Be first to see The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid will premiere in Portsmouth on 15th March at the Vue cinema in Portsmouth. Starring Pete Postlethwaite, it is a movie not to be missed.

The Age of Stupid

Wimpey and Bryant destruction

Another set of before and after photos taken of Hambledon Road.

2007:

Feb 2009:

We could take our own bags

Waterloovile pedestrian access

Over the years, access to Waterlooville by pedestrians and cyclists approaching via the Hambledon Road route have gradually eroded. Havant council are largely to blame by putting car drivers first and neglecting the needs of pedestrians and cyclists. This is typified by the retail park that now spreads across the main route for all pedestrians and cyclists that want to enter Waterlooville via the dual carriageway underpass.

Before the dual carriageway was built, we had a public road (Hambledon Road) that ran straight into Waterlooville, but the council through its incompetence decided to sell the land to private investors a number of years ago and the dual carriageway/bypass was built for motor vehicle traffic.



In this photo I have drawn the path of the original Hambledon Road, which was long and straight for most of its length. The kink in the red line indicates the steep hill the old road climbed to get into Waterlooville.

To the right of the old road there were fields and a hedgerow once defined the border between road and fields. So basically Halfords and other retail units on that side are where the fields were located.

What can be seen from the photo is the horrendous situation we have today for pedestrians and cyclists. Remember what you see is the main highway into Waterlooville for anyone that wants to cycle or walk. Car drivers have their own dual carriageway and the cars can park here as well. Pedestrians have to negotiate about 7 'junctions' in the car park all within a few metres of each other.



Here we can see the new Zebra crossing markings being abused by a typical driver. There are about 7 of these crossings and vehicles regularly stop across the cycle and pedestrian path.

If a pedestrian or cyclist did this in the middle of a busy road, they would get a lot of abusive language aimed at them from arrogant drivers.

Note that another van is also stopped on a Zebra crossing further up.



On the day that these photos were taken, about 5 vehicles (within a 5 minute period) abused the highway code by stopping on the Zebra crossings. More vehicles stopped on the path than they did before the markings went down!

The highway code 192 states:

"In queuing traffic, you should keep the crossing clear"

Also 191 states:

"You MUST NOT park on a crossing or in the area covered by the zig-zag lines."

Clearly we have queueing traffic here and the code is being abused.