January 25th – The art of the traffic light snatched photo is night quite dead, just a bit rusty.
Another day of grim, grey commutes, but crossing the Arboretum Junction in Walsall was a the same wonder of light, standing water, marooned architecture and controlled chaos it always has been.
Some things are changeless, and when you’re recovering, that’s what you need.
December 23rd – Tired, horrid day, washed out. The end of a working day. Heavy with a headache, buffeted by the wind, and finding the roads hostile despite the lighter traffic, I headed home from work for the last time in 2014.
I whipped the camera out as I waited on the lights at the Arboretum Junction, and as I usually do, watched the traffic move past in a blur.
Only the clocktower and the traffic light remain constant.
I was glad to get home. Glad to finish the year. And so, a holiday, family time and fun, and then a new year.
That’ll do; that’ll do.
January 3rd – The journey home was much better than expected, too; when I made a dash for it, there was a gap in the rain and I made it to the train just in time, similarly at Birmingham New Street, where the city glistened beautifully in the wet. Taking advantage of a following wind, I shot home from Walsall between showers until I emerged from the takeaway, and got drenched in the last mile home.
Considering the horrendous weather in other parts of the country we escaped lightly, and so did I. Can’t help thinking I’ll pay for that later…
October 31st – I came back to Walsall as the Cross City was broken again, and it at least meant the wind would be at my back. The ride was as bad as I expected; people were driving like morons and the road conditions were dreadful. Still, I had good waterproofs on, and it was just a matter of mashing away until I got home. The arboretum Junction was spray-central: I don’t know what it is with the asphalt here, but it retains a layer of water that just doesn’t dissipate, resulting in a permanent traffic haze while it rains.
Winter. It came so quickly…
July 6th – Aboretum Junction, Walsall, evening rush hour. It had been raining, so excuse the poor image quality.
Increasingly, I see motorists trying to bypass the junction and beat the queue by cutting from Lower Rushall Street, up the slip road and across to the other one on to the ring road west. It’s not illegal (at least I don’t think so) but they often do it without consideration and at high speed. Someone really is going to get wiped out here, but I’m not sure what can be done to stop it.
July 6th – It rained. Possibly not the biblical deluge forecasted, but my, did it rain. I braved the start of the storm in the morning, and it rained steadily all day in Birmingham, where I was working. Leaving at 5pm it was still pouring, the short, soggy dash to the station I considered a foretaste of a grim journey home.
The weather surprised me, though. I got to Walsall and the rain was stopping. After a short hop to Caldmore, the skies cleared, and blue sky was in full effect at Shelfield as I passed through. Stopping at the Arboretum Junction, however, I was shocked at the amount of surface water still present. Is it the surface, or what? Mystifying.
June 24th – Another day, another wet ride home. The Arboretum Junction in Walsall is a dreadful design. A perfectly serviceable island has been replaced by a hugely complex traffic light controlled crossway. I often end up here, waiting 10 minutes at a time for the lights in my lane to turn green. I loathe this fiddly, overcomplicated piece of urban design with a passion.
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