Monday 29 October 2007

Blackness Road and Blackness Avenue junction

Recently a number of constituents have raised concerns about the operation of the juunction of Blackness Road/Blackness Avenue and wondered if it would operate better as a roundabout rather than the present give way.
As one resident put it, "The junction is used fairly evenly by all of the routes entering it, so I think it would help traffic flow and further reduce speeding traffic on Blackness Road. I don't know whether this has been discussed before but if not I wonder if you'd consider raising it at some point in the future."
I did indeed raise it with the Planning and Transportation Department who have now responded as follows:

"There is insufficient room to accommodate a mini-roundabout and the junction layout could not accommodate all turning manoeuvres (especially Blackness Road eastbound to Balgay Road).

"A further issue would be visibility. There have been measures introduced (build-outs) to improve visibility at the Blackness Avenue/Blackness Road approach by bringing the giveway line forward. The main disadvantage of a mini-roundabout at this location would be the resulting set back of the give-way marking at the expense of full visibility to the right due to the boundary wall/parking. [The most dominant accident pattern is failing to give way at the Blackness Avenue approach]."