£45m Liverpool City Centre Transport Scheme

[E400]

RE: £45m Liverpool City Centre Transport Scheme

(12/08/2016 15:25)Barney Wrote:  As a motorist I avoid that area like the plague except between the hours of 1-6am and friends and family who commute along The Strand tell me that it is quite often gridlock for most of the day, including Sunday. Clearly, the proposal to reduce the road capacity by 50% obviously won't help the situation.

The fundamental problem is that the public transport provision from north (Crosby) to south (Aigburth) of the city is totally inadequate. Yes, there is the Southport-Hunts Cross Merseyrail service but that is operating at near capacity with the oldest rolling stock on the former BR network with no prospect of new or more trains for at least eight years. Quite often just one failure throws the whole system into chaos.

There are many possible ways of mitigating the congestion in this area and the obvious - and cheapest - one is to provide a direct bus service along the route. Prior to deregulation, the 1 (Dingle to Seaforth) operated a five-minute frequency most of the day with additional peak hour 1A/E services to Netherton. Also, Ribble used to operate a peak hour L35 along Derby Road directly into town. Admittedly, these services ran at a time when the Liverpool docks and environs were bustling and that is no longer the case but there has been a huge increase in commuter and leisure traffic in recent times. If just 10% of commuters between Thornton and Aigburth took the option of a fast direct bus service to the Pier Head/Liverpool One it would ease the congestion greatly.

As for the proposal that dedicated bike lanes would ease the problem, get real. 70% of the time strong winds and heavy rain blow in off the Irish Sea. Would you give up your car for a bike?

Drastic reduction of a road's capacity has been done in many cities around the world - Stockholm for example. Here, it has worked wonders by making people change their habits and daily routine. It generally sees people opt for public transport rather than their own car, which is a win-win ... the roads are clearer and the buses run better.

Liverpool's unique geography has meant that the city develops semi-circularly from it's centre. This has led to the formation of The Strand - a huge road terribly misplaced right through the heart of the busiest area of the city. This is something that you don't find in any other city in the UK, perhaps other than Belfast which has similar issues to Liverpool, though the issue here is not as great. It is very American by nature and is a product of this distorted municipal growth. Obviously The Strand has always been there because of the docks, but it should never have been allowed to take the form that it has today. It needs narrowing and streamlining. It is completely ridiculous to have an 8 lane road (where many people speed at 40mph) through such a pedestrian heavy area.