The good citizens of Brighton and Hove have many bees in bonnets about various aspects of traffic and transport in the city: the 20mph speed limit, exorbitant car park charges, town-centre congestion, lack of a park-and-ride scheme, expensive and underused cycle lanes, high bus fares, parking zones, conflicts for space between cars, cycles and pedestrians, etc, etc, and, crucially for a tourist centre, the alienation of visitors.
Not only does this show how much the general public and local businesses are concerned about these issues, it is clear evidence that the city lacks a coherent and integrated transport, traffic and parking policy. Brighton and Hove seems to be slipping inexorably behind other English towns and cities.
This is not an easy matter, which may explain why successive administrations have failed to tackle it. Fear of upsetting one or other of the conflicting interests is an inevitable political reaction.
So I am proposing an Independent Transport Commission and have posted an epetition on the Brighton and Hove City Council's website, which you can access (and SIGN!) here: http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=398&RPID=10939932&HPID=10939932
This is what it says:
We the undersigned petition the council to appoint an independent transport commission to apply some bold and imaginative thinking in drawing up a comprehensive, integrated plan for the city's public transport, motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The city's traffic, transport and parking problems are tackled, if at all, in piecemeal fashion. The 20mph speed limit, exorbitant car park charges, town-centre congestion, lack of a park-and-ride scheme, expensive and underused cycle lanes, high bus fares, parking zones and, crucially for a tourist centre, the alienation of visitors are all subjects of regular comments and complaints in the press and in other e-petitions.
All of these are symptoms of the lack of a coherent transport, traffic and parking policy.
Successive administrations have failed to tackle the issues together in a bold and creative way. As a result, Brighton and Hove seems to be slipping inexorably behind other English towns and cities.
Effective management of the urban infrastructure is vital to the city’s future prosperity and quality of life. Too long has this been fudged and sidelined. Let’s make this the top priority at the next local elections.
The petition will be considered by Full Council on 30 January 2014.
There are no easy answers and no scheme will be perfect for everyone. If you think this is a Good Idea, please sign. Tell others about it. Tweet and re-tweet. If all those who are unhappy about the various aspects of an unjoined-up policy were themselves to join up and urge the Council to be positive and adventurous we might get somewhere—like, around the city without so many hassles.
TTFN
Showing posts with label buses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buses. Show all posts
Monday, 21 October 2013
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Traffic
Three of the four main parties are willing to consider congestion charging as a way of controlling traffic. The Tories are opposed. 'The council is relying too much on trying to keep cars out,' Conservative group leader Brian Oxley has said (Leader, p9, incorrectly dated Thursday 20 April*).
Clearly the council's policy, as characterised by Mr Oxley, is failing, as the queues of traffic in London Road attest. On some recent days vehicles have been slow-moving all the way from Hassocks, according to bus drivers who were running over half an hour late. Despite the benefit of bus lanes, the 5/5A route can take 45-60 minutes to get from Withdean Park to Western Road (scheduled time 23 minutes). This is only partly caused by the westbound closure of North Street, as the delays occur long before there. The closure of the short bus lane to the east of the war memorial gardens in Old Steine was a shortsighted step; some routes could have continued to use it, instead of requiring all buses to negotiate the main stretch of Old Steine and line up to get to the stop between St James's Street and the seafront. Who decides these things, temporary though they may be? (Temporary in this case means around nine months.)
Brighton did not develop in a way that makes traffic management easy. But allowing cars to have priority over pedestrians and public transport is not the way forward. It's local politicians, working with council staff, who have to find and implement solutions. Who knows, maybe the public has good ideas. So, the Conservatives need to come up with a better idea than congestion charging, if there is one.
Note to self: write something about public consultations.
*The rest of the pages are OK. Editors notice these things, as that is likely to be one of the first errors they fail to spot as trainees. I know. I was that trainee. But I did once spot that two consecutive issues of The Beano, for which I had checking responsibility, had the same issue number.
Clearly the council's policy, as characterised by Mr Oxley, is failing, as the queues of traffic in London Road attest. On some recent days vehicles have been slow-moving all the way from Hassocks, according to bus drivers who were running over half an hour late. Despite the benefit of bus lanes, the 5/5A route can take 45-60 minutes to get from Withdean Park to Western Road (scheduled time 23 minutes). This is only partly caused by the westbound closure of North Street, as the delays occur long before there. The closure of the short bus lane to the east of the war memorial gardens in Old Steine was a shortsighted step; some routes could have continued to use it, instead of requiring all buses to negotiate the main stretch of Old Steine and line up to get to the stop between St James's Street and the seafront. Who decides these things, temporary though they may be? (Temporary in this case means around nine months.)
Brighton did not develop in a way that makes traffic management easy. But allowing cars to have priority over pedestrians and public transport is not the way forward. It's local politicians, working with council staff, who have to find and implement solutions. Who knows, maybe the public has good ideas. So, the Conservatives need to come up with a better idea than congestion charging, if there is one.
Note to self: write something about public consultations.
*The rest of the pages are OK. Editors notice these things, as that is likely to be one of the first errors they fail to spot as trainees. I know. I was that trainee. But I did once spot that two consecutive issues of The Beano, for which I had checking responsibility, had the same issue number.
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