Spinning around - A1307 roundabout at Babraham

Went to have a look at the "spin" roundabout at the Babraham Institute on the A1307. This is the rpundabout that for years has been the subject of complaints because, basically, cars keep spinning off it. Now fortunately no-one has been badly injured or been killed, but the minor accident rate is pretty frequent, with the police regularly being called by some shocked motorist who has found themselves in a field. I know the potential problems because I have driven here myself, at a slow speed, and felt the car edge out towards the kerb. 

Wiith me in the pic is the County Council head of highway safety, and we have been working to make the roundabout safer, recognising that there are more dangerous junctions across the county, so this isnt going to have barrowloads of money thrown at it. 

Last year the local parish councils asked me to try to get some analysis done of the problems, and the county council has been doing that, bouncing lasers off the surface and measuring the gradients. Earlier in the year that analysis was complete, and the county have now put in place the first phase of improvements. 

The causes of the various accidents are multiple, including an element of driver over-confidence. Other causes include the design of the roundabout, which is slightly off kilter so that people approaching it who are unfamilair with the lay-out find themselves on the wrong side of the camber. The signs themselves are not too helpful either.

So the work done to date is to retexture the road surface to provide better grip, and to put in white line markings that guide vehicles to the "safe" part of the roundabout rather than the area which has a flat spot that cars can slide off of. The next phase, due in a few weeks, is better signage. At that point the plan is to pause and see what difference that makes, because the final stage would be to completely redo the roundabout, at a significant cost, never mind the weeks of disruption on what is a major commuter road into Cambridge from west Suffolk, Haverhill and so on. 

Comments so far from drivers has been that they have noticed an improvement, so fingers crossed it stays that way. And well done to the County highways safety team for doing the analysis, finding the money from various budget pots and making it happen.