| Topic: | Re:Reality check | |
| Posted by: | Michael Brown | |
| Date/Time: | 08/01/12 12:12:00 |
| “Michael - why do you assume as an article of faith that everyone needs to drive to the High Road to do their shopping?” Where do I say that? Driving is just one means and often necessary for people collecting large purchases. Anyone that wishes to drive through the High Rd that’s not going to use the shops can use an alternative route. Of course, efforts should be made to help the bus services run smoothly but I see a continual bias in favour of buses to a level which results in neglect of motorists. Buses are forever holding up traffic when turning right out of North Acton Lane (Sth) into CHR. This is not a big deal (in isolation) but if it were cars delaying buses, something would be done about it, if only by finding a way of penalising the drivers. Just off that same road – Arlington Gardens: Motorists and Shop owners were promised a couple of P&D bays as part of the original ‘Turnham Geen’ bus improvement scheme. Everything was implemented to help the buses but the P&D bays were not implemented; and no reason has been given as to why they were not implemented. There’s another road ‘improvement’ scheme being looked at in Staveley Rd where the council is looking to prevent the residents of the cemetery house from ever being able to park outside of their home. I’ve proved beyond all reasonable doubt on this forum that their parking needs can be catered for within a safe proposal but they weren’t interested in working this out for themselves yet, within the same scheme, they’re proposing to increase the length of the bus stops. The 24hr bus lane enforcement is another possible example of a bias towards buses although Richard Jennings makes some logical comments to support a 24hr enforcement. But there’s also an argument to scrap the bus lane restrictions altogether whilst the flyover is being repaired. This would undoubtedly enable traffic to move through the high road much more quickly but it would slow the buses down compared to what they’re used to. But is this so bad if the traffic as a whole is benefiting so much? Much of the traffic will be local that could use the, very often clear, bus lane to turn in and out of side roads instead of sitting for ages in a blocked single lane. But would this be considered? Of course not because there is an unfair bias towards buses; and the people that make these decisions accuse anyone that disagrees with them as being selfish. But I would have thought that the least selfish solution would be for all road users to accept that journey times will be a little longer for the time being; and this option also happens to be the one that will get the traffic through the most quickly. But no, we get restricted to one lane 24hrs. |