Closed
Misleading direction signs
Reported in the Road Markings category anonymously at 17:10, Wed 31 October 2018
Sent to Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council 5 minutes later
The 2 new directional signs recently installed is very misleading and Dangerous. Most drivers don't know the difference from A40/E and A40/W. What is more confusing is the directional arrows all point in the same direction. As I live on Barton and use the correct lane signed Barton A40/W I have had at least 20 near accident with cars getting in the lane marked A40/E and going straight ahead down the A40/W. I find it absolutely stupid that who ever made theses signs that they did not think of the problems it will cause. The centre lane and outside lane arrows should both be pointing right towards A40 /E London. I hope this is rectified before I have a vehicle hit the side of my car because if this happens I shall sue the council for damages due to misleading road signage.
Council ref: ENQ18818757
Updates
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Thank you for your enquiry. This issue has been passed onto the relevant team for investigation.
State changed to: Investigating
Posted by Oxfordshire County Council at 17:15, Wed 31 October 2018
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?The lane board traffic direction signs on the Eastern By-pass approach to Headington Roundabout have recently been amended to include the destination of ‘London’ on the A40 E lanes. It is hoped that this will improve clarity and lane discipline.
‘Right turn’ arrows, either on the carriageway or on upright signs, on the approach to a roundabout are not normally used. In the case of Headington Roundabout we do not want motorists (particularly foreign) turning right and proceeding the wrong way around the roundabout, and neither do we want motorists to mistakenly turn the wrong way up the central lanes (hamburger).
We continue to monitor traffic behaviour at this location.’
Posted by Oxfordshire County Council at 11:54, Tue 18 June 2019
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?The lane board traffic direction signs on the Eastern By-pass approach to Headington Roundabout have recently been amended to include the destination of ‘London’ on the A40 E lanes. It is hoped that this will improve clarity and lane discipline.
‘Right turn’ arrows, either on the carriageway or on upright signs, on the approach to a roundabout are not normally used. In the case of Headington Roundabout we do not want motorists (particularly foreign) turning right and proceeding the wrong way around the roundabout, and neither do we want motorists to mistakenly turn the wrong way up the central lanes (hamburger).
We continue to monitor traffic behaviour at this location.’
Posted by Oxfordshire County Council at 08:04, Tue 13 August 2019
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Thank you for your report - during the planning application for Barton Park, transport modelling was undertaken to show the operation of Headington Roundabout before and after the Barton Park development is fully occupied. This showed that without the mitigation of changing the road markings the development would have a detrimental impact on the operation of the roundabout and the local highway network. There was also a high number of collisions on the roundabout in the 4 years leading up to the planning application.
The changes to the road markings were made to better utilise the lanes to improve movement towards London and into Barton. This has significantly helped the length of the queue on the A4142 Eastern Bypass for cars turning onto the A40 East towards London. In regard to movement into Barton, at this stage whilst the Barton Park development is still under construction it is not known the full extent of the impact the mitigation will have. It is not considered sensible to redo the markings when the reason they were changed has not yet been tested and therefore it is recommended from a planning perspective that the changes remain in place until the Barton Park development is fully occupied.
The changes to the road markings were completed at the end of October 2017. In September 2018 two lane board traffic signs were erected on the A4142 Eastern Bypass approach to the roundabout to improve lane discipline. Amendments to the destinations on these lane boards were made in June 2019 in an attempt to further improve the situation.
Interrogating the OCC / Thames Valley Police personal injury collision database there were five slight injury collisions on the west side of Headington Roundabout between when the road markings were changed in October 2017 and the end of December 2019 (our most recent data). During a similar 26 month period leading up to the road markings being changed there were one serious and seven slight injury collisions in the same area of the roundabout.
Notwithstanding the above, the council is aware of the on-going concerns to which you have referred and as such we continue to monitor the site. Further reviews of the roundabout operation will be undertaken as necessary.
State changed to: Investigation complete
Posted by Oxfordshire County Council at 07:46, Mon 23 March 2020
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.