Tony Brown, of Horse Lane, Shaldon, writes:
If Teignmouth town council is searching for the source for the increased traffic, apart from the obvious one of more people with more cars generally making more journeys, here are my top reasons for the snarl- ups.
Tesco Metro is vastly more popular than the old County garage and if people visit either the petrol station or the shop (often separate journeys at different times) they have to use the road system, entailing thousands more journeys in a day.
Waitrose is much more popular than the Co-op and people will drive considerable distances to shop there, again creating many thousands of daily journeys, potentially passing through town and back again. The traffic being drawn to these various locations that comes over Shaldon Bridge obviously adds to the problem and creates pressure at this awkward junction.
Traffic lights: The council seems to have a fetish for these. Morrisons grew another set and there are numerous sets to be negotiated through town, each of which causes delays. They seem largely uncoordinated and the pedestrian one located close to the Exeter road junction seems especially poorly synchronised with its neighbour, meaning there is very little road space for traffic coming from Exeter or along the main road through town, causing considerable back-ups.
This is a situation made worse by the large clay lorries which take up the road space of several cars. Yellow hatching will not help.
Our traffic problems invite inventive solutions, with many car users 'rat running' through New road, Teignmouth, and then the roads round the back, to re-emerge at one of the turnoffs between Tesco and the Bishopsteignton side of Shaldon bridge. They will invariably require letting out across a busy lane of traffic, causing further delays.
Penn Inn: This has all been exacerbated by traffic trying to escape the Penn Inn problems. Presumably this element will be removed once the bypass is finished, although with only two carriageways at the new Penn Inn flyover it remains to be seen if this will unblock that road satisfactorily. If not, people will continue to come through Teignmouth.
The various councils have caused many of these problems; some are incremental like additional traffic lights, some are large scale such as allowing Morrisons to take an out of town location that inevitably requires a vehicle for access.
Solutions?
l Re-examine the need for so many traffic lights and their synchronisation.
l Examine if the pedestrian crossing close to the Exeter road junction could be moved 50 yards westwards, thereby creating more road space and obviating the melee at the junction.
l Prevent traffic crossing right against the flow of traffic on the roads from the hospital through to opposite the rugby club, by instituting a 'no right turn' order (except emergency vehicles) and providing a roundabout outside 'We do do duvets' so vehicles forced to turn left can then turn readily to their required direction. Restricting parking opposite Tesco in order to create an extra dedicated lane, as has been suggested, surely won't work as this is a layby which quickly reverts to a single lane.
On a happier note, Teignmouth is going up in the world and more people seem to want to visit, mostly using cars. With better shopping opportunities it is a victim of its own success, so while various traffic measures will help ease the situation, the linear nature of the journey from one side of Teignmouth to the other with its numerous obstacles inevitably means there will be delays.