DRIVERS are still getting to grips with a busy Worcester traffic island after its latest rejig with one traffic expert saying it can take months for people to get used to new road layouts.

The latest revision of the Whittington island which came about after a public outcry about how the left-hand slip-road had been left, has now sparked a robust debate about how it is being used.

A road policy chief with the road drivers’ association the AA, however, said it can take time for drivers to get used to a new road layout.

The slip-road, which takes the traffic coming from junction 7 of the M5 heading towards Malvern via the A4440, was altered last week, with more ‘give way’ signs put up, and the junction moved backwards towards the roundabout.

The slip-road junction had originally joined with the A4440.

But there were complaints from merging drivers that visibility was poor forcing people to look back and over their right shoulder, and that there was not enough space or time allowed for cars to merge.

With the junction now moved back, traffic engineers hope both visibility has improved and drivers have more time to merge.

The jury is still out among Worcester News readers, particularly as some drivers wanting to turn left are now deciding to use the main roundabout junction in a bid to jump the slip-road queue altogether.

Worcestershire County Council highways engineers are aware of this issue and will be “monitoring” for the next few weeks.

Worcester News reader St Jon said: “The junction was chaotic at 7pm this evening [October 3], due mainly to a stream of vehicles heading from the motorway, ignoring all the lane markings, to turn left at the roundabout, straight into the path of those exiting correctly.”

Another reader, Teeceeee, said: “It’s very hard to see what’s coming around the island still.

“But worse, it’s impossible to see if someone has ignored the slip road and is just going to turn left at the island – still a big accident waiting to happen.”

However, Andy-Apache described the alterations as “a step in the right direction. It reduces the need to have a 360-degree swivelling neck.

“In fact, it’s practically just a third lane off the roundabout – wonder why no one thought of that?”

Andrew Howard is from the AA’s motoring policy team and although not familiar with Whittington island, has had 22 years’ experience in the area.

He said: “When you have a roundabout that’s ‘had it’, then custom and practice develops where everybody understands how to use that particular roundabout [to get where they want]. If you change that, then local drivers have to re-learn how to use it and that can cause issues.”

He said it can take months before drivers get the hang of any changes made to roads and on busier roads in particular.

Jon Fraser, a county council highways manager, said it was “still early days” and monitoring would continue.

“It seems to be working relatively well.

“We’re still seeing drivers using the middle lane in the peak hours, so we’re looking at that.”