Stafford Traffic.

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Some of us on here know somebody that drove from Salt Avenue to Stychfields if it was raining....

A lady I know drives approx 400m's to take the car to work so she can sit in it to have her fag breaks............even though she could walk the 100m's from her house using the cut through across the lines. Insanity! She then moans about being overweight and the traffic being bad!!!!
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
There are only ever two solutions

1 Make the cost of driving so prohibitive that other solutions arise

2 Make the cost of not driving so attractive that other solutions arise

Prof Johnathan Marwood
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
You could say that about any congestion solution.

I was thinking more specifically say a right hand filter from Lammascote Road in to Riverway, if Lichfield Road was jammed (as it always is) then surely instead of the queue of traffic being on Lammascote Road it would just be shifted to be along Riverway, thereby not alleviating anything in the grand scheme of things.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
So let's not bother doing anything then.

Or everyone quit moaning about traffic all the time and get on their bike or walk to their destination (if not carry A4 leaflets, travelling through town and then out again, or all the other 'reasons' people use to carry on sitting in their metal boxes while moaning about traffic ;)
 

Laurie61

Well-Known Forumite
I do find it strange when people use the ' we need no more roads' argument. If it was a sound approach we could also go back to 1950 or 1900 or back further still maybe to Roman times and say we need no more roads or invent railways or canals, If folks want to get about they will manage as they always have. The infrastructure of a country has to be capable of coping with its needs and these will continue to increase not go away. So although using cycles and walking ect can and has been part of the solution it will not eradicate the need for sensible increases in roads/rail. Just as you could not expect to freeze road building in 400 AD.
 

darben

Well-Known Forumite
Interesting that according to the last census Stafford is showing as statistically one of the lowest average commuter distances in the country http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/censu...-distance-travelled-to-work.html#tab-Location.

This would go some way to explain the rush hour bottle neck as everyone is starting and finishing at similar times.
Maybe a solution would be for employers to offer staggered working, flexible working or starting & finishing the working day at slightly alternative times to the norm, which would go some way to easing congestion.
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
Or everyone quit moaning about traffic all the time and get on their bike or walk to their destination (if not carry A4 leaflets, travelling through town and then out again, or all the other 'reasons' people use to carry on sitting in their metal boxes while moaning about traffic ;)
Or maybe stop evangelising about cycling and realise it isn't the solution to everything.
 

Kickstart

Well-Known Forumite
new road space generates yet more traffic.

Only when the traffic has been suppressed by a lousy road network.

It is very easy to be cavalier about someone elses time, and how much of it they can afford to spend walking, cycling or waiting for a bus rather than driving.

All the best

Keith
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Only when the traffic has been suppressed by a lousy road network.

It is very easy to be cavalier about someone elses time, and how much of it they can afford to spend walking, cycling or waiting for a bus rather than driving.

All the best

Keith
Suppressed demand is one aspect. The other is induced demand, that people start making journeys just because the road is there that they did not previously desire to make.

A lot of journeys can be quicker or at least no slower than the car. For example, you can cycle to or from town at peak times faster than the car. When I go into town on the bus it isn't any slower as I minimise wait time by going out so I get to the stop 2 or 3 mins early (you can check where your bus is on a phone app) then in town I'm not messing around parking and walking from a car park. When you account for that the comparison is pretty favourable.
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Interesting that according to the last census Stafford is showing as statistically one of the lowest average commuter distances in the country http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/censu...-distance-travelled-to-work.html#tab-Location.

This would go some way to explain the rush hour bottle neck as everyone is starting and finishing at similar times.
Maybe a solution would be for employers to offer staggered working, flexible working or starting & finishing the working day at slightly alternative times to the norm, which would go some way to easing congestion.
The lower distance means that more people in Stafford could use an alternative...

A lot of employers in the town are flexible but often people are creatures of habit and/or insist on structuring their lives round sprogs that are capable of getting themselves to or from school.
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
I do find it strange when people use the ' we need no more roads' argument. If it was a sound approach we could also go back to 1950 or 1900 or back further still maybe to Roman times and say we need no more roads or invent railways or canals, If folks want to get about they will manage as they always have. The infrastructure of a country has to be capable of coping with its needs and these will continue to increase not go away. So although using cycles and walking ect can and has been part of the solution it will not eradicate the need for sensible increases in roads/rail. Just as you could not expect to freeze road building in 400 AD.
We are at a point with road space that the need for extra should be quite limited. There is actually an enormous amount of capacity but it is inefficiently used in two ways. First is in time - for the most part of the day there is capacity. A lot of people or businesses could re time journeys but do not. Variable road pricing would assist that in a big way. The second is that road space is wasted by cars with one person in. A bus carrying anything up to 70 people uses the same space as three cars. Bicycles use virtually no road space. All of our roads can carry far more in terms of people per hour given a change in how people travel. The problem is that politicians don't want to challenge the Daily Mail reading motorist.

In larger cities particularly some serious investment is needed but that needs to be directed at infrastructure like tram systems. Unfortunately the government make light rail insanely complicated and expensive to build when it need not be difficult.
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
I was thinking more specifically say a right hand filter from Lammascote Road in to Riverway, if Lichfield Road was jammed (as it always is) then surely instead of the queue of traffic being on Lammascote Road it would just be shifted to be along Riverway, thereby not alleviating anything in the grand scheme of things.
Yep that is almost certainly what would occur.
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Youre not taking into account the many many people like myself who dont actually work in stafford but have to drive through it twice a day. Its easy to say bike to work but a very very small percentage of people living in stafford actually work in the town centre or within a mile if it.
There are enough people who can make their journey another way that would make a difference for those who cannot. A very high proportion of journeys are short and not all are for work. Other factors worsen the situation such as parents making a deliberate decision not to send their kids to a school within walking distance and instead choose one that isn't easy to travel to.
 

phildo

Well-Known Forumite
If the majority of journeys are local and it is the reluctance of these people to travel by foot, cycle or bus that means the congestion is worsened for those people that 'have' to drive through town then surely building selected new main roads to by-pass the town centre area completely would not lead to any net extra traffic as the people who aren't going into town as a final destination would naturally use the new roads and leave the town workers on the existing roads.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
We are at a point with road space that the need for extra should be quite limited. There is actually an enormous amount of capacity but it is inefficiently used in two ways. First is in time - for the most part of the day there is capacity. A lot of people or businesses could re time journeys but do not. Variable road pricing would assist that in a big way. The second is that road space is wasted by cars with one person in. A bus carrying anything up to 70 people uses the same space as three cars. Bicycles use virtually no road space. All of our roads can carry far more in terms of people per hour given a change in how people travel. The problem is that politicians don't want to challenge the Daily Mail reading motorist.

In larger cities particularly some serious investment is needed but that needs to be directed at infrastructure like tram systems. Unfortunately the government make light rail insanely complicated and expensive to build when it need not be difficult.
That and the fact that buses are, on the whole, shit.
 

Laurie61

Well-Known Forumite
We are at a point with road space that the need for extra should be quite limited. There is actually an enormous amount of capacity but it is inefficiently used in two ways. First is in time - for the most part of the day there is capacity. A lot of people or businesses could re time journeys but do not. Variable road pricing would assist that in a big way. The second is that road space is wasted by cars with one person in. A bus carrying anything up to 70 people uses the same space as three cars. Bicycles use virtually no road space. All of our roads can carry far more in terms of people per hour given a change in how people travel. The problem is that politicians don't want to challenge the Daily Mail reading motorist.

In larger cities particularly some serious investment is needed but that needs to be directed at infrastructure like tram systems. Unfortunately the government make light rail insanely complicated and expensive to build when it need not be difficult.

I have never seen the logic in roads pricing, in theory it sounds like a good idea but I have not seen a system suggested that would deliver the desired results ? At what time of day does the movement penalty kick in and for how long ? if the penalty is not sufficiently high would many not just ignore it or would it only affect those who could not afford the new tax. If the penalty was higher would not everybody reschedule their day and create another rush hour at a new time ? The balance may be impossible to get right ?
People could just decide to change their routines but it may not be cost free, If I decided to start shopping at 10:30 pm instead of my normal 6:00 pm this would reduce traffic at this time but to tempt me into shopping at 10:30 pm I would like to think my choice is not limited so would like to see the towns shops still open. This would require all staff to be at work and waiting for my, and others, arrival. These staff would need to get into town and out again or more likely the first shift would be replaced by the night shift so more travelling. If people are about more at night then emergency services need to provide more cover at these times which is yet more folks moving about. ?
Tram systems are great if they do not compete for road space with other vehicles but a bus would be just as good and less costly if driving along separate dedicated lanes which means more road building ?
What I would like to see in the short term is traffic allowed to use left hand filter lanes without waiting for lights, fazed flow lights, traffic lights switching to amber at off peak times and the building of underpasses where significant pedestrian flow crosses main roads. :stafford:
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Apparently, Staffs County Council has 21,500 employees, or thereabouts. Stafford Borough Council has only 400 or so. The Hospital employs c.3000, though if it goes down to 2999 the whole place goes into meltdown, or something.

Stafford is a good town to cycle in - this year marks my tenth of regularly doing so - easily as good as Oxford (Oh, Oxford... etc), a previous haunt of mine. The difference between Oxford and Stafford?

Culture. Of all sorts...

But back to cycling - a culture of cycling in Oxford has led to a continued culture of cycling in Oxford which will lead to an etc etc. More importantly, this means that there is an increased awareness of all road users that there are all sorts of road users on the road (many of the pedestrians are a bit 'lost in thought' sort of thing - you tend to keep more of an eye out for them) so there is much more 'us', far less 'them 'n' us' going on. The difference in 'terrain' between the two is negligible - Radford Bank vs Headington Hill... FIGHT! - there is no reason why an equally equitable co-existence cannot be established here.

I've noticed a huge increase in cycle use in the last ten years - when i first started my commute i would genuinely be surprised to see one, let alone two, other cyclists on the road - and am a big believer in the whole 'critical mass' idea. It is not, of course, the answer to all our transport woes but it beats the shit out of sitting in a queue of traffic for half an hour if you ain't carrying no weight but yourself.
 
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