Legoland Traffic Delays

Transcription

1 Illustrated Evidence of Legoland Traffic Delays August 2015 Prepared by The Royal Windsor Website

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3 Introduction Windsorians have been experiencing major traffic problems locally for over 45 years since the days of the Safari Park and I speak on behalf of those Windsor residents who are now seeking effective solutions including a cap to visitor numbers at the Legoland park. Safari Park traffic queuing on the Relief Road in looking north Safari Park traffic queuing on the Relief Road in looking south During the summer months I have been using a dash-cam to record traffic conditions on the roads leading to Legoland. I have an archive of images from May 2015 and have included here records of traffic queues on Friday 21st, Saturday 22nd and Friday 28th August which resulted in the worst delays of this year, and quite possibly worse than any previous year. Page 1 of 12

4 The 2015 route through the Great Park This year RBWM erected permanent signposts to Legoland from the Relief Road, along Osborne Road, and around through the Great Park via the A332, in an attempt to relieve pressure on Imperial Road and the Clewer Hill Road junctions. The situation this summer was that, whenever the weather was good, both these routes were congested with Legoland traffic. This has had a major impact at the Woodside roundabout where traffic from the M4 and the west was joined by traffic from Slough and the north, and traffic from the M4 east all of which had been signposted into Windsor and out again via this route. At the Woodside roundabout this significant extra traffic flow from the Great Park met traffic from the Sunninghill area (to the south) and the M3, via Ascot and Bracknell, from the south west. The result on many occasions this summer was a massive queue and near standstill at the Woodside area as all this traffic, from all areas, was funnelled into the single carriageway approach road, the B3022, towards Legoland. Queues of stationary and very slow moving traffic, from as far as five miles away, were witnessed on a regular basis at weekends and during the school holidays and have been illustrated below, but only examples from the end of August have been included It should be noted that despite the altered signposting in the area, Imperial Road remained very busy throughout the summer despite two weekends where the RBWM arranged for 'traffic professionals' to manually control the lights at the Imperial Road, St Leonards Road and Clewer Hill Road intersection. Example 1-21 August 2015 Delays at Woodside roundabout B Woodside roundabou C A This location map shows Woodside roundabout, (bottom of map) and the locations for the three images included below. Google image A. The approach to the Woodside roundabout from Ascot B. The exit north towards Legoland B3022 C. The east side of the roundabout with Great Park traffic holding up south and south west bound traffic Page 2 of 12

5 21 August 2015 at A. Stationary traffic west of the Loch Fyne restaurant on the approach to the Woodside roundabout from Ascot/Bracknell 21 August 2015 at B. Traffic exit the Woodside roundabout but is regularly stationary Page 3 of 12

6 21 August 2015 at C. Traffic is delayed south & west bound by Legoland queuing traffic on the east side of the Woodside roundabout Example 2-22 August 2015 Traffic Delays in Windsor & Woodside B Long Walk roundabout A This location map shows Windsor for the three images included below. A. St Leonards Road traffic delays B. Osborne Road east towards the Long Walk roundabout C. The exit from the Long Walk roundabout towards the Great Park Google image Page 4 of 12 C

7 22 August A. Slow queuing traffic in St Leonards Road westbound and backed up past the Bulkeley Avenue junction for 700 yards (600m) from the Imperial Road traffic lights. 22 August B. Slow moving and stationary traffic in Osborne Road following the new signs east towards the Long Walk roundabout Page 5 of 12

8 22 August C. Slow moving and stationary traffic exiting the Long Walk roundabout. Traffic from the east, M25, Staines and Old Windsor, joined the Legoland traffic route at this point. The above queues of traffic all converged on the Woodside roundabout, as mentioned above and illustrated below. 22 August :10 Woodside roundabout and queueing traffic from Sunninghill to the south delayed by stationary traffic on the roundabout itself. This photograph is taken just a short distance after Photo C on page 4 above. Page 6 of 12

9 Example 4-28 August 2015 Traffic Delays through the Great Park, Woodside & North Street, Winkfield F E A B C D 28 Aug Google Traffic Map at 11.13am showing slow (orange) and stationary (dark red) traffic throughout the area and illustrated below. Google Traffic image Page 7 of 12

10 28 Aug :53 A. Traffic is slow moving and stationary west of Rangers Gate in the Great Park some 4.5 miles from the Legoland car parks 28 Aug :52 B. Slow moving and stationary Legoland traffic at Cranbourne 4.0 miles from the car parks Page 8 of 12

11 28 Aug :25 C. Woodside roundabout and traffic from Great Park (to the left in this view) blocks traffic south bound to Sunninghill as shown in two similar images above on 21 & 22 August 28 Aug :28 D. The stationary and slow moving traffic extended as far as Ascot Racecourse. At this point the queue extended 4.2 miles from the Legoland car parks. NB According to the Google Traffic map timed at and included above, some 45 minutes after this photograph was taken, slow moving and stationary traffic had extended past Ascot Racecourse by Heatherwood Hospital roundabout. The traffic queues would have continued to build up as a result of the severe congestion illustrated above around the Woodside roundabout. Page 9 of 12

12 Example 5-28 August 2015 Traffic Delays at North Street, Winkfield 28 Aug :49 E. North Street roundabout west of Legoland and a Greenline 702 bus (Bracknell to London) rejoins the main road having taken a diversion through Winkfield village to avoid the extensive queues at Woodside roundabout I have checked with the transport department operating this service and they have stated that their drivers are permitted to divert from the set route when traffic conditions severely disrupt their schedule. 28 Aug :35 F. Drift Road and North Street junction slow moving and stationary traffic. A driver has abandoned the queue and is performing a U turn. Page 10 of 12

13 Summary It has been my intention to provide photographic evidence of the regular and significant delays that occur on a regular basis throughout the spring and summer months and without doubt when the weather is fair during all school holidays and half-term breaks. There is much more that I could add to this presentation but I feel that the above fully and fairly represents the situation regarding traffic congestion as it currently stands. I believe that the time has now come for Legoland to significantly limit visitor numbers whenever there is the likelihood that near gridlock will occur in the surrounding roads. It is a great surprise to me and to many other people, including Legoland's own visitors, that on one of the days illustrated above, Legoland failed to state that the park had reached capacity until 1.30 in the afternoon when it was plain to see that the park would be full, and visitors would be required to queue for rides for way over an hour or more. Their visitors remarks on the Legoland Facebook pages indicate the level of dissatisfaction that regularly arises and so I and many others are asking for a cap on visitor numbers for the benefit of all concerned. Step One in achieving this objective would be to reject the application to build a new attraction which, by Legoland's own admission, is designed to attract new visitors AND to encourage previous visitors to return. A clear intention to increase yet further visitor numbers regardless of the fact that the nearby road system regularly exceeds saturation point during the summer months. Thank you for your time and for considering the above. Page 11 of 12

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