HAVING endured two prolonged periods of travel over the last two weeks, I write to you to establish how a minor car breakdown can lead to utter chaos and total gridlock in Doncaster town centre.
I was travelling from the Lakeside Village to my home address on November 17 at 5pm. Having referred to the AA.com this journey is 6.6 miles in distance and should take approximately 15 minutes.
On the day in question I reached the Sidings roundab
out to find that traffic had built up around this area. Given the time, it is reasonable to expect more traffic than usual but even taking rush hour into consideration I would normally expect to be home within 25 minutes.
Having fought my way through the traffic it became apparent that this was no ordinary rush hour incident but merely a lone vehicle broken down on St George's Bridge. When I finally arrived home, somewhat annoyed, the clock read 17.58.
Why is such a minor incident causing so much congestion? Surely the simple solution is to temporarily open the old North Bridge to filter the traffic until the situation has been resolved. Allowing traffic to build up only serves to raise stress levels of road users therefore affecting concentration levels, which ultimately lead to further incidents.
More importantly, may I bring you attention to the following.
'Millions of people breathe air heavily polluted by exhaust fumes. Up to 10,000 people die prematurely as a result of particles every year.'.... not my words, David, the words of George Stevenson MP, The House of Commons.
I have heard a recent rumour that the old bridge is to be reopened - is this true? I hope it is, as the only purpose of it at the moment seems to be somewhere for the police to park whilst they wait for the next frustrated road user to take a shortcut.
As stated above this has happened on more than one occasion and therefore is not an isolated incident. I look forward to your response.
Simon Sheppard
Ballam Avenue
Scawthorpe