Sir – I read the article last week about automating the toll collection at the Swinford Toll Bridge with equal interest and concern. Andy Duval will be aware of the theory of constraints commonly known as bottlenecks.


In my observations of the process at Swinford Toll Bridge it is complex, with three changing constraints:


1: Collection of the toll money itself


2: Three input roads to the roundabout north of the bridge and the volume of traffic heading towards Oxford in the morning


3: The width of the bridge itself.


My concern would be simply automating the toll collection itself will have little impact on speeding up the traffic.


Yes stopping to pay the toll does slow the traffic but one of the main delays is the restrictive width of the bridge itself and the delays caused by large lorries meeting a S1 bus heading towards Oxford.

The resultant delay as the two vehicles edge very slowly past each other adds five minutes to my journey. To really speed the traffic will require automating collecting the tolls and removing the width restriction ie widen the bridge itself or an additional bridge to create a duel crossing.


Ideally, this would also be part of the proposed Oxford-to-Eynsham cycle path. As regards councillor Rodney Rose’s suggestion of traffic lights on the bridge to slow the traffic down, how is this an improvement?


As your leader article states, what Oxfordshire needs is a vision for its infrastructure, as the piecemeal approach to building with little or no development of the transport infrastructure will only lead to more gridlock and constrain economic development.


Will anything change? I hope so but I think I will be saving up my 5ps for some time yet.
Chris Fox, Abingdon