M43 Options

[Simon Kirby]

[edit: sorry about the title, that should of course read M34]

How about the M34 from Winchester to Bicester? The A34 is such a strategic route that it's crying out for better capacity, and the safety record is getting quite poor too. I'm far from keen to see a loss of habitat but there's no reason why any loss can't be mitigated with habitat creation elsewhere, and if the road was designed well there's no reason why noise couldn't actually be reduced. Obviously there's thecost to consider, but this is the kind of civil engineering that I'd sooner we were spending that £200billion Trident money on.

[Sherlock]

I completely agree that the road should by upgraded to a motorway but given the government's unwillingness to fund capital projects, except those that make no sense like HS2, it'll never happen. There's certainly no chance of a rail project in the area in the foreseeable future.

Even if funding were to be made available - and with the cost of government borrowing at a record low, it could be - it would take forever, perhaps 10-15 years to get approval even it was ever forthcoming. Look at the endless delays to the Sandleford development. How many more will be maimed and killed in that period?

We need to know what seems to be a big uptick in the number of accidents but at the end of the day it must be driver behaviour - cars and lorries don't crash themselves. Chronic tailgating, aggressive driving by drivers of cars and HGVs and a few drivers travelling very high speeds are all very evident to anyone who uses the roads.

Given that TVP are reducing front line police numbers during a period of ever increasing population and road use it seems unlikely that we'll see traffic police on the road and they can only be of limited effectivness.

Seems to me that average speed cameras covering the worst affected stretches and much more use of CCTV to monitor driver behaviour are amongst the short term solutions which should be looked at. Maybe the next generation will get to see a significantly improved road.

[Biker1]

those that make no sense like HS2,

Explain please.