Traffic speed-up

A while back, Motor Sport suggested that drivers frustrated by the abnormal traffic hold-ups on London’s Westway and Western Avenue, leading to the M40, should drop the Prime Minister a letter saying “Never mind the Channel Tunnel, what about Western Avenue?”

Some are glad to learn that the DoT is to provide an underpass at Swakeleys Road junction in Hillingdon to ease traffic-flow along Western Avenue. Work is to start in 1988, for opening in 1990 at a cost of some £9,000,000. But will this be effective, if similar work is not undertaken at the crossroads beyond the Acton flyover.

On the matter of speed and safety, the celebrated economist, Dr Michael Walker, Director of the Fraser Institute in Victoria, British Columbia, says in a Monday Magazine article that he hopes speed-limits will be adjusted upward, since evidence suggests this will have no effect on road fatalities.

The US Senate, too, recently approved a bill to raise some limits from 55 to 65 mph, although this must still negotiate the House of Representatives.