Busy Dorchester road to get traffic survey

TRAFFIC surveys will be carried out at the London Road-Kings Road junction in Dorchester to see if pedestrian safety can be improved.

The ‘Ratty’s Trail’ walking route, which starts off Gray’s Bridge, has become popular during lockdown but involves crossing the busy road where traffic approaching from the east cannot be seen until the last minute.

Town and Dorset councillor Stella Jones has called for improvements, possibly adding a pedestrian phase into the traffic light sequence.

The town council planning committee heard this week that before any changes can be made a traffic survey is required by Dorset Council to see if the site meets its criteria, although the flows vary when comparing weekdays with the weekends.

Cllr Jones said she would prefer the traffic survey to be on a Sunday, which was when the walking route was at its busiest, but feared that the traffic levels on Sunday were likely to be the least busy day of the week – possibly not meeting the criteria to make changes.

“Whatever happens, something needs to be done soon,” she said.

Cllr Richard Biggs said he sometimes was at the crossing before breakfast during the week and, at times, it would be difficult to cross the road safely because of the flow of commuter traffic around the junction.