Seeing red in Addlestone
Yesterday lunchtime I had the misfortune to be driving back to our Chertsey office via Station Road in Addlestone 'aka traffic light central'.
What should have been a relatively short journey (distance wise) of maybe two or three hundred metres took the best part of 10 minutes to accomplish thanks to the constant stopping at red lights.
Having set off from Cosmic Electricals opposite Aviator Park (how's that faring in the credigt crunch I wonder?) I counted my lucky stars the railway barrier was not down - a move which would have added a good five to 10 minutes to the journey - and was quickly met by a red by the post office.
Moving not so swiftly on I had bearly stuck the car in second gear when it was time to stop again, this time for the crossing at Goldings News, and again just then 50 yards later where myself and other disgruntled motorists were hit with another red.
Had I not been turning down Crouch Oak Lane after passing these lights I would have been met with another set at the junction of Station Road/Church Road and High Street.
My point is - are all these sets of lights really necessary? I understand that pedestrians need safe places to cross, and a lot of the time I'm a pedestrian too, but the amount of lights in a road the length of Station Road seems a tad excessive.
I can't imagine it is doing the town centre many favours in terms of encouraging people to drive to Addlestone, park and shop.
Which brings me to my next observation... while waiting at the lights and having time for a leisurely look around it was impossible to miss the sad sight of the empty Woolworths.
It seems to epitomise the tough times faced by the high street and it was also interesting to note that Domains estate agents (once opposite Woolies) is still empty, so is the unit by Papa John's Pizza, and even the Barnados charity shop is closed.
At least the former B&M Latex premises are in use, having become a branch of the sandwich chain Subway.
Hopefully it won't be too many months before new occupants are found for the empty units, but I suspect the recession has a while to run yet.
On a different note, my reason for being in Addlestone at Wednesday lunchtime was to stop by the Brooklands FM studio above Cosmic Electricals in Station Road.
Each week at 1pm members of the Herald news team (usually myself and another person) discuss the stories in our papers that week. You can listen to the latest programme here
Older/Newer
« The early bird catches the traffic | New Doctor Who Matt Smith clocks up hits »
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Seeing red in Addlestone.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://webeditorsblog.surreyherald.co.uk/cgi-bin/mt421/mt-tb.cgi/103800
3 Comments
Leave a comment
Blog authors
Steve Bax
Web Editor for the Surrey Herald
There are traffic lights because there are people that walk and live in Addlestone. Cars are polluting, noisy and dangerous, just be glad you are allowed to drive at all.
Perhaps you should invest in an A-Z Map then you might realise you don't have to drive through Addlestone town centre (and add to the traffic problems) to arrive at your Chertsey offices destination from Cosmic!
An AtoZ? What a good idea! Normally I would have driven back via Woburn Hill (which incidentally is the route I take to get to Cosmic) but on that day the hill was at a standstill with traffic bumper to bumper. I'm not sure what was going on but I had no desire to get stuck in it so Station Road was the lesser of the evils, just about.