No Plan Survives Contact With The Enemy...

...in this case, the "enemy" was the great British travelling public heading westbound for the West Country this Easter weekend.  Clearly, they weren't the type of enemy that Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (usually referred to as Moltke the Elder) had in mind when he first came out with the phrase: "No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength" (more usually shortened to : "no plan survives contact with the enemy,") Von Molke, generally regarded as the best military strategist of the late 19th century, the "inventor" of the terminology of red and blue forces in military wargaming,  was also a master logistician who understood the issues involved in moving large numbers of men and machines around - hence his relevance to the A303.

Back on the 24th of March, at a meeting sponsored by Inspector Christian Lange of Wiltshire Police, most of the interested parties got round a table to try and sort out a few expedient measures to ease the anticipated traffic hell over the Easter weekend.  Lots of ideas were put forward and people went off to beaver away to put things in place as quickly as possible.

Perhaps the organisation with the most to do was English Heritage. To their credit, having taken on board what was needed, Kate Davies, the General Manager at Stonehenge, got a lot done in a very short space of time.  Here is what the folks at Stonehenge had implemented in time for the anticipated rush the is weekend and a few of the the things they have planned for the the longer term.  The hope was that by improving the traffic situation on the A360 between the Stonehenge Visitors Centre entrance at Airman's Cross and the Longbarrow Roundabout on the A303, their would be less of an impact on both the local traffic on the A360 and the holidaymakers on the A303. In Kate Davies' own words, these are the measures they put in place and plan:

"Our overflow car par is now open and we have purchased tracking to cover main areas of wear in overflow car park (i.e. entrance and exit) to ensure use in all weathers. 
 
We have car park attendants directing all cars on arrival, ensuring every space is utilised.
 
A £5 car parking charge will be in operation to non-ticket holders to deter people using the car park as a service station during busy times.
 
A large scale marketing campaign commenced in March to promote ‘pre-book essential’ message.  
This marketing included national campaign and regional London and South-West campaign in a variety of different formats (film, poster, digital etc).  Digital adverts include placements on AA Routeplanner (these are activated when any journey passes the Stonehenge area).
 
We also have a social media campaign to push pre-booking.  As more people become aware of our timed-ticketing system, we’ll have less visitor bottlenecks.  We have seen a month-on-month increase in the number of people booking in advance. 
       
We have contact numbers for AA Road-watch, National and local radio traffic bulletins, FRIXO etc. ready to send out messages when we are approaching capacity.

We have also commissioned a feasibility study for variable message sign on the A303 via Highways Agency.  Whilst we await this we have temporary AA yellow signs to alert people if the car park is full to place near to the visitor centre".

That takes us back to Moltke the Elder.  Despite every traffic expert predicting that the volume of traffic on the A303 would be horrendous and there would be huge traffic jams, the volume of traffic has been much, much less than expected.  The "enemy", the travelling public has done the unexpected.  They didn't all head westwards on Thursday, nor on Friday.  Here in Winterbourne Stoke, there were never more than 25-30 vehicles per minute and the traffic was really only stationary when someone used the pedestrian crossing.  Here's a still from a video taken on Good Friday at a time we would normally expect stationary traffic nose-to-tail through the village.

Of course, those of you who were using the A303 on Maundy Thursday or Good Friday probably got stuck for long periods on the approach to Countess Roundabout in Amesbury and onwards, past Stonehenge, until you got tp the Longbarrow Roundabout.  Here's a shot taken by the Highways Agency traffic camera at Solstice Park in Amesbury, a few minutes before the video above was shot:

 Clearly, standing traffic down to the Countess Roundabout.  Whatever is causing THIS jam has nothing to do with the volume of traffic, as this Easter weekend has been significantly quieter than your average Thursday of Friday. 

It has everything to do with the behaviour of some motorists as they pass Stonehenge.  In our previous post, we proposed an explanation for what is going on, how it affects the traffic and how it might be prevented. 

However, it is achieved, the traffic past Stonehenge has to be prevented from stopping to get a better view of the stones, to take a snap...

or even, as in the case of one of Norbert Dentressangle's finest, slowing to a stop to pull off the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom to have a nap (there are proper lay-bys only a km or so east or west of this point)!

So, the grand plans to cope with large volumes of traffic didn't survive contact with the "enemy", because by and large, the "enemy" chose not to come to Wiltshire this Easter.  However, what we have learned this weekend is that none of the measures that have been instituted, so far, survived contact with even the few westbound 'enemy" that did put in an appearance.  That isn't good news and doesn't bode well for high summer.

 Perhaps simply blocking the view of Stonehenge from the A303 - however incomplete and imperfect that would have to be, as a short-term, temporary, and expedient measure - might be the only realistic option.