Bad road design

[fastpedaller]

I've seen the 'this may save you' thread, and considered this ought to be added, but as a new one 9hope that's ok.
We visited Basildon last year (not been for many years) and encountered what we considered to be a very poor junction change - absolutely horrific!
They have added (it would appear at a cost of £300k) a "left turn to avoid the roundabout" lane, presumably to speed traffic flow. This presents the road user with a lane which then joins a road with a give way at a very acute angle, where traffic on the road they are joining is going at 30 - 40 MPH. The route prior to the "improvement" would have taken the road user via the roundabout, where the angle of approach gives good visibility and the traffic is likely to be going considerably slower. I sent an Email to Basildon/Essex Highways, and their response was that they would look at it to see if there was a problem.... yeah right. Her'e a link to ariel view
https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=599f08cc ... orm=S00027
Travelling from North (11 o'clock), along upper Mayne, turning left into Burches (3 O'clock) if that makes sense. See 'split arrow' designation on Upper Mayne.

[Postboxer]

That does seem bad, at the point you're joining the lane, the traffic will be coming from behind you so could easily be missed if taken at speed. Perhaps there is a lot of traffic going in another direction from another of the roads, meaning people turning left would otherwise have to queue behind people going straight on or right who have to wait for a gap in the traffic on the roundabout, with not as much traffic taking the Burches exit from the roundabout. Doesn't mean there won't be accidents though. It doesn't look like there's a need for the give way, the road splits again into two lanes a little further on.

[tim-b]

Hi
The designers of the A46 link between the M1 and the "old" A46 tackled this slightly differently. The single left lane from the link avoids the roundabout and becomes the left lane of the "old" two-lane A46. The two-lane "old" A46 merges into a single lane after the roundabout and then becomes the right-hand lane on one carriageway. No giving way as such, just traffic merging at slower speed after a roundabout https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Syston,+Leicester/@52.6996462,-1.0973823,433m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48776208b63f2d19:0x4c6431c4fd3a13ff!8m2!3d52.6992685!4d-1.0729984 Dropping the Streetview man onto the junction will make my appalling description clearer
Regards
tim-b

[millimole]

That A46 junction flows well, but it would be a major problem for cyclists (there's no sane reason to cycle on either of those routes) and probably for low powered motorcycles on the 'old A46'.
It does start causing minor issues in heavy traffic, but only because of the junction of a little way up the A46.