WHO is the comedian who thought traffic lights at Wolvercote roundabout was a good idea?

The whole point of a roundabout is to let the traffic flow by filling gaps as they appear – one of the best pieces of traffic management ever invented.

So why would anyone want to prevent this flow by installing traffic lights?

Wolvercote roundabout, with its stop-start red-light system is now causing traffic chaos far worse than we had even when half the lanes were closed due to the road-works over the past 18 months.

For 18 months commuters have patiently believed it will all be worthwhile in the end; but in the end, it’s all even worse than it was before!

Vehicles now have to sit at a red light while the roundabout in front of them is half empty because most of the traffic is leaving at another junction – you couldn’t make this up. It really is the worst possible scenario.

Having done a good thing by creating three lanes onto the roundabout (problem solved) they have then stuck a red light in front of that lane and so stopped the very flow it was originally designed to alleviate.

Ask any motorist, driver or bus passenger sitting in queues that now stretch back to Oxford or out to Peartree or back to Cassington and they will tell you ‘let the roundabout do what it is designed to do’ - cope best with the road junction by getting rid of the traffic lights at Wolvercote roundabout and letting the traffic flow!

PAUL BALLARD-WHYTE

First Turn, Oxford.