letter to the Gazette, 15/6/09
Sep. 27th, 2017 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susanreads posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
colchesterfoePublished on Monday 15th June as lead letter with big headline 'Bicycle race will not be all that eco-friendly'.
Buses as important as bikes?
Gazette, Postbag.
Dear Editor,
Next Thursday the council has allowed the main town centre roads to be used for a Bike Race at 7pm. OK, except it means the evening bus service will be disrupted as buses can't use Head Street, High Street, St. Botolph's, Osborne Street or the bus station.
Now we are told there will be no buses running through the town all day after 9.30am as they are going to use the whole town centre for cycle fun and games. These could easily have been held in the permanently trafficfree centre around Culver Square and Lion Walk.
Sustainable transport includes buses and trains as well as cycling and walking. Unnecessary cycling activities should not displace vital public transport services. Many bus users will be severely disadvantaged and the bus routes will be severed and chaotic.
Car drivers will have their many multi-storey carparks to use so it is unlikely car traffic will be reduced. No doubt some of the thousands of bus users will revert to their cars for the day and add to congestion. Many bus users will be stranded far from their destinations.
Buses will have to negotiate Brook Street, Southway and its roundabouts, also Headgate and Crouch Street to drop passengers off and will clog up Balkerne Hill in both directions.
So this day will be neither 'eco-friendly' nor friendly to bus users, especially elderly people who rely on buses and some with mobility problems who live in the town centre. Perhaps Colchester council officers don't know that a 'sustainable transport policy' includes buses?
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea.
Buses as important as bikes?
Gazette, Postbag.
Dear Editor,
Next Thursday the council has allowed the main town centre roads to be used for a Bike Race at 7pm. OK, except it means the evening bus service will be disrupted as buses can't use Head Street, High Street, St. Botolph's, Osborne Street or the bus station.
Now we are told there will be no buses running through the town all day after 9.30am as they are going to use the whole town centre for cycle fun and games. These could easily have been held in the permanently trafficfree centre around Culver Square and Lion Walk.
Sustainable transport includes buses and trains as well as cycling and walking. Unnecessary cycling activities should not displace vital public transport services. Many bus users will be severely disadvantaged and the bus routes will be severed and chaotic.
Car drivers will have their many multi-storey carparks to use so it is unlikely car traffic will be reduced. No doubt some of the thousands of bus users will revert to their cars for the day and add to congestion. Many bus users will be stranded far from their destinations.
Buses will have to negotiate Brook Street, Southway and its roundabouts, also Headgate and Crouch Street to drop passengers off and will clog up Balkerne Hill in both directions.
So this day will be neither 'eco-friendly' nor friendly to bus users, especially elderly people who rely on buses and some with mobility problems who live in the town centre. Perhaps Colchester council officers don't know that a 'sustainable transport policy' includes buses?
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea.
