Streetlife

The reason for the slow moment of traffic from Bishop's Hill to Grafton Way is the large volume of traffic at peak times and the large number of pedestrian crossings which hold up that flow.  There's at least 7 crossings. It's the same if you travel from Civic Drive to Woodbridge Rd, another across town route.  However if we didn't have the crossings then pedestrians would be complaining that they couldn't get across the road safely.  I think we should expect the roads to be slower at peak times in the same way we expect slower service at the supermaket on a Saturday.  There are lots of planning dept howlers in Ipswich though.  When traveling into town over Stoke bridge the road markings for the town centre direct you straight on at the Novotel roundabout but the road sign directs you left. 

It was said at a council meeting that the removal of the roundabout at Civic Drive/Princes Street and the installation of traffic lights was nothing to do with improving the traffic flow. It is being done solely to make it easier for pedestrians to get from Ipswich station to the town. How many pedestrians are there that use that route and there were perfectly good underpasses already installed.

If the flow at Duke Street hasn't improved then the traffic planners should definitely be called to account because with the closure into town of Back Hamlet and the complete closure of Rope Walk in front of the college has made St Helens Street the only way into town from Foxhall Road/Spring Road/Woodbridge Road unless you follow the rat run down Cavendish Street and the council "didn't expect that".

A big hold up for the traffic approaching Duke Street going out of town is that pedestrian crossing they installed when they built the university. Why wasn't an underpass built or a bridge entering the first/second floor of the building built? No instead they chose to spend £200,000 on a giant question mark.

I could go on and would if only it would get the traffic planners reporting to the job centre but being council workers they spend our money and simply don't have to account for whether they have done so wisely.

Sacked? No, they are all so loved by their employers. Every single one of them. Grrrr

Steve, Big Spot and Sarah are so right.
Sometimes, walking around our town centre and surrounds, surveying the jaw-dropping insanity of the carnage inflicted on our roads and pavements; and wonder "Is it me? Am I living in some bizarre parallel  universe.........". And then we have the Westgate/Elm St police station development to look forward to with the inevitable closure of Elm St, Blackhorse Lane/ at least one carriageway of Civic Drive/ Chapman St car park and so on ad infinitum.

Even worse perhaps, there will be the Tesco development in Grafton Way (once the usual £nnnnnnnnn sweeteners have been handed over). Yes, it would be heartening (if slightly unkind) to see a line of IBC suits - male and female - down at the job centre. We can at least dream! Instead of course, it's the hard-end workers who get the bullet.

Thank Heaven there are so many sane and wise people on this excellent site.

Now I can not go down Back Hamlet ,whether I go Grove Lane or Bishops Hill it puts half a mile on my journey  (Google) .Also there is no turning place at the bottom of Back Hamlet if you visit any one .The SO CALLED PLANNER have a lot to answer to ,my vote is sack them as they do not deserve to be imployed

I avoid driving into town, or anywhere near it, unless absolutely necessary, as for Duke St area -  forget it!! Im Ipswich born and bred, but can honestly say this is the worst town centre Ive even driven through. As for the new Premier Inn on the one way system - utter madness surely?

For years we really only had the Novotel in town, now all of a sudden the chains have discovered Ipswich.  As for the new one on the one way on Key St, imagine waking up on your holidays and looking out at the 45 minute traffic jam which surrounds it twice a day!

ibc must be the biggest employer of brain dead people in the region.

A majority of the money spent is EU money and they feel if it's available, we might as well use it even thou it won't improve things.
A certain amount of this work is created to keep people working.
I doesn’t matter how many traffic light and roundabout you put in, the problem will not improve due to the fact that we have far too many cars using the roads which have a limited capacity. The only way to improve the problem is to reduce the number of cars. This can only be done, by cheaper and better public transport, better and cleaner cycle lanes, but this will still not persuade most car users.
I don’t like to say it and I’m ready for the onslaught, but perhaps the only way is to have a peak time congestion charge !
Going back to the subject, yes there does not seem to be any accountability and the public seems to get no say.
Why can’t they set up temporary traffic lights and directions to replicate and proposed scheme and see what impact it has before doing it permanently.

Why can they not see that blocking off the routes in and out of town eg Rope Walk, Back Hamlet etc, it's been a nightmare, we are all chanelled in one direction, everyone has to go the same way, thus making it so congested, surely lots of people would take these routes and ease the congestion, our routes would be shorter, less petrol used and less polution in the air. But it don't seem to matter what bad decisions are made, they never want to admit it and put them right.
I agree with the above comment, why not try a tempory scheme first.

SurelyBig Spot, IBC Planners are not that daft !!??
Pedestrians from the Station should have been directed from the PO Sorting office on Princes Street, to Town Centre via back of Virgin Cinema to St Nicholas Street and on to Old Cattle Market, then up to Butter Market , no extra distance. A few sign Posts and saving all this Money and disruption at Civic Drive Princes Street intersection. Lets hear from the Council.

Peter, you clearly have attributes that the Ipswich Traffic Planners are bereft of. I think you know the answer to your own question.

As another example of their incompetence, they decided to put yellow lines down one side of our street to restrict parking. They put the lines on the outside of a bend in the road allowing parking on the inside of the bend so it made it impossible to see if there was oncoming traffic as you pulled out to pass the parked cars. 

The residents had to point it out to them and months later they swopped the restricted sides again wasting more public money. It makes you wonder what's in their training syllabus as it's basic common sense supported by the highway code.