Bridge Hill Oughtibridge

[finley 10]

Has anyone heard that you cannot go straight across towards Grenoside from the bottom of bridge hill. There is supposed to be cameras to make sure you only turn right at the bottom but I cannot see any cameras there. 

[Annie Bynnol 612]

I was there on Saturday and cars were regularly ignoring  the  blue 'Turn Right'  road signs.

I did not see any cameras but I was not looking.

[geared 303]

I doubt anyone would bother putting such cameras so far out.

 

it's not exactly busy in the first place and I can't imagine there'd be a prompt response from the police if someone decided to remove them.

[Annie Bynnol 612]

In an attempt to make the junction safer for vehicles, those same drivers who are now breaking the law are endangering the public.

Cars coming down Bridge Hill are faced with a junction where the view to the left is partially obscured. There have been enough collisions to trigger action to alleviate the problem.

The legal requirement for vehicles to turn right only from Bridge Street also gives a safer opportunity to cross Station Lane(the junction on the bridge). However those breaking the law prevent this and endanger those crossing.

 

This need resolving.

  

 

 

 

 

[metalman 21]

To get to Grenoside you now have to go further along at the top and turn right instead. I think this may just shift the problem further up because your view of traffic coming from Stockbridge is still restricted by parked cars so expect more accidents there. The original problem wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't built that housing estate so that it comes out opposite the bottom of Bridge Hill as well.

[dave_the_m 61]

As far as I'm aware, only London councils are currently allowed to enforce traffic signs with cameras (apart from bus lanes etc), although this is due to change soon.

[metalman 21]

It appears that the signage has now been removed, and the right turn instruction at the bottom of the street has gone too, so I think we can once again go down Bridge Hill and go straight across towards Grenoside. Presumably this means the trial didn't go very well. Can anybody confirm this officially?

Edited September 27, 2022 by metalman

[Chekhov 488]

12 hours ago, metalman said:

It appears that the signage has now been removed, and the right turn instruction at the bottom of the street has gone too, so I think we can once again go down Bridge Hill and go straight across towards Grenoside. Presumably this means the trial didn't go very well. Can anybody confirm this officially?

Hardly anyone took any notice of it anyway.

If you think about it a "right turn only" sign is pretty rare, esp at that sort of junction, it's just not expected.

I thought they were supposed to be blocking off the top of Bridge Hill anyway ? 

 

As an aside, it has always struck me as odd that Bridge Hill is one way in the "down" direction because that means loads have cars have to go on a  huge one way detour to turn right onto the A6102 (or go straight on up Church St). Whereas if they'd made Bridge Hill one way in the "up" direction then the required detour would be much shorter. 

Does anyone know why they chose to do it the way they did ?

 

As a second aside..... Why didn't they grasp the nettle in the first place and make the A6102 wider and two way traffic rather than having that inconvenient one way system round Ougtibridge !

 

[AndrewC 306]

1 hour ago, Chekhov said:

 

 

As an aside, it has always struck me as odd that Bridge Hill is one way in the "down" direction because that means loads have cars have to go on a  huge one way detour to turn right onto the A6102 (or go straight on up Church St). Whereas if they'd made Bridge Hill one way in the "up" direction then the required detour would be much shorter. 

Does anyone know why they chose to do it the way they did ?

 

As a second aside..... Why didn't they grasp the nettle in the first place and make the A6102 wider and two way traffic rather than having that inconvenient one way system round Ougtibridge !

 

If you made the Low Road (Orchard Street/Forge Hill) two-way you'd need to widen it places that it isn't very practical to do so - assuming you want to keep parking, bus stops, green space as they are.

 

Similar issues if you made the 'upper' road (Langsett Road) two-way; you've got the space for the road but not if it retains the on-street parking, or at least it starts to become a squeeze. The road is too busy to manage with people going around parked cars so you'd need to basically double-yellow it the whole way along, or accept that there's going to be a lot of tight passing points. That wouldn't go down too well with the residents, I imagine?

Is there really that much of an issue with the current system, overall (the issues with Bridge Street on this thread notwithstanding)? Never seems that much of an inconvenience when I've used it (only occasionally, I'll grant you)? 

Edited September 28, 2022 by AndrewC

[Chekhov 488]

2 hours ago, AndrewC said:

If you made the Low Road (Orchard Street/Forge Hill) two-way you'd need to widen it places that it isn't very practical to do so - assuming you want to keep parking, bus stops, green space as they are.

 

Similar issues if you made the 'upper' road (Langsett Road) two-way; you've got the space for the road but not if it retains the on-street parking, or at least it starts to become a squeeze. The road is too busy to manage with people going around parked cars so you'd need to basically double-yellow it the whole way along, or accept that there's going to be a lot of tight passing points. That wouldn't go down too well with the residents, I imagine?

Is there really that much of an issue with the current system, overall (the issues with Bridge Street on this thread notwithstanding)? Never seems that much of an inconvenience when I've used it (only occasionally, I'll grant you)? 

I think they should have grasped that particular nettle (of widening the road) when they first made it one way years ago.

 

The one single lane way system does have significant drawbacks, e.g. refuse trucks or road works or breakdowns, can gridlock Oughtibridge because nobody can get past them, it's like being on a motorway, you're committed and you can't do anything about it other than just sit there. Also, if coming down Jawbone you have to drive all the way round just to turn right  which is time consuming and hardly environmentally friendly either. Technically, if one lived on Forge Lane and came down from Grenoside you would have to drive a hell of a long way round (I reckon it's over a kilometre and will be even further when Bridge Hill is closed) rather than just turn immediate right. It would be incredibly frustrating and I wonder how many do just turn right when there aren't any other vehicles about. I'd be tempted if I lived down there but it's a bit risky because one would be concentrating on looking for other vehicles and then potentially miss a pedestrian crossing the road.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Chekhov