More than 200 Newnham residents have signed a petition calling for a safety review of the Barton Road and Grantchester Street junction
Cambridgeshire Live readers are split over a ‘dangerous’ junction, with commenters at odds over who is responsible and what action should be taken.
Cambridge residents have called for a safety review of a ‘dangerous’ junction they claim has been the scene of numerous “near misses”. The junction of Barton Road and Grantchester Street has long been a source of concern for Newnham residents, and despite being redesigned in 2023, many still fear it remains unsafe.
Peter Singleton, chair of the Old Newnham Residents Association, says there are a number of ‘design flaws’ in the current junction that are causing confusion among drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. These include allowing cyclists and pedestrians to cross simultaneously and removing the audible beeping signal indicating it is safe to cross.
The 73-year-old warned that this poses a particular risk to cyclists and pedestrians and has already resulted in accidents and several near misses.
He said: “You’re never going to come up with something that’s going to satisfy everyone, but if we can make it safer, then that’s better. Accidents certainly happen there, and if you like, you could call it a case of more accidents waiting to happen. Particularly in Newnham Croft, there are quite a lot of elderly people who are not so agile.”
He launched a petition at the start of July, which has since gathered more than 200 signatures, sufficient to trigger a debate at Cambridgeshire County Council.
One commenter, Brexit498 quotes: ” ‘Dangerous junction where accidents are waiting to happen’, then they will have to wait a long time because there is no issue here for cyclists, pedestrians or motorists. The road layout is heavily biased towards cyclists and pedestrians (no problem with that), but that group needs to take some responsibility for crossing the road. BTW: how many ‘incidents’ have there been in, say, the last two years?”
Riccy feels: “There is nothing wrong with the junction, it’s the drivers who want to take their tests again and take more care.”
Freddly adds: “Essentially, the problem is one of too many cars and vans, and they are driving too fast for the road conditions. The crossing needs to be on a table which is high and steep enough to damage cars that drive over it at speed. The crossing needs to scrape and damage bunkers if taken at speed, also on SUVs with high clearance.”
Poppythecat says: “The problem is pretty obvious. It’s motorists speeding to beat the lights and, more than likely, going through red lights altogether. If you’re approaching a pedestrian crossing, you should be slowing down, not speeding up to get through before the lights change.”
Throatwobblermangrove writes: “And guess who redesigned this junction in 2023? The GCP, of course. The same issues were predicted back then, but were ignored by the GCP, who imposed the current design, with massive disruption and inconvenience, taking four months just to build the unwanted new crossing and claiming it would ‘improve walking and cycling links and make it safer for people crossing the road’. Yet again, look how wrong they were.”
Over on our Facebook page, Thalia M comments: “It would help if drivers did not ignore the no right turn to the river, and as always, cyclists ignore everything, lights, crossing points, cycle paths. Please don’t rip it up and spend any more time or money on this.”
Gabriel Bienzobas M believes: “A poorly designed junction which during the redesign had the opportunity to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists, but instead prioritises motor traffic.”
Rachel J feels: “Someone needs to be responsible for ensuring the safest possible designs for cyclists. What about that abomination of a roundabout on Fendon Road near the hospital?! It might work for the Dutch, but it doesn’t work in the UK. It’s so dangerous.”
Do you believe that this junction is dangerous? Comment below or HERE to have your say.
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