Broad Lane / A45 Junction

As if to prove my point Removal of road markings criticised by safety campaigners So what next - deliberately poor road surfaces and dirt tracks to slow people down? Slower speed does not automatically equal driving more safely. Slow speed is because someone is uncertain of the situation. This makes them nervous. Nervous people are jumpy, reactive and do not make good decisions.

It makes things more nervous as a cyclist, and in the middle of more than two lanes it feels like you helplessly stranded out in a mass of speeding cars.

Another accident at this roundabout last night, surely the emergency services must be getting fed up with this now. I wonder what the tally of accidents is?

I went through today, some big horn blasting going on, I wondered what would happen, luckily not by me and luckily no accident.

There has been a number of collisions at this island that have not been reported in the press. Probably got fed up reporting the same old thing. Last week on two separate occasions I noticed debris at this island. I have lived in the Allesley district for over 30 years and can recall only one minor incident at this junction prior to the construction of the new island. .. ! million spent. Value for money?

Yet another attempt to get it right! It now appears they are adding brightly-lit LED signs (VAS) to the approaches to remind people they should give way!

They did have some portable ones. This junction feels like wallpapering over cracks in a leaking ship. As a cyclist I want to just ride through it as normal instead of constantly on the lookout for the safety of my life.

In the early 70s, something completely new appeared in Witney: at the bottom of a steep hill on the main road, instead of lights at the junction: one of those silly little mini islands that aren't really an island, about 6 ft diameter. But it was made of a few sheets of steel plate, shiny, and lethal to cyclists and motorcyclists in the wet. My also-mad-on-motorbikes mate, who had just moved to Witney and joined the local police force, explained that it was an experimental island, and that smaller vehicles were supposed to go around the so-called island, whilst big lorries and buses were to drive over it. I'd never seen anything so stupid, and he did not agree with me that "they are experimenting with peoples' lives". Those silly non-island islands that are everywhere these days (thankfully not made of steel plates) are treated by me with the contempt they deserve: I frequently drive as if they don't exist (traffic conditions and absence of marked police vehicles permitting!).

When cycling (not at this junction) I came off due to a wet metal manhole cover, it was just like ice! Luckily I was only shaken. I am very wary of them now.

Good point. I often follow a dithery, hesitant, nervous driver who appears to have no idea how wide or narrow his/her vehicle is, and think "If you're that scared of your own vehicle, you should have failed your test, I doubt if you have ever taken a test, and you really shouldn't be on the public highway". The above does not apply to professional drivers, esp. big vehicles like buses and lorries.