Hands up anybody who did NOT see this accident coming? You can just imagine the stroky-chin meeting in an ivory tower that thought that one up. "What can we do with this busy main route through the town that's treated like a motorway by most motorists? I know, we'll put a pedestrian crossing over it!"

This crossing is up there with the good ideas such as like lets install new street lighting by the new railway station then not turn them off and pat ourselves on the back by how much money we are saving by not using them!
Only in Aylesbury......!

Firstly my thoughts and prayers are with the man seriously hurt in the accident,an accident waiting to happen!I for one will not be using the crossing again until safety measures are in place!

...or, indeed, building a new railway station who's promised pedestrian access involves crossing the busy A41 then back again, traversing a deep ditch, then hacking across half a mile of waste ground.

Does the council really have to wait until Memorial Plaques outnumber Design Award certificates before it dawns on them the whole of the town's road network is a complete mess. Thankfully no-one died in this incident and we can all hope it doesn't take that for the council to get their heads out of the simcity virtual reality world they live in and look out of the window at the town the rest of us are living in.
Until a new outer ring road or at least a bypass is built no amount of 'tinkering' with roundabouts and traffic signals is going to improve anything.

As for the Bourg Bridge ...rip it down and put the old bridge back!

When someone came up with the concept of sharing space between pedestrians and vehicles, did no-one think it was a stupid, dangerous idea?

Seriously?

This evening whilst driving home via the offending junction I had to break for pedestrians who, although the lights were green and had been for some time still decided they stood a good chance of me breaking in time or being able to bounce off my bonnet so to speak. The design is wrong and it encourages people to take a chance. It is also confusing for visiting motorists to the area who think that the junction is a normal traffic light controlled crossroads thus thinking they can pull out when traffic to their right is clear,to the centre wait then turn right, all of this is compounded by the bus drivers (and taxi drivers around the station aka boy racers) who assume everyone knows they have right of way and boy everyone else had better get out of their way because, as has just been proven those guys are NOT going to slow down or give way to anyone under ANY circumstances.
My heartfelt good wishes for a speedy recovery to the poor pedestrian and also my sympathies for the van driver who like the rest of us is human and made a momentary mistake which he will have to live with for the rest of his life.(I have to state I am not a fan of " white/ yellow whatever colour van man" but feel with the appalling layout of the road, there for the grace of God....) BCC spend the money, revise the road layout to make it safer, clearer signage etc etc. I promise as a commuter I will not complain about traffic delays whilst the improvements are made. PS for the record like everyone else I too thought it was an accident waiting to happen, I feel sad I've been proven right

Well I, for one, thought he whole scheme was a fantastic idea and worthy of praise. In fact, I have written many articles in leading magazines stating how fantastic this design is & how I felt the money was well spent.
I have also said that i am more than happy for the Government to increase income taxes if it will continue to spend the money in such a wonderful way.
Anyone who complains about this bridge and surrounding environs is just an old, stuck in the mud, fuddy duddy.

In all seriousness though, the idea of shared space is not new, it has been working really well on the continent for many, many years.
Mind you, when they talk of shared space, they mean huge areas like whole town centres, when Aylesbury talks of shared space, they mean 50 square metres of one of the busiest roads in the county.

What was wrong with the old junction???? Why change it?
I admit the bridge needed re-doing but I don't believe this was the best solution!

It's nice to see that Bucks County Council are as quick to react as usual with a non-commital statement, whats next? probably give themselves an expenses bonus on a job well done. These people have been spending our hard earned cash on the roads in such a way that would appal most tax payers. They put in street lights then turn them off to save money, they put multiple pedestrian crossings near some of the buissiest road junctions and then not coordinate them so moterists end up 'stranded' on a roundabout they put in bus lanes that don't go anywhere, they remove the central resivations on dual carrageways encouraging dangerous driving and they create a foot bridge designed to feed pedestrians into oncoming traffic. Well done Bucks County Council you have made Aylesbury one of the worst places to get around in the country. I hope you are proud of yourselves. All this rubbish you are spouting about being a greener county is hogwash, any savings you have made by driving moterists out of Aylesbury (and the passengers from spending much needed money in the town) is being lost by the stationary traffic spewing fumes into the atmosphere. As the 'pub landlord' Al Murrey would say "Bucks County Council you didn't think it through now, did you?"