Closed
Top of Sixty Acres road
Sent to Buckinghamshire Council less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 9950967.
Visibility when exiting Sixty Acres Road onto Wycombe Road is severely restricted in both directions. This has been an ongoing issue for as long as I have used the junction and appears to be caused by a combination of the road layout, bend and surrounding hedges/vegetation.
From the normal stationary position at the end of Sixty Acres Road, it is not possible to see sufficiently far along Wycombe Road to safely establish whether vehicles are approaching. To gain a substantially better view, a vehicle would need to move far enough forward that it would already be significantly within the Wycombe Road carriageway, which does not feel safe and leaves very little room or time for approaching traffic to react.
I use this junction daily and have experienced more than 10 near misses in the last year. I routinely turn my radio off and open my windows when approaching the junction in an attempt to hear approaching vehicles because they cannot reliably be seen. There have been occasions where, despite edging forward very slowly, I have had to brake sharply when a vehicle has suddenly become visible. Approaching vehicles have also had to brake, swerve or sound their horn.
The problem affects visibility both left and right. There is also a bend on Wycombe Road close to the junction, and vehicles can emerge from around it with very little warning from the perspective of a driver waiting on Sixty Acres Road.
The attached photographs show the view from approximately a driver’s position while stationary at the junction, as well as the approach from Wycombe Road. They demonstrate that drivers travelling on Wycombe Road can see the Sixty Acres Road junction considerably earlier than a driver exiting Sixty Acres Road can see approaching traffic.
It is a very dangerous junction and could be better though out.
Updates
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The report has been passed to the Highway Officer, who will carry out an inspection of the issue within 10 working days, emergency defects will be corrected or made safe at the time of the inspection, if reasonably practicable to do so. In this context, making safe may constitute displaying warning notices, coning‐off or fencing‐off to protect the public from the defect or other suitable action. If the inspection team cannot make safe the defect at the time of inspection, then they will instigate the relevant emergency call procedures to ensure appropriate resources are mobilised to make the defect safe.
There may also be occasions when the issue reported will not be repaired as it has been classified as a minor defect and does not pose any risk to either the safety or the integrity of the highway, these are called minimum recording levels as specified in our Highways Safety Inspection Policy.
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Update
Buckinghamshire Highways operates two methods for safety defect identification; proactively by Highway Inspectors who identify safety defects in line with Highways Safety Inspection Policy and reactively by Highway Officers following reports from the public.
We are responsible for the maintenance of 2,200 miles of road and 1,500 miles of footpaths in Buckinghamshire, this means we have to prioritise works based on a set criteria which includes issues which may present an immediate danger, or significant inconvenience to users of the roads/footpaths, or to the structural condition of the highway and assets contained with the highway boundary.
Whilst priority defects will receive a repair within appropriate timescales as dictated by the above policy, more minor defects such as the defect you have reported may not be immediately scheduled for repair.
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.