Following a recent collision on the St Denys and Priory Road junction which destroyed the signal controller putting traffic lights out for a week, a survey has quantified the number of vehicles jumping red lights, and noted school children having to run to cross Priory Road.
• Read more for the full survey results
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The traffic survey took place on February 26, 2018 between 8 and 10am.
According to the survey commentary, it came about “following a local resident seeing many drivers going through red traffic lights”, and after the recent incident that knocked out the controller.
A petition was also created calling for a camera to monitor cars going through red lights at the junction.
The ex-traffic light controller following a January incident
Katherine Barbour, the Green Party candidate in the forthcoming local election for Portswood ward, said she organised and led the survey.
Of the results she said: “In just two hours 14 vehicles jumped red lights and school children were having to run across Priory Road to navigate this crossing."
The latter point is because light sequencing apparently can allow insufficient time to cross Priory Road.
Tellers also noticed many of the 1984 cars recorded over the period only had one occupant.
The report includes these suggestions:
- Install a pedestrian crossing on both sides of Priory Road allowing more time to cross, or improved traffic light phasing
- Monitor emissions in Priory road north during the evening rush
- Carry out more monitoring of vehicles jumping lights
- Urgently undertake a “council planned traffic survey of this area”.
The results have been sent to Southampton City Council for comments, and there are plans to undertake a similar survey during an afternoon soon.
We’ve made the results and report, which Katherine Barbour prepared, available to view or download as a PDF (57K) from this link
This article has been updated for clarity