Residents have criticised new plans for the A4 in Reading, saying that extending the bus lane on the London Road won’t improve things.
Locals also don’t agree with the proposed turn-right ‘pocket’ into Liverpool Road, arguing that it should be ‘no-right-turn’ both in and out of the estate.
The beginning of the A4 bus lane on the corner of Liverpool Road is a historic legacy of bus money being awarded to Reading Borough Council for a joint project, but no money to Wokingham, so the bus lane ends on the boundary.
Whether you arrive from the A3290 or the A4 via the Sutton Seeds roundabout, or from Winnersh via the A329, you know you’ve got a wait on your hands.
It’s true even for buses and the emergency services because the bus lane stops and starts.
Local residents are far from impressed. One thought that Liverpool Road ought to be made ‘no-right-turn’ both in and out with a barrier down the middle of the London Road.
One resident in his sixties said: “The problem is traffic turning right out of here in the mornings, across the London Road towards Reading. It’s really dangerous and it holds everyone up.
Another older resident said: “My daughter has seen the plans. She likes the right turn because she says it’ll be faster when she comes to see us.
“But I don’t think it’ll make it faster to get into Reading. They need to either take the bus lane out completely or make it run all the way into Reading from the roundabout.”
Now Wokingham has some cash from a Local authority bus grant and is determined to do something about it, but not everyone agrees with their plans.
They are proposing to make the bus lane longer and shorter at the same time – longer to extend it under the sutton seeds roundabout, and shorter by moving the start further away from Liverpool Road.
Wokingham’s explanation is confusing. They say on their website that they want to:
“Remove the conflict between buses, traffic and parked cars on the London Road service road by removing the existing bus-only access onto the A4 London Road and diverting buses onto the A4 London Road.”
According to the bureaucrats, this change will: “improve the reliability and punctuality of bus services by removing the delays caused when buses have to contend with general traffic and parking activity.”
Possibly the worst bottlenecks in the whole system is at the corner of Liverpool Road where cars running into Reading currently arrive along two lanes, and they all have to merge into one.
This is set to continue, with a new ‘right turn pocket’ expected to be created to allow traffic to turn right into Liverpool Road.
Reading and Wokingham Borough Councils have both opened consultations into the proposals.
You can comment on the plans here: bit.ly/lpbuslane
