Tackling traffic

It seems he has finally realised that he was wrong when he scrapped their roll-out upon taking control of the council in May 2003.

If it had not been for Coun Galloway's previous Lib-Dem "policy" the A59 Park&Ride, which was in the tender process in 2003, would have opened in March 2005.

The situation for travellers seen on Boroughbridge Road, across to Clifton and through to the city centre on a morning would have improved, as would the quality of life for those who live along this route.

What a shame, though, that the original Park&Ride site is no longer available, as this site was also considered to have potential to be a Park&Rail site for York Central - a lost opportunity for York I am also glad that the Wigginton Road Park&Ride is back under consideration. However, delay is the issue again. Under previous plans this site's completion may have been a lot closer.

Park&Rides may not be the total solution to York's congestion problems, but they are part of the solution. Keeping more than three million cars out of the city each year proves this - imagine where the city would be without this Labour initiative back in the 1990s.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, Labour spokesperson for city strategy, City of York Council, Salisbury Road, York.

• It is interesting to note that the council sees more Park&Ride sites as a solution to congestion, yet five out of the seven Press reporters testing journey times drove past a Park&Ride site rather than use the bus (Worse than London, The Press, January 29).

I suggest they should repeat the exercise using the Park&Ride to test the locations where queues of single occupant cars delay a whole bus-full of commuters. Until the journey times for these services are reliably less that for those taking their car into the centre, we will be locked into a vicious circle of lengthening queues and worsening bus services.

It is also interesting to note that four out of the seven journeys described could comfortably be made just as quickly by a reasonably fit cyclist, who might expect to average 10mph.

Journey A, from York College to the city centre, is one I regularly make by cycle to the Guildhall (obeying all red lights and traffic restrictions) in 20 minutes, regardless of traffic levels. Your reporter took 35 minutes for roughly the same journey.

One final point about comparisons with London - don't they have a congestion charge zone to help ease the traffic flow?

Coun Andy D'Agorne, Broadway West, York.

• Your article "Worse than London" compared journey times by car into York from a variety of places.

It will be equally interesting if some of these journeys can be repeated by either pedal cycle or Park&Ride. May I suggest bike trips from Copmanthorpe and Wiggington, plus a car trip from Elvington to Grimston Bar, thence Park&Ride.

Hull Road has bus priority measures in place, similar to those recently proposed for Fulford Road. Walking time to your office car park should also be included.

The journey times will surely make an interesting comparison with those made by car.

Of course, journalists may need to use their cars during the working day. But not all drivers do. Some 60 per cent of cars brought into York at peak times are only being use for four to five-mile long journeys. Most are single occupancy and are parked up for the entire working day. How can some of these road hogs be persuaded to switch to bus and bike?

And buses get caught up in existing congestion, becoming as slow as those in cars. Priority measures would enable the bus to achieve its full potential as a mass people mover. Reduced journey times would especially give Park&Ride a competitive edge over the private car for the final leg of a longer journey into the city centre.

Our city's finite road space will never accommodate the instinctive demands of many car owners. Some drivers must be voluntarily encouraged to use other means. If this does not work, then congestion charging and other like weapons must be deployed. That will leave the city's roads more able to accommodate those who need to drive cars. It will also speed up travel for emergency vehicles, deliveries and servicing.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, Holgate, York.

• I think York's northern ring road should definitely have another lane, but not one for cars. What we need is a lane suitable for pedestrians and cycles, totally separate from the road.

Think about it - have you seen cyclists risking their lives on that road, and pedestrians walking on the grass because there isn't even a footpath? Who planned that?

And when did you last see a bus going around the ring road - all these people are going from one roundabout to the next in their cars because there is no safe alternative.

For a totally wacky suggestion, think how people travel up mountains in bubble lifts. Now think about a six-person tramcar going from roundabout to roundabout. No operator needed, but dry and not too hard on the legs.

Maybe The Press should run a competition for the most outrageous ways to resolve our transport nightmares.

Romy Dunn, Acaster Lane, Bishopthorpe.

• In The Press on January 29, City of York Council revealed its ideas to relieve the traffic congestion in and around York, and it was shown how long it takes currently to get from A to B on various routes at peak periods. This seems to be a council that causes problems and then spends millions of pounds to solve them.

This is the council which introduced the ftrs, which, because of their size, cause congestion wherever they go. On my side of York they stop at the Acomb end of Green Lane and outside the Edmund Wilson baths, with the back end sticking out into the road, stopping the flow of traffic. They cancel out the left filter where Blossom Street meets Queen Street, by straddling the nearside and middle lane. At Nessgate into Low Ousegate they make such a wide turn into the opposite carriageway that they sometimes have to stop to wait for a gap in oncoming traffic, resulting in congestion behind.

This is also the council which introduced the chaos in and around York Station. The safest way to get through this maze is to be like a rally driver with a navigator beside him to warn him of the traffic from the left and right, traffic poking out from behind stationary buses, and pedestrians running across the road.

This week we have had a fatal accident at the junction of Dalton Terrace and Holgate Bridge; my sympathies go to the people concerned. At this junction our planners have given permission for the development of the site adjacent to the bridge, have they not considered how more dangerous this junction will become with traffic trying to exit this site once the development is complete. It would seem that any spare land is good for development, despite any dangers that it might create.

A P Cox, Heath Close, Holgate, York.