traffic under he existing road, another tunnel running north to south to bypass the central one way system. That sorts the through traffic (well, ignoring where it goes when it gets south of Guildford!) and should quieten down the town centre flow. We can then focus on having the existing roads for locals journeys and for people coming into the town for shopping etc.

I think Bruges is a very good blueprint as a town which has had to grow to meet the huge amount of visitors but maintain its charm. They’ve managed to use a mixture of strategies, but the fundamental is getting the traffic away from the centre. In Guildford our only real option for that is going underground.