Tudor Drive / Dukes Ave / A307 Junction

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Added by Andrew Woodward

Dear RCC - I have written because of a junction which is a frequent danger spot to cycle through. It is the junction where Dukes Avenue and Tudor Drive intersect with the A307 Upper Ham Road and Richmond Road.

1. The painted arrows in the middle of the junction suggest that turning traffic should pass on each other's left. This creates a serious blind spot for oncoming traffic and for the cyclist turning. Traffic code 181 suggests vehicles can pass either way but highlight that left to left is the more dangerous for this reason. 90% of the time motorists pass according to how the arrows are painted leaving a cyclist who is turning blind to oncoming traffic. The 10% of the time when a vehicle decides to turn right to right this puts them head on with a vehicle who may have decided to pass left to left. Very dangerous for a cyclist in either situation, there does't seem to be a safe way to tackle this junction as what ever you do.
https://www.gov.uk/using-the-road-159-to-203/road-junctions-170-to-183

2. Recently I was waiting to turn right on this junction (left to left position) when a motorist behind me undertook me to place himself to my left blocking oncoming traffic to pass on my left and therefor forcing them to drive at me and pass on my right. Simply because he didn't want to wait behind me until the coast was clear that I could turn.

3. Needless to say the ASL's at this junction are almost completely ignored.

I hate cycling past and turning at this junction. Is there any way it can be improved to become safer for cyclists? A short head start (green light for cyclists) would be ideal but I doubt this will ever happen.

Google Streetview shows the problem nicely: http://goo.gl/maps/8gdo2

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