Web Forum: More Bus lane debate

Feb 4 2010 by Andrew Jackson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ROUND Two on the bus lane debate ... DING DING!!

Dave50 continued: “It’s typical of councils all over the country on anti-car policy. They seem to think that quietly driving cars out of town by introducing schemes such as this to impede traffic flow will somehow benefit the town and make it prosper when, of course, everyone knows it will only make people go elsewhere.’’

pgt67was bewildered: “Another hare-brained idea to save a total of two minutes, yes two minutes, during the week and less at weekends on a bus journey – if it turns up. Who in their right mind will change from car to bus to save that amount of time? These councillors live in cloud cuckoo land.

“Those who use this stretch of road know full well it backs up all the way to the major lights at top of Chapel Hill. Clr Andrew Cooper already admits it’s a bottleneck and it will only get worse. As others have said, the way to open it up is to demolish the eyesore of buildings next to the DIY store, allowing traffic from Paddock to town to move more freely and alter the sequence of lights so it’s not a race to get through them turning right from Manchester Road towards Folly Hall and similarly from Manchester Road to Paddock.’

despondent pointed out: ‘This crackpot scheme suggests that up to 20 buses a day could benefit by shaving two minutes off journey times. Wow! The First Bus managing director says “...the council is working extremely hard to find innovative ideas to reduce the amount of congestion that we all face on roads in and around Huddersfield.” Hang on there, Mr Alexander, are you sure you are talking about our council? I see no sign they have made a single move to reduce congestion when a bus or slow HGV can disrupt the flow of an entire convoy. How does reducing roads to single lane aid traffic flow? How does chicaning and speed humps keep traffic flowing? Traffic flow should be encouraged, not hampered.

The council admits the funding is on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis from central government, not us, but surely it could be wasted in a more beneficial manner than this – a project that benefits hundreds of vehicles a day, not just 20 buses?’

idlejohn quipped: “There are far more pressing issues to attend to that this scheme that will only benefit First and as for a ‘computerised traffic system’ just how much is that going to cost per annum to maintain?’