Keeping the fast moving A505 safer

The A505 that runs from Royston in the east to the Abingtons in the west is the busiest single-lane A road in the county. Its our route to work, to school, to shop, but it also carries lorries cutting east from the the A10, M11 to head for places like Felixstowe. Local parish councils have raised with me their concerns about the junctions where minor roads connecting out to local villages intersect.

This isnt a new issue by any means but I have taken this up with the highways team at the county council who have given me some initial views:

- more use of double white lines in the middle of the rosd at the junctions is not - in the enineers' view  - supported because they are supposed to be used when visibility is poor - but actually the A505 for much of its route is pretty straight.

The accidents rates at these junctions has been examined - not huge numbers given the volumes of traffic.

The engineers see this more an issue where those travelling along the A505 do not anticipate vehicles turning on or off of the road at these points. Signing at the junctions and on the eastbound approaches is also less apparent, doing little to make the junctions more obvious.

 

Better maintenance (such as trimming foliage back to highway boundaries etc.)  would help to help improve conspicuity further.

So this isnt about major re-engineering of the route, which would be very expensive, but smaller improvements to make the junctions safer.