The later Easter was of benefit to those travelling to the West Country this year. The schools had already been on holiday for 2 weeks prior to the Bank Holiday and this meant people could stagger their journeys. That said, the A303 around Stonehenge was queued, mainly westbound throughout the whole of the two weeks leading up to Easter....allowing only a 2/3 day holiday for some.....Then......it all works in reverse on the return leg. But....not over a 2 week period......home bound traffic this time, has just a 48 hour window and so the A303 was queued Eastbound around the area of that bottle neck that is - Stonehenge but starting with Longbarrow!!
However, nothing keeps Wife of Watch Bustard down....she had to be out there with the camera at 19.10......but knew she had to be back at the nest for Monday night's Corry!!! Taking the B3083 to Winterbourne Stoke she finds the A303 is flowing nicely, so ventures out when there's a gap in the traffic......then, half way up the hill towards Longbarrow, encounters the queue, brake lights a plenty, reason being.....
there's the usual snarl up at the roundabout with 3 lanes of vehicles all trying to get into one lane......as I've reported before: "a quart doesn't fit into a pint pot".....
I quote from a local driver, returning to Shrewton at 16.40 from Amesbury yesterday..... "traffic was free flowing until about
500 metres east of Longbarrow, from there,
through the roundabout and all the way up to Berwick Down (how many miles?)
traffic was solid or stationary. All three lanes of the roundabout were being
used by vehicles going straight on, along the A303. The entire jam was being
caused by cars in these three lanes all fighting to get into one. So, miles of
stationary traffic being caused by the totally crap design of the
Longbarrow roundabout, and drivers' selfishness"......
Tell us about your journey along the A303 and win a bottle of bubbly....visit: http://bypasswinterbournestoke.blogspot.co.uk
The A303 needs to be improved from West Amsbury to Berwick Down by what ever means...so please sign our petition at www.sh2.co.uk many thanks!
1 comment:
All in all an odd weekend. Although the eastbound traffic did back up intermittently into Winterbourne Stoke from Longbarrow, most of the time it was flowing freely on both Easter Sunday and Monday - I had to give up trying to film a jam in either direction! Westbound traffic was only a third of that you might expect on a summer Friday. The jams weren't caused by volume of traffic, just cars slowing to look at Stonehenge or by poor driving on Longbarrow roundabout.
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