IS it me or has Autumn become the ‘silly season’ in terms of roadworks – and that’s on top of some strange traffic-calming schemes.
Roadworks seem to be everywhere, carefully and strategically designed to slow you down, cause frustration and make you miss important appointments.
The main bugbear for many is, of course, Milnsbridge, as you can’t go across it from Scar Lane towards Manchester Road. It’s a long circular route either through town or up through the Colne Valley and down Low Westwood Lane to Linthwaite where you can admire one of the most bizarre traffic-calming measures in Huddersfield.
Just before you reach Huddersfield Narrow Canal, going down the road you have to give priority to traffic coming up thanks to a huge slab of concrete built out into the road.
Then, within feet, there’s another one – but this time you have priority. Trouble is, with limited sightlines, judging it is quite tricky and it ends up being pot luck who gets through first. A classic case of traffic-calming causing potentially a bigger problem and risk of a bump.
I was off to Shepley and so cut across Crosland Moor which had roadworks and then up to Castle Hill and again more roadworks – but this time it was the dreaded three-way signals which means you wait even longer. They’re the worst. There’s no way round them but there is one sure-fire way of making sure all the lights are at green. If you leave home in plenty of time then you’ll sail through. If you’ve left yourself short you can be sure every one of them will be red.
