Kentish Express Ashford & District
A question of patience at busy junction
Another appeal for traffic advice this week, with our reporter Aidan Barlow unsure if he made the right decision at a tricky junction the other day.
He was approaching the right hand turn from the junction of Somerset Road into North Street, which is a filter lane with its own traffic signal.
It has become a pinch point in recent months, with queues of cars backing up as far as the petrol station, attempting to leave town to the north.
At this right hand turn, Aidan noticed that traffic had once again backed up all the way to the top of North Street, opposite our old offices.
The strip of road to turn across is of course, a box junction, so rather than progress through the lights, he decided to wait until he could see a clear way through on the other side, rather than block the traffic flow.
Yet it prompted a motorist behind him to beep their horn repeatedly and aggressively, despite the fact there was no immediate through route.
He didn’t want to progress through the lights to block traffic in Somerset Road by the petrol station, or to block traffic attempting to turn right from North Street. Instead he waited until it was clear on the other side before going through a green light.
Should he have gone through and waited in the box junction, or was he right to wait behind the line to see if traffic would move on the other side? Answers on a postcard please.
Speaking of postcards, or rather of cards, every few days or so we are visited by community groups or event organisers hoping we can display their leaflets or cards on our front counter.
We’ve been visited by the Moscow State Circus which will be setting up in Folkestone, picnics at Victoria Park and the farmer’s market in Ashford and even had a stack of magazines to display what’s on offer in the Pas de Calais in France.
A more unlucky visit has been from the town’s nightclub Cameo, which brought in some event posters, queue jump cards and drinks offers, which somehow made its way into our company kitchen.
Out of sight is very much out of mind. Perhaps we are all a bit over the hill for trips to Cameo, at least this columnist is anyway.
But if anyone is interested in these offers, pop in and see us to pick them up.
Readers may recall a Nuts & Bolts report into the battered road sign at The Boulevard in the Orbital Park a few weeks ago. In a further update, we can report that while the sign hasn’t been repaired, it is now at least the right way up.