Duke Street Roundabout

It is interesting to watch how the local press pick up on the negatives of changes to traffic management schemes but give no coverage to improvements or reduced journey times. Take for example the removal of the Duke Street roundabout at the bottom of Back Hamlet. Traffic flowing into Ipswich in the morning rush hour down Bishops Hill and along Fore Street now enjoys a much smoother and therefore quicker journey. This is also an important link in the number of south-east Ipswich bus routes. Further changes to traffic management hereabouts will see the installation of an in-bound bus lane along Fore Hamlet. Traffic travelling east along this commuter corridor has also enjoyed smoother traffic flows from the Novotel roundabout along Star Lane to Fore Street.

There are of course negatives to every scheme and some residents in the immediate vicinity of the scheme are inconvenienced by having to change their well established travel plans. (Note however that the majority of these residents are within walking and cycling distance of the town centre.)

I appreciate that these words are being written before the start of the school autumn term which will bring a vast increase in the amount of cross-town traffic (which is why the work took place over the summer) and thus the true value (or problems) of the removal of the roundabout will not be manifest until you are reading this. I suggest however that a great benefit of the scheme will be the advantage it brings to pedestrians and cyclists, particularly students of the university and college, residents of the apartments and visitors to the Waterfront.

John Norman, Vice-Chairman