Stafford Traffic.

I never realised until I started my own business just how many people actually go on holiday in August. New business virtually dries up during the 6 week summer holiday as either nobody is about or they have to wait for someone to come back from holiday to make a decision. I find myself taking the month off as a result.

 

Yep I've found that August is usually very quiet. This year was an exception though.

 

What council should do is not a road through the centre sod the builds that are post house, high house, swan, church lane who needs heritage anyway it all bollox.

if not lets cut up some hedges or trees to build roads. The sooner we build more accessibility and more traffic jams the sooner Stafford people can bitch and moan.

do what we do in Stoke, you drive a car you contribute to the issues so deal with it ffs.

 

No need to just knock the heritage structures down, they could be carefully dismantled and then thrown away.

 

Would this be before or after council workers are taught to read and write?

 

My god you're an angry little beaver!

 

A nice bypass linking Newport road across to J 13 M6 would do wonders

 

Just use all the golf course sludge to create Junction 13A.

 

The answer to Stafford's (relatively small scale compared to many places) traffic congestion does not lie in building more roads or road capacity - that much should be obvious.

It is impossible to provide any additional road capacity into the town centre - as demolishing hundreds of houses and spending tens of millions each to widen arterial routes would be insane and ain't going to happen. Changes to junctions and road markings won't do very much despite the seemingly widely held view that traffic will magically disappear if there were less traffic signals. All of that is fiddling round the edges.

Making a difference to traffic congestion only needs a relatively small drop in flows - say 5 to 10%. That isn't much.

Despite claims, more than enough people making a car journey can make their journey in an alternative way to achieve that change. Yes we can all quote examples of journeys or occasions where not using the car would be inconvenient / impractical. The fact remains though, that a sufficient number of car journeys are of sufficiently short distance and practical enough to shift to other means.

Cycling - you can cycle from anywhere in Stafford to the town centre in around 15 minutes no problem. Walking - a significant population live within 20 minutes walk of town and there are a lot of car journeys of a mile or less...

Bus - everyone will quote single fares, which granted are expensive. But if you travel regularly, monthly tickets are cheaper than the cost of fuel and parking. Arriva even have all their buses in real time via their app and online, so you can see where it is. Most buses even have wifi on now as well.

There is more than enough opportunity out there today to shift journeys. Yes, if more investment was made that opportunity would increase.

Building extra road capacity, including bypasses is not a utopia - new road space generates yet more traffic.

 

But there is am upper ceiling where road capacity improvements do not lead to more traffic. A capacity improvement doesn't have to cost a fortune a5013 between junction 14 and a34 could be increased with a tin of paint giving 2 lanes in each direction as it already a wide road as one example

 

A third of the land area of Los Angeles is dedicated to roads and car parking, and they still have congestion. The "ceiling" is so high that it is not realistic or desirable to attain it.

 

True. As is the points made by folks who say we should use more public transport or cycle or go on foot.

However, I think that the roads in Stafford could be managed so much better to go a long way to alleviating much of the congestion outside of peek times.

Congestion in other towns is far worse than it is in Stafford, even at the moment, what frustrates me is that basic common sense on the part of road planners and managers could solve quite a bit of it, and benefit the environment (because a moving car or lorry produces less pollution than a stationary one) but due to ignorance, bloody mindedness or down right incompetence they refuse to do ANYTHING!!

 

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.

 

The potential solution is a combination of many of the above, but I suspect congestion would not be quite as bad if those in cars had some consideration for other road users. If people didn't block junctions, yellow boxes and run red lights quite as frequently, then the traffic might flow a little better than it does.

 

Thats utter bull poo. Where i work most people live in Stafford. I have a friend who drives from Stone Road to work at college, another who drives from Castlefields to the Hospital, aoother who drives from Walton to the hospital, another who drives from Sandon Road to Astonfields (a journey that is 400m's or less by foot), another who drives from Parkside to Astonfields. I could go on and on and on. The only way to reduce road congestion is to remove traffic from the road. This addiction to the car is both selfish and self defeating, you're all causing your own problems, and enough roads will never be built. If you dont like sitting in traffic get out of your car and do something about it. If you really do travel too far to walk/cycle then unlucky - blame the local people who don't need to drive but selfishly choose to.

Interestingly I have another friends who works in Telford and is desperate to get the bus but the bus company seen to fail to understand that commuters don't want to go on a grand tour of the villages of Staffordshire & Shropshire on there way to work. I mean, how difficult would it be have a certain number of buses on routes like Stafford to Stone then Hanley or Stafford, Newport, Telford that only stopped in a few main places, maybe call them the 101X or 481X, routes specifically designed to go point to point?

Whilst I think there is an onus on the individual to be part of the solution to their traffic issues, I also feel strongly that there should be far greater done by Councils (PROPER cycle routes and priorities for pedestrians/cyclists), and public transport providers to provide certain services for commuters that are direct, reliable and quick.

One thing is certain, sitting in your cars and moaning about the traffic is not going to get you anywhere, in theory or in practice,

 

Car drivers in 'being thoughtless and selfish' shock!!!

 

Filter arrows on the Lammascote Road/Corporation Street/Weston Road/Riverway traffic lights would be a hell of a start to easing congestion.

 

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

 

Absolutely - and flashing-amber for give way - as a lot of other countries do.