[Sussex] A27 Route Decision Delayed .... again!

Stat Brother said:

The only way people currently passing their driving test won't be screaming for (in this case) the widening of the Arundel/Binsted by-pass, during their driving lifetime, will be because cars and/or roads have become all but obsolete.

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The current A27 bypass going through Arundel was only meant as a temporary relief road back in the 70's and never got upgraded. It's really shit that we have to tear through the local woodland to achieve it, but when you weigh it up against the current traffic situation every evening between 4:30 and 6:30 it kind of makes sense... Unless we can build hover cars in the next 5 years.

On a side note does anyone have any photos or video of the old A27 route that used to run through Arundel/Crossbush? (past the Plough and Sail pub, which I seem to remember ended up mysteriously catching fire around that time)

Blue Valkyrie said:

The sooner they bypass the many roundabouts around Chichester the better.

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It's Lancing and Worthing that need bypassing, Chichester at least flows on most occasions.

Arundel too of course.

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Arundel_Seagull said:

On a side note does anyone have any photos or video of the old A27 route that used to run through Arundel/Crossbush? (past the Plough and Sail pub, which I seem to remember ended up mysteriously catching fire around that time)

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British Highways and Byways From a Motor Car
BEING A RECORD OF A FIVE THOUSAND MILE TOUR IN ENGLAND, WALES AND SCOTLAND
BY
Thos. D. Murphy
With Sixteen Illustrations in Colour and Thirty-two Duogravures From Photographs; Also Two Descriptive Maps.

BOSTON
L.C. Page & Company
MDCCCCVIII
Copyright, 1908
BY L.C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved

http://www.ajhw.co.uk/books/book346/book346.html#page275

Much as we wished to tarry in this vicinity, our time was so limited that we were compelled to hasten on. It was nearly dark when we reached Arundel, whose castle, the residence of the Duke of Norfolk, was the stateliest private mansion we sawPg 277 in England. The old castle was almost dismantled by Cromwell's troops, but nearly a hundred years ago restoration was begun by the then Duke of Norfolk. It was carried out as nearly as possible along the lines of the old fortress, but much of the structure was rebuilt, so that it presents, as a whole, an air of newness. The great park, one of the finest in England, is open to visitors, who may walk or drive about at will. The road into the town leads through this park for many miles. Bordered on both sides by ancient trees and winding between them in graceful curves, it was one of the most beautiful that we had seen anywhere.

We had planned to stop at Arundel, but the promise in our guide-books of a "level and first-class" road to Brighton, and the fact that a full moon would light us, determined us to proceed. It proved a pleasant trip; the greater part of the way we ran along the ocean, which sparkled and shimmered as it presented a continual vista of golden-hued water stretching away toward the moon. It was now early in August; the English twilights were becoming shorter, and for the third time it was necessary to light the gas-lamps. We did not reach the hotel in Brighton until after ten o'clock.

Unfortunately in 20 or 30 years we'll be going through all this again as more and more people move to the South East to retire or commute to London.

Stat Brother said:

British Highways and Byways From a Motor Car
BEING A RECORD OF A FIVE THOUSAND MILE TOUR IN ENGLAND, WALES AND SCOTLAND
BY
Thos. D. Murphy
With Sixteen Illustrations in Colour and Thirty-two Duogravures From Photographs; Also Two Descriptive Maps.

BOSTON
L.C. Page & Company
MDCCCCVIII
Copyright, 1908
BY L.C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved

http://www.ajhw.co.uk/books/book346/book346.html#page275

Much as we wished to tarry in this vicinity, our time was so limited that we were compelled to hasten on. It was nearly dark when we reached Arundel, whose castle, the residence of the Duke of Norfolk, was the stateliest private mansion we sawPg 277 in England. The old castle was almost dismantled by Cromwell's troops, but nearly a hundred years ago restoration was begun by the then Duke of Norfolk. It was carried out as nearly as possible along the lines of the old fortress, but much of the structure was rebuilt, so that it presents, as a whole, an air of newness. The great park, one of the finest in England, is open to visitors, who may walk or drive about at will. The road into the town leads through this park for many miles. Bordered on both sides by ancient trees and winding between them in graceful curves, it was one of the most beautiful that we had seen anywhere.

We had planned to stop at Arundel, but the promise in our guide-books of a "level and first-class" road to Brighton, and the fact that a full moon would light us, determined us to proceed. It proved a pleasant trip; the greater part of the way we ran along the ocean, which sparkled and shimmered as it presented a continual vista of golden-hued water stretching away toward the moon. It was now early in August; the English twilights were becoming shorter, and for the third time it was necessary to light the gas-lamps. We did not reach the hotel in Brighton until after ten o'clock.

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Hang on a minute, something wasn't sitting right with me from what I thought was just a novelty find from a 110 year old book.

It's August.
Nearly dark in Arundel.
Arrived in Brighton a little after 10.

So they arrived in Arundel after 8, even if they were only there for half an hour, they still wouldn't have left till 8:30 at the earliest.
Yet still got to Brighton just after 10.

That's progress for you.

Oh in writing that I've had a further thought, when did BST come in?
Maybe it got dark in Arundel, in August nearer 7 than 8.
Nevertheless we've all done that longer as a 'journey from hell'.

Stat Brother said:

That's the problem, there is only one answer and sadly that's the one we'll never have, that being a fully integrated transport policy.

.

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I absolutely agree with the need for an integrated transport policy. I lived in Switzerland for 3 years and never bought a car, even though I commuted to work and travelled around for leisure. All the transport elements are joined up and plentiful, so that it is easy to get from any "point a" to any "point b". There really was no compelling reason to have a car, even if you lived in a fairly remote place, as they are also served by public transport.

To top it all off, it is affordable. I had an annual season ticket that let me travel by any train, bus or boat in the Greater Zurich area for the equivalent of around £600.

Tunnel through the Downs. Sorted.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KIgX33sFs0Q
Or out to sea.

Mustafa said:

Some of the A27 improvements in planning for Worthing & Lancing are looking good.

They include (from East to West):

- Scrapping the Manor Road, Lancing roundabout in favour of lights and sliproads. Image

- Extra lane at Lyons farm junction and new traffic arrangements: Image

- Extra lane at the Grove Lodge roundabout: Image

- Scrapping the Findon roundabout in favour of traffic lights and slip roads and closing off Goodwood Road. Image

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Most of the problem sections of the A27 have the same cause, it's not necessarily the junction itself but more that the traffic passing through the junction is unable to move away at a faster rate than the traffic reaching that junction, examples include:
- A27 heading east at the Southerham roundabout, 2 lanes of traffic from Brighton on the Lewes bypass and the traffic leaving the Cuilfail tunnel route out of Lewes meet at the roundabout and head on a single lane down to a roundabout just past the railway line where the bridge was recently built over it (quite why they concluded that the railway line way the issue and not the flow-away rate of the traffic from the area being the cause of the congestion is beyond me)
- Grove Lodge roundabout in Worthing, Lyons Farm in Worthing (heading West towards Chichester) both have the same issue, the traffic passes these but finds that the flow of traffic beyond these junctions are extremely slow, again meaning that traffic joining is at a faster rate than traffic leaving.
- Crossbush down towards Arundel, again reduces to a single lane, and a roundabout making the traffic leaving the area slower than the traffic joining the point seen as the cause of the congestion

Most stretches are moving into single lanes, with other elements creating holdups further up the road (such as roundabouts, traffic lights or whatever) and so changing the lay out of the junction will solve very little

They should be focusing more on getting the traffic clear of the areas after these junctions, meaning that once the vehicles pass by these junctions, they are able to get away rather than finding only a handful of vehicles can get through at a time before it all grinds to a halt as there is not enough space after these junctions to get a significant amount of vehicles through on each cycle of lights, etc....

Grove Lodge roundabout seemingly worked far better without the traffic lights working (of course it wouldn't be the case for all junctions of that roundabout) but it did mean less cars trying to get through and hitting stopped traffic beyond the junction when their turn to go through the lights and has the result of more vehicles being able to pass the junction quicker than with the lights, it was more of a steady flow rather than trying to squeeze a lot of cars through in a short space of time, meaning more try to use the 2 lanes going west which quickly narrow down to 1 again and leave cars crawling along as they try to merge rather than smoothly flowing through

The areas after these junctions are the areas where capacity needs improving imo, for example making the area with 2 lanes much longer at the Grove Lodge roundabout heading west, improve the movement of the cars heading east from the roundabout from that roundabout to Lyons Farm so more can get through on their turn with the lights

The A27 bypass at Lewes heading towards Eastbourne, modify the 1st roundabout after Lewes (for Newhaven?) so that cars can go around it without having to slow to go around the roundabout, a bit like the Southerham roundabout when heading towards Brighton from Eastbourne, and the lane which allows them to maintain some speed to get around it

The Chichester roundabouts could be changed so that their are slip roads joining and leaving in place of the roundabouts, and have fly-overs or tunnels for traffic to be able get to the other side of the road to be able to get into Chichester or to join the due carraigeway heading in the opposite direction, leaving the main traffic on the A27 able to keep flowing rather than having to keep stop and start for roundabouts (It would mean that steps would need to be included to help the traffic leaving and attempting to join the A27 wouldn't be getting stuck in bottlenecks and are also able to flow smoothly so that it doesn't back onto the A27 and cause congestion there

Stat Brother said:

I believe, although am happy to be wrong, there's also a problem with how congestion is registered.

Isn't it the case that the A27 isn't actually 'congested' because the traffic does move.
Sure it only moves at 2 mph, but because that's considered moving, the A27 isn't a high enough priority for massive central funding.

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The main problem of the A27 in West Sussex is that everyone is trying to get out causing all these gridlocks.

Bold Seagull said:

The main problem of the A27 in West Sussex is that everyone is trying to get out causing all these gridlocks.

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I believe you'll find the problem is the sheer quantity of people wanting to be in West Sussex, and when they're here not only don't they want to leave they make sure nobody else can either.