Lewes Road re-vamp

[wellquickwoody]

Buses are more comfortable, easier to get on to, wheelchair and buggy friendly. Fares are simpler, network tickets encourage greater use, train+bus and bus+train tickets are readily available. Services are more frequent and reliable, tortuous 'round-the-houses' routes have been replaced by direct routes, bus lanes have speeded up journeys, timetable information is easier to understand and get hold of, more bus shelters, lots more evening and Sunday buses, night buses (some of them frequent, all night services). And car travel is increasingly unattractive, because of congestion and - let's admit it - parking charges.

But to be fair, buses are still used by the kind of people who, well, use buses. Therefore I will stick to my car....................................

 

[Seagull73]

You're helped by free parking in Brighton. Not everyone else is.

It wouldn't cost you £130 per month, though. It would cost £58 per month. It could cost you £38 per month if you felt like it...

Still an hour on the bus, mind.

It's more expensive on the Tunbridge Wells bus route.... And also the fact that I have to pick up my daughter from a childminder in Lewes means I *almost* have no choice but to use a car. Unless I want the journey to take about 4 hours.

Also, are there provisions for new park & rides? If they are serious about converting car users to public transport, there will surely have to be more P&R sites around the points where the traffic is likely to build up.

 

[The Large One]

It's more expensive on the Tunbridge Wells bus route.... And also the fact that I have to pick up my daughter from a childminder in Lewes means I *almost* have no choice but to use a car. Unless I want the journey to take about 4 hours.

You should leave her with Uncle Al more often.

Seriously, your monthly bus ticket is £58.00 - unless I'm reading this page wrong... Brighton Hove Bus and Coach Company But that appears to be by-the-by.

Also, are there provisions for new park & rides? If they are serious about converting car users to public transport, there will surely have to be more P&R sites around the points where the traffic is likely to build up.

I believe (though could be horribly wrong) that the City Council is considering making the new Amex Car Park at what was Falmer School a P&R site. Except on matchdays, of course.

 

[Postman Pat]

I think you are missing this bit:

CitySAVER
A CitySAVER ticket gives unlimited travel on all daytime Brighton & Hove bus services within the area bounded by Steyning, Shoreham, Patcham, Lewes (Malling Down) and Seaford (Chyngton Lane), only available from bus drivers, they are NOT VALID on :

•Services 12/12A/12X/13X between Seaford (Chyngton Lane) and Eastbourne
•Services 28/29/29B/29X between Lewes (Malling Down) and Ringmer, Hailsham, Uckfield, Crowborough or Tunbridge Wells •Service 77 between Valley Drive and Devil's Dyke
•Service 79 between Surrenden Road and Ditchling Beacon
•Nightclub Buses N12, N29, N69, N96, N97, N98
•School Services 92C, 116.

 

[The Large One]

I saw that, PP - but that's referring to a CitySAVER ticket, and they are daily tickets only. In other words, if you want to hop around the city all day.

I was talking about a SAVER ticket, in this instance, for one month. The list prices are further down the page.

SAVER
A SAVER ticket gives unlimited travel on all daytime Brighton & Hove bus services (except Nightclub Buses N12, N29, N69, N96, N97, N98, School Services 92C or 116).

SAVER tickets are available for periods from one day to one year to suit different passenger requirements. One day, one week or one calendar month SAVER tickets bought online are scratch off tickets so you can choose when you want to use them, remember to allow at least 15 days for delivery.

That doesn't appear to preclude the 28 or 29 as far as Ringmer.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I saw that, PP - but that's referring to a CitySAVER ticket, and they are daily tickets only. In other words, if you want to hop around the city all day.

I was talking about a SAVER ticket, in this instance, for one month. The list prices are further down the page.

SAVER
A SAVER ticket gives unlimited travel on all daytime Brighton & Hove bus services (except Nightclub Buses N12, N29, N69, N96, N97, N98, School Services 92C or 116).

SAVER tickets are available for periods from one day to one year to suit different passenger requirements. One day, one week or one calendar month SAVER tickets bought online are scratch off tickets so you can choose when you want to use them, remember to allow at least 15 days for delivery.

That doesn't appear to preclude the 28 or 29 as far as Ringmer.

Correct. SAVER tickets are £58 a month and the tickets are valid to and from Ringmer (or even Tunbridge Wells). £37.50 a month if you can shell out for a whole year's travel in one go (say, with a bit of jiggery-pokery involving 0% finance costs through a credit card).

For some journeys from rural East Sussex to Brighton, this is CHEAPER than it was when I was involved in setting bus fares back in the 1980s.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

I think this is brillinat news, we try and cycle as much to the AMEX as possible and the Vouge part from Upper Lewes Road across to Coombe Terrace is scarey on a bike, so to have it properly laid out will be good for all the people choosing to cycle to games.

I also drive around it fairly regualry and reckon the changes will make it easier and safer for all. Driving anywhere in Brighton takes time so whatever they do wont make much difference to car journeys but will improve and encourage more journeys by public transport I would imagine.

I would like to see park and rides in and out of the city centre re introduced.

 

[Lewes' best seagull]

I think this is brillinat news, we try and cycle as much to the AMEX as possible and the Vouge part from Upper Lewes Road across to Coombe Terrace is scarey on a bike, so to have it properly laid out will be good for all the people choosing to cycle to games.

I also drive around it fairly regualry and reckon the changes will make it easier and safer for all. Driving anywhere in Brighton takes time so whatever they do wont make much difference to car journeys but will improve and encourage more journeys by public transport I would imagine.

I would like to see park and rides in and out of the city centre re introduced.

At last, someone makes the point that it will make getting to/from the AMEX easier, quicker and safer.

In terms of highway capacity on the road, this is determined at the key junctions (Vogue gyratory in particular). If the scheme is properly designed with setbacks for bus and cycle priority lanes then the capacity for cars can be maintained. By reducing speeds to 30mph, 'bottleneck' effects can actually be reduced (think of it like water flow in a pipe).

But why let evidence get in the way of kneejerk reaction.

A car, bus, train and cycle user Lewes-Brighton (MSc (Eng) Transport)

 

[huge]

'Encourage' - not 'force'.

It's interesting people talk about the Old Shoreham Road scheme. (1) There was over-whelming support from it from local residents when the consultations went out by (2) the then Conservative-led council. The council - every council - also has a Government-instructed obligation to encourage and provide more sustainable transport.

As a general rule, I agree about the issues regarding a bus monopoly, though Lewes Road is the one route where there is not a total monopoly.

Sure but you put a gun to someones mellon (sorry for the gun metaphor again, I'm not obsessed!) you'll find them quite "encouraged" to do what ever you tell them. The roads are absolutely choked at the moment. I can't remember so many road works at one time before. There is a reason but i don't know what that would be. Spend the budget before the end of the tax year so as not to loose it? Make it hard for motorists so they are "encouraged" to walk, cycle or bus it? The roads where is dire need of maintaining?

This city has been unfriendly towards cars for years. The traffic signalling is, I'm certain, timed to slow your journeys down. THe road layouts the same. The one way systems the same. The abundance of cycle lanes taking up road, parking and pavement space the same. Then you combine this with a Mafioso style public transport system... do you know what sod going into town I'll order everything i need via the net and and socialise via chat rooms.

I understand the thought behind all this I really do but when they give you one alternative to get from a-b and it costs as much as it does with no competition i take issue with that. Someone is getting very rich because of busses in brighton I bet they aren't sat at the back with drunks on the night bus.

Oh and don't they say now we have the worst trains in the country!?

Deep joy

 

[Seagull Steve]

I live in Moulsecoomb, and I agree with making that awful mess that is the vogue gyratory safer for cyclists. But the rest of it will just become a snarl up for a couple of miles. I am disabled and love my car, but I am seriously think of giving it up. The Lewes road from Coldean lane will as I said, be a nightmare. Buses are good from this area into town, so I may not miss the car. But before the council start other projects, can they not get unfinished pathways done first. I have a real bee in my bonnet about the walkway from the Amex, down past the school. You get to the end and there are just steps. A fat lot of good that does me in my wheelchair. Having that route open to wheelchairs would save me fighting my way across the green bridge, as that can be a nightmare, which I am sure that some of you whose toes I have run over will testify.

 

[Albumen]

As I live by the gyratory and cycle to the AMEX so this is brilliant news. The lanes are very hazardous and most cars only have one person in them so hopefully it will get the lazy twuts onto an improved public transport. There are loads of bus services that go that way, get on one.

Well done to those involved in the planning.

 

[Crispy Ambulance]

As one of the 'lazy twunts' who spends 70% of his working day in a car covering a 'triangle' of an area from Littlehampton to Redhill and Eastbourne, I thought I'd share my last experience of getting a bus into Brighton. A client had requested a meeting in Starbucks, North Road and, knowing what a nightmare it is to park anywhere near there, I thought I'd do my 'green' bit so parked near Carden Avenue and caught a bus in to the centre. It's fair to say that I hadn't caught a bus for a few years.

I got on the bus and asked for a return to St Peters. "£4", said the driver. "I meant St Peters in the centre of Brighton, not where the f***ing Pope lives", I replied. "4 quid mate" was the unmoved response!
And you know that kiddies song, "The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round"? Not on the cvnt I was on they didn't! Gridlock in London Road.
And how long has it been since you can't smoke upstairs?!!

Buses are rubbish!

 

[Stoichkov]

I saw this.

Now, I know that sorting this must be very difficult but one lane for cars heading north past Sainsburys? Already cars back-up out of the BP but with 2 lanes available, this is just about passable but with only one, that particular sitaution will get a lot worse

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Could / should that central island of properties be made the subject of a compulsory purchase order to make extra space? Expensive I know but if thats what it needs...

 

[The Large One]

It was so much better back in the day...