letter to the Gazette, 26/3/12
Sep. 27th, 2017 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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colchesterfoeGazette, letters page.
Carfree High Street and carfree travel!
Dear Editor,
Colchester already has a large pedestrianised town centre. A Gazette article and letters have been suggesting we should also have a pedestrianised High Street which would exclude buses which bring in many shoppers including elderly and disabled people, workers and students.
As I said in my previous letter, buses bring over 100,000 people into the town centre each week, which helps keep our town centre vibrant and cuts the number of individual polluting car journeys across the district. Public transport is by far the most used alternative to private cars.
We have many bus routes within the urban area and from towns and large villages on all sides of Colchester. Buses have to have access round and across the town via High Street, Queen Street bus station, St Botolph's Street, Osborne Street, St John's Street and Head Street.
Compared to the 83 buses a day which a retailer counted going down the High Street (Gazette Friday 23 March), we did a traffic count for just one hour from 9am on a Friday last November which showed 366 individual cars turning into the High Street. This caused four traffic jams, holding up the buses and other traffic on North Hill and Head Street.
Apart from 47 police cars, taxis and Royal Mail vans, 13 motorbikes and 6 cyclists, there were also 137 delivery vehicles in just that one hour. Imagine the chaos if cars and the whole day's deliveries are allowed during the peak congestion hours of 8am till 10am!
This is why we believe the car ban should start at 8am - not 10am - until 6pm. This will also cut congestion around the town centre. Necessary deliveries should be permitted during the day; they could be limited from 10am till 4pm to avoid peak congestion times if this could be effected.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea.
Carfree High Street and carfree travel!
Dear Editor,
Colchester already has a large pedestrianised town centre. A Gazette article and letters have been suggesting we should also have a pedestrianised High Street which would exclude buses which bring in many shoppers including elderly and disabled people, workers and students.
As I said in my previous letter, buses bring over 100,000 people into the town centre each week, which helps keep our town centre vibrant and cuts the number of individual polluting car journeys across the district. Public transport is by far the most used alternative to private cars.
We have many bus routes within the urban area and from towns and large villages on all sides of Colchester. Buses have to have access round and across the town via High Street, Queen Street bus station, St Botolph's Street, Osborne Street, St John's Street and Head Street.
Compared to the 83 buses a day which a retailer counted going down the High Street (Gazette Friday 23 March), we did a traffic count for just one hour from 9am on a Friday last November which showed 366 individual cars turning into the High Street. This caused four traffic jams, holding up the buses and other traffic on North Hill and Head Street.
Apart from 47 police cars, taxis and Royal Mail vans, 13 motorbikes and 6 cyclists, there were also 137 delivery vehicles in just that one hour. Imagine the chaos if cars and the whole day's deliveries are allowed during the peak congestion hours of 8am till 10am!
This is why we believe the car ban should start at 8am - not 10am - until 6pm. This will also cut congestion around the town centre. Necessary deliveries should be permitted during the day; they could be limited from 10am till 4pm to avoid peak congestion times if this could be effected.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Whitney, Co-ordinator,
Colchester & NE Essex Friends of the Earth,
4 Shears Crescent, West Mersea.
