When is a traffic calming scheme not a traffic calming scheme? When it makes drivers so aggravated that they need to claim for loss of earnings and question whether there is an easier way to reduce car accidents.
Construction of a Welsh road system near Neath has caused so many delays and problems during its calming that locals have made numerous complaints to the council. One local driving instructor has had to cancel lessons as a direct result of the hold-ups.
He said, "I appreciate that roadworks have got to be done, but I think this has been badly managed."
The scheme has been funded by a road safety grant from the National Assembly and consists of two adjacent mini-roundabouts at a busy junction. It is hoped the work will help traffic flow through the junction that is currently considered an accident blackspot.
The work has been deemed necessary after four accidents – one causing serious injury – have occurred over three years.
John Flower, the council's head of engineering and transport, said: "We are committed to trying to reduce the number of personal injuryroad traffic accidents that we have.
"We're not undertaking these works on a whim and we'd ask the public to bear with us. We will definitely be talking to the contractor to make sure it isn't a ‘ghost site'."
Local road users are hoping that anger caused at the scheme site will not cause a road rage induced car accident.
*A replacement vehicle can usually be supplied within 4-6 working hours, where there is an admission of liability from the other person’s insurance company. If this person is not known, their insurance details are not known, they are uninsured or there is a potential dispute over who caused the accident, a replacement vehicle cannot be provided.
