Will this sort out our traffic? Options

[Bofem]

I think most of us are aware that WBC wants to ban buses in Northbrook Street, scrap the taxi rank in the Market Place, and sundry other bits and bobs to address town centre traffic issues.

This is to be decided next week
They seemed to have missed me off their consultation, but did ask some 'interest groups' and here's what they said, with the WBC response on the right.

What do you all think?

[spartacus]

Then why this thread?

The thread started as a comment on the traffic plans for the town centre area..... 'Thread drift' has taken us into commenting on the bypass, feral kids, the trans-continental road network and danny's gonads.....

The truly astounding thing about a thread discussing the traffic plan for the town centre though, is that in three pages of waffle nobody has mentioned the other 'B' word - Bollards...

The proposal to completely remove buses and taxis from the pedestrian zone should be strongly opposed by all posters on here.... With the bollards no longer pinging up and down like Jack-in-the-Boxes whenever taxis go through there will be no more instances of 'confused' or mentally incapable drivers banging into them at regular intervals... In one swift move it will scrub out 70% of the Newbury forum traffic!




One point I think needs clarification though is why the need to open up the 'Pedestrian Zone' to traffic from 5pm? Yeah, I know it'll relieve traffic flow on the A339 etc, but if maintaining a safe area for pedestrians is so important during the day and traffic is banned when when pedestrian movement is relatively low, why allow vehicles into the area when the numbers of pedestrians is at it's peak?

If traffic can operate safely in the busy, bustling hours of 8am-9.30pm and also now be deemed to be safe enough to use the area from 5pm when vehicle numbers will be high and office workers will be spilling out onto the streets then why have a Pedestrian Zone at all?

I'd argue that it's a luxury that Newbury cannot afford. With the removal of traffic from Parkway Bridge apart from buses and taxis then daytime traffic is confined to the SINGLE CROSSING over the Canal/River. A Pedestrian Zone may be aesthetically pleasing n all that, but it restricts Newbury traffic too much.... Other towns have them but other towns aren't split in half by rivers like Newbury


Still.... somebody must have thought transforming the Market Place into the Dead Zone throughout the week was a good idea at the time... Perhaps I'm missing the point.....?

[Biker1]

The thread started as a comment on the traffic plans for the town centre area........

The sub heading was "Will this sort out our traffic?"
I presume this meant Newbury.
Subsequent posts have stated that there is nothing to sort out with the by-pass and the end of road works.

Other towns have them but other towns aren't split in half by rivers like Newbury

Most towns are built on rivers and they have to be crossed.
It's the way they evolved by the need for water.
Admittedly, many have more crossings.
So we have built one crossing to the West and now we need another?