As far as we are aware, this is a very long-standing diversionary route for when the A303 comes to a standstill; particularly in the case of accidents. It's also a fact of life that most modern and up to date SatNavs would offer this alternative, when traffic delays on the A303 exceed a certain level.
In fact, this route was the only possible route west a few days later on 23rd December, following a dreadful fatal accident. So the reality is that Highways England was, unwittingly perhaps, doing a great service by pointing out the diversion. Moreover, the diversion offered goes through no local villages, touching only the outskirts of Durrington and passing through the military town of Larkhill. In particular, it goes nowhere near the village of Shrewton
What happened next was rather bizarre and surprising as BBC Wiltshire ran a story conflating the Highways England Tweet, with the results of a traffic census run in Shrewton a couple of months earlier. The clear thrust of this radio news item and subsequent newspaper articles was that the Highways Agency Tweet had driven traffic into and through Shrewton and other local villages - utter baloney.
Only people leaving the A303 and disregarding the Highways Agency alternative could have ended up in Shrewton - most likely these were either folks relying on out of date SatNavs or locals avoiding the A303.
So the articles have been disingenuous in the extreme and by being so have actively detracted from the real problem of rat-running in Shrewton - the need to re-engineer Rollestone Crossroads to deter the majority of those now using the B3086 west of Rollestone from doing so, and to encourage them to follow the route shown above. Traffic calming measures into Shrewton on the B3086 are also desperately needed. Now that really would reduce rat running in local villages and these measiures are needed NOW. If only Wiltshire Council would de-digitate!
Second, after all this idiocy we did get a bit of real news at a STAG meeting yesterday evening. The A303 consultation is about to begin.
6 comments:
On this one occasion Andy I find myself disagreeing with you. That tweet was on the Highways England Twitter feed from 16 December until this week when they realised what they'd done and pulled it. They also apologised for posting it. I believe the tweet was well intentioned but ill considered. I still have the map and it's a clear justification for anyone thinking of diverting off the A303 through Larkhill. In his interview Ian West said that Larkhill is impacted by rat running. He didn't just talk about Shrewton. He also used our latest traffic survey to reinforce how big a problem it is. I don't believe that two different stories were conflated.
We have no idea how many people upon reaching Rollestone crossroads either looked at their sat nav or an atlas and realised that by remaining on that road they could continue through Shrewton and re-join the A303 at Winterbourne Stoke. Many already know the rat run (and its continuation through Shrewton). I work with people in London who are very familiar with the route through Shrewton. So to have Highways England advertise it might make them feel a whole lot better about using it.
As you know I live on the final part of that rat run and I said to fellow members of our Traffic Working Group that the whole Christmas period was the worst traffic I had seen for a very long time on the rat run through Shrewton. Apart from Christmas Day itself it was horrendous pretty much every day.
It's impossible to say whether the tweet contributed to that. But it was a daft tweet and Highways England know it.
Paul, I appreciate all the points you raise, but I believe your basic premise is incorrect. The HE did indeed pull the Tweet and I've no idea if they did so willingly or unwillingly, or whether they apologised as a matter of form, or they covered themselves in sackcloth and ashes and are parading around their HQ on their knees.
However, the original Tweet did not direct traffic through Shrewton. I don't disagree with what Ian said except in one detail. There was talk of rat-running through villages, but the HE route didn't go through any. The only village mentioned in the whole piece was Shrewton and it was the ambiguity of talking about at least two distinct issues without separating them that should have been avoided. HE did NOT advertise the route through Shrewton, they directed traffic south back to the A303.
If you have any doubts about the degree of conflation arising from the story, look here:
http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/salisbury/salisburynews/15004456.Highways_England_apologise_after_tweet/#
Don't get me wrong, I want the rat-running stopped. Someone is going to get injured or killed if it isn't and a lot of lives are going to be made a misery. However, I believe that the way the story has been reported in this instance detracts from the message.
The HE Tweet said no more than my now fairly old SatNav says, whenever there is congestion on the A303 at Stonehenge and I am travelling from the east. When the delay is greater than two minutes compared to the alternative, it takes me on the HE route, avoiding Shrewton - unless there has been an accident westbound between our village and Longbarrow. Only then does it give me alternatives involving Shrewton. Was the Tweet ill-advised? Maybe, HE may have assumed that giving time-sensitive information would be appreciated as such, Clearly not. Were the Press reports daft and ill-conceived - most certainly.
There won't be a diversion route for much of this year. The MOD are closing the Packway in March for several months in order to work associated with the building of new houses and barracks as part of the wider rebasing plan. Stand by for chaos!
That could be interesting. Does anyone know the dates of the proposed work? I can see long diversions via Salisbury being the order of the day when inevitable pile-ups occur on the A303.
I was told they start in March and will got on for several months. They include the building of a new roundabout, moving one of the barrack gates, and some other works.
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