Somerset County Council fails to address safety concerns

Taunton Area Cycling Campaign is again highlighting the inadequate situation created by Somerset County Council and their contractors at the major works scheme at Junction 25. They have removed a cycle and walking path forcing people walking and cycling, including wheelchair users, to use a hemmed in 1 metre wide path over a length of nearly 100 metres, making social distancing impossible.

Trying to get past on coming cyclists whilst pushing bikes.

Somerset County Council and their contractors have responded to our concerns with a series of ‘cyclist dismount’ signs with no additional space for walking and cycling.

Government signing advice is not to use ‘cyclist dismount’ signs. Walking takes four times longer, thereby increasing the risk of inadequate social distancing by 400%. So the County Council has actually made things worse.

We are repeating our call for action to deal with this situation, in line with government current policy, since we have been told by Somerset County Council officers that the current works will continue for 12 months.

Inadequate arrangements

Ian Bright of Taunton Area Cycling Campaign said: “We are very unhappy with the very poor response from the Council. It is unwilling to allow cyclists some road space due to ‘safety issues’ of motorists queuing to exit the motorway. It is impossible for cyclists and pedestrians to socially distance with the current arrangements. When TACC discussed the scheme with the County Council at the planning stage in 2017, we were given re-assurances that pedestrians and cyclists would be properly accommodated during the works. We feel that by requisitioning the existing path for the road at an early stage of the works, the County Council have gone back on this. We are not satisfied with the current inadequate arrangements.
We would like to think the safety of pedestrians and cyclists is of equal importance to motorists. We are demonstrating how dangerous it will be for cyclists if we are forced to use the carriageway under the bridge, and the inconvenience to motorists trying to pass slower traffic.”

Riding on carriage way is dangerous. Push button to cross the slip road can't be reached

The option of using the road is only for the most confident. Even worse in the opposite direction. We also point out to Somerset County Council that other aspects of the works are sloppy, such as the push button to cross the slip road, which they have made inaccessible for people to use.

Our proposal to Somerset County Council: make a one way system

Our proposal to SCC to make one way systemIf Somerset County Council will not provide a traffic lane for the safety of people walking and cycling, we are suggesting a compromise solution.

By narrowing the inner lane slightly and with barriers, it is quite possible to provide a one way system so that people do not need to pass each other in the narrow section, as shown in the first photograph. Narrower traffic lanes would help reduce the excessive traffic speeds that we witnessed at the site.

Members of TACC would be very happy to meet with the County Council and its contractors on site to discuss our entirely reasonable compromise proposal together with the need for additional signing to improve safety. We wish to stress that we want to work constructively with the County Council, as is the case on some projects. But we feel that in this case, our efforts are not being reciprocated.

8 comments on Somerset County Council fails to address safety concerns

  1. The SCC response on this issue is woefully inadequate. Pedestrians and Cyclists have been sidelined at best, completely ignored at worst. More needs to be done. I am fully behind this campaign!!

  2. Cyclists have always been the “poor relations” in Somerset. This is just another example of Somerset County Council’s dismissive attitude to the county’s cyclists. Somerset is such a beautiful county to cycle around I’m amazed SCC don’t want to capitalise on one of their best tourist assets.

  3. For goodness sake SCC, if you want to be taken seriously as a forward thinking modern council you need to wake up and come out of the dark ages. Not only will a quality cycle network improve the quality of life for residents it will be a real draw for tourism hence bringing in much needed revenues.

  4. Completely agree. This is the time when we can really get people using bikes instead of cars with huge gains for air quality and health and fitness. But people won’t cycle when they know it’s dangerous to do so.

  5. I was appalled at the danger to cyclists crossing the slip road to the south carriageway of the motorway. Cars tend to speed up as they approach the motorway, just at the point when cyclists are trying to cross. You take your life in your hands trying to cross here. I would hate to think that it will need a death or injury of a cyclist to get this sorted.

  6. I totally agree with all the above comments. I found it really frightening trying to cross the approach road to the south bound carriageway: it’s like playing russian roulette.
    I certainly would never dream of bringing children on bikes this way.

  7. This is an important route, well used by pedestrians and cyclists to connect villages east of Taunton. It shows poor planning at this development and needs a serious rethink to improve a hazardous area for pedestrians and cyclists, which is now even more dangerous. Somerset County Council put far too much emphasis on “traffic capacity,” where car is king. Walking and cycling will only increase when it is safer, easier, and importantly more convenient to do so, with fewer barriers. It doesn’t showcase Taunton well as a forward thinking County Town and Garden Town.

Leave a Reply to Viv Fouracre Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.