Why is traffic still in chaos?
I MAINLY work in Europe and as I travel around I am amazed at the varied actions cities take to control traffic.
In Stockholm it's about congestion charging, in Amsterdam it's about mixing pedestrians and cars, which seems to work, in York it's about a workable park and ride scheme based on out-of-town shopping centres as an added attraction, which also appears to work well.
Scarborough? Well, the new road scheme doesn't appear to be working no matter what excuses the council gives. People I talk to ridicule the statements continually issued by the council to justify its actions.
It has introduced a scheme that works well in large cities but not in a small seaside town of around 50,000 inhabitants such as Scarborough.
Holidaymakers and visitors, often given as the reason for the need for such schemes, are at a level never before seen. The beaches may be packed but the town centre is dead.
We may be winning accolades, but local businesses are continuing to lose out.
Even on the glorious May bank holiday and other equally sunny weekends the A64 was practically jam free.
Now that's not because of the new traffic system, which has actually added to the chaos on the A165 by putting traffic lights up by the university where none existed before.
The authorities have only succeeded here in giving the Ramshill rat runners a quick route on to Filey Road by chasing the park and ride buses. The jams coming into Scarborough even in light traffic are ridiculously high.
Points to consider by the borough council and county council are offered to them by someone who is an ex-senior manager of a large southern county council.
1 Park and ride schemes do not work unless there is an attraction at the parking end.
2 Locals will not use the scheme as they cannot access it without using their cars!
3 Bus lanes in such a small town with narrow roads is proven not to work, neither is the over zealous use of street furniture meant to confuse drivers.
4 Council statistics on usage of the park and ride can easily be disproven just by observing the low numbers of cars in the park and ride car parks.
5 Traffic volumes along the A64 are well down.
5 Park and ride buses add to congestion, especially in the town centre where they are causing a hazard on roads which are far too narrow for their size. Aberdeen Walk is a traffic nightmare which has been aggravated by the new buses.
6 It is cheaper to use town centre car parks if you are only in town for a couple of hours.
7 The only people using the park and ride regularly are the over 60s which means very little income to the council, casting more doubts on the viability of free bus passes.
Chris Tinker
Mill Lane
Cayton Bay
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Weather for Scarborough
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
