Edinburgh roads: New traffic lights at Hillend cause traffic chaos on surrounding road network

The new signals were installed at the three-way Hillend junction on the A702 south of the Capital earlier this year. But now there are regularly long queues of traffic on nearby parts of the road network, including the A720 City Bypass. And Colinton/Fairmilehead Tory councillor Neil Cuthbert has written to Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop, calling for an urgent review of the Hillend junction. In his letter he said: "The introduction of new traffic signals at Hillend/Damhead, while intended to enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety, has resulted in severe and regular traffic disruption at the nearby Lothianburn junction. "Specifically, severe queueing has developed on the slip road from the A720 onto the A702 northbound, with vehicles frequently backing up the full length of the slip and spilling into live lanes. "This has created hazardous conditions, including limited visibility for merging traffic, blocked access to local properties and roundabouts, and heightened risks of rear-end collisions among stationary or slow-moving traffic in high-speed zones." He said southbound flows on the A702 are similarly affected, with standstill congestion extending towards Fairmilehead and blocking key junctions. "While the new traffic signals have improved safety at the Hillend junction itself, the wider traffic impacts are concerning. "With traffic volumes expected to increase significantly during the winter months and festive period, these bottlenecks will almost certainly worsen." Local resident Craig Hunter-Johnson, who lives on Biggar Road, posted a video of dashcam showing the lengthy queues of standing traffic on the Lothianburn slip and also queued traffic southbound on Biggar Road from Lothianburn to Fairmilehead crossroads. He said: "The A702 becomes a car park at peak times and it’s all as a result of fhe new traffic signals at the Hillend/Damhead junction. "We're directly affected by anything that goes on on the trunk road at Lothianburn. It has been a bit of a nightmare - all we experience now is the tooting of horns or back to back traffic, the blocking of junctions and general chaos that seems to be largely unmanaged." He said he had been in repeated contact with the road operating company BEAR about the situation. "I think they do recognise there are now other issues being faced further down the network as a result of these new lights, but they don't seem to grasp the severity of the effects being felt locally. "They claimed they were making tweaks to the signalling and that should make things easier for the network, but it hasn't. It seems that something more significant needs to happen to alleviate the pressure that is being felt. "If they want to keep the signals where they are they need to look to make urgent improvements to manage the network further along where the problems are. "I think the lights were obviously necessary and they were installed for a reason, but they can't just install that and ignore the rest of the issues they've created as a result." A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “Alongside our trunk road operating company BEAR Scotland, we are continuing to monitor the operation of the traffic signals and the surrounding area. "We are aware of the issues being experienced by road users and BEAR Scotland has been instructed to investigate to better understand these issues. "This work will involve liaison with Midlothian and Edinburgh Councils and other stakeholders to identify any proposed measures that could be introduced to mitigate the issues being experienced and to work to provide the best solution for all road users.” Keep up to date on everything in the Capital, with the latest headlines and breaking news stories delivered straight to your inbox, with EEN’s free daily newsletter