Traffic in Rodbourne Road has been an issue for as long as I have been reporting in Swindon, starting in 2018.

There was a respite of sorts during the Covid-19 lockdowns, but recently two councillors from the area, Jim Robbins and Kevin Small, told the council’s cabinet member for strategic infrastructure and transport, Gary Sumner, that it was as bad as it ever was again.

After the meeting Coun Robbins told me that it often backed up from the Bruce Street Bridges roundabout to the Dolphin pub, and it started getting heavy from as early as 3pm.

I thought I would try it out for myself, so on Wednesday at 3.30pm or so I drove down Rodbourne Road.

And in 90 seconds or so I was sitting in the car park at Aldi having had pretty much a clear run.

But shortly afterwards I could see traffic starting to build and drove down back to the roundabout with Kemble Drive to have another go.

And there was much more traffic. Not all the way down to the Dolphin, but far enough – you know how it is: arrive at the back of the queue. Sit for a bit. Roll forward a bit. Sit. Roll. Sit. Roll. Rinse. Repeat.

By the time I was approaching the Bruce Street Bridges roundabout I knew I had to do it over again – because the editor had asked me to video how I got on.

And my phone blue-tacked to my dashboard (no expense spared here, I tell you) was running when a minibus indicating to turn right in front of me but not doing so, then a town bus which did want to turn right just as another car approached me from a side street on the left got me a little flustered and some words were said. On film. Words not normally heard on a family news website.

(They weren’t the worst words by any means, but still…)

So, get on to the roundabout – (bit of a struggle) get around it, make sure to get the right exit (trickier than I thought), back up and again.

And this time the traffic was getting worse. It wasn’t as bad as reports, but the journey that had taken me 90 seconds the first time took me much closer to seven minutes.

The queue started further back – and it was all caused by the difficulties getting on to the Bruce Street Bridges circle.

And we inched forward as the access allowed about one car on at a time, and not very frequently.

I guess it always feels like the traffic from the right is never-ending when you’re getting on to a roundabout – but in the case of Rodbourne Road it’s both true, and doubly hard.

First, all the cars on Kemble Drive have priority just to get to the line to actually get on the island.

And then you’re waiting for a gap in traffic coming off Great Western Way, one of the major, dual carriageway routes across west Swindon.

It’s an odd thing to say, but it was lucky the traffic from the right was so heavy, and so held up by the congestion on the roundabout, that it was stop and start. And I was able to sneak into a space, very slowly.

Once actually on the roundabout, when stopped at lights I stopped recording.

I had been round the roundabout once before, and I didn’t want another outburst to cause me to have to make the journey a fourth time.

So, I was lucky (or unlucky if you’re my editor). I didn’t have to queue for a horrendous length of time – but it was long enough, and the delay, and stress is all caused by trying to get on to the roundabout against traffic from Kemble Drive and Great Western Way.

The borough council is to conduct a traffic survey on the issue – I hope it finds the right solution.