OXFORDSHIRE County Council is planning to bar access from Wolvercote Roundabout to Five Mile Drive. This will have serious consequences.

There are 300-400 dwellings on Five Mile Drive and its feeder roads, but traffic can leave the area only at the two ends of Five Mile Drive or via Rothafield Road-Sunderland Avenue.

Cars entering Banbury Road from Five Mile Drive often have difficulty inserting themselves into the congested traffic streams heading north and south. Strings of waiting cars are often stuck there. Rothafield Road connects to the Sunderland Avenue service road, but entering Sunderland Avenue itself is again tricky as traffic there is usually heavy and often stationary.

Further, the service road allows vehicles in only one direction at a time. Traffic in opposite directions can easily cause snarl-ups, so this exit is not much used. The third exit, from the west end of FMD to the Wolvercote Roundabout is often easiest.

If the council blocks this last exit, an area containing 300-400 families will become a near cul-de-sac, with traffic mainly escaping by the Banbury Road junction, and frequent long queues forming there. Suppose colliding vehicles accidentally block this junction. Currently, cars halted by such a blockage could turn round and leave by the Wolvercote roundabout, and emergency vehicles could enter there to help the injured.

In future, an ambulance racing to the scene would find a barrier at the roundabout; a queue of slowly emerging vehicles filling Rothafield Road and the service road; and entry at the Banbury Road junction blocked. A dangerous situation.

These proposals need reconsideration. Constructing chicanes in Five Mile Drive, and putting, “Residents Only” notices at each end would be an equally effective measure, and far safer.

M Treisman, Lakeside, Oxford

 

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