Oxford: Motorists face ‘traffic chaos’ as holidays finish
The A34 was clogged up with traffic in both directions near Botley yesterday morning and long queues were reported along the A40 back to Cassington and Eynsham.
Traffic on the A34 near Oxford (Image: Ed Halford)
The delays were particularly severe between the Marcham Interchange and the Hinksey Hill Interchange, with motorists experiencing average delays of eight minutes at rush hour.
Marcham Road was shut by police until 1pm after a two-vehicle collision.
The closure affected traffic travelling in both directions and police officers turned vehicles around at the scene of the collision.
Long delays were also reported on Faringdon Road and the A338 due to the diversion.
There was a crash in Marcham on Thursday morning (Image: Ben Hardy)
As a result of the road closure, buses were unable to serve Marcham.
The crash followed the deaths of three teenagers on the road in the early hours of June 20 on the Frilford side of the village.[3]
Drivers on the M40 outside Oxford also faced delays.
The county[4] council urged people to use public transport wherever possible, including the park and rides.
Highways chief Andrew Gant said: “More cars means more congestion – it’s a simple equation.
Councillor Andrew Gant
“The only way to reduce congestion is to persuade more people to find alternative means of transport where possible.
“That’s why we are investing in public transport, School Streets, and aim to replace or remove one out of every four car trips in Oxfordshire by 2030.”
It comes as Network Rail was recently given permission by Oxford City Council to have 24 hour working hours on the Botley Road site, but the Oxford Mail found that these extended hours were still not being taken advantage of by workers last weekend.[5]
Botley Road works (Image: Ed Halford)
Last Saturday at 11pm, there was still no sign of work being done beneath the bridge and Network Rail confirmed that due to construction workers still digging foundations it would have been too noisy to work throughout the night.
A county council spokesman said: “The council liaises with both to make signage clear as regards their roadworks and these have been in place for many months.
“We have been restricting work on arterial routes within the city during the period of the Botley Road closure to minimise disruption.
“We have also been closely monitoring the network to establish how behaviours have changed in order to provide any further mitigations.”
References
- ^ Crash shuts key road into (www.oxfordmail.co.uk)
- ^ Abingdon (www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk)
- ^ June 20 on the Frilford side of the village. (www.oxfordmail.co.uk)
- ^ county (www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk)
- ^ were still not being taken advantage of by workers last weekend. (www.oxfordmail.co.uk)