Lewes Road Traffic Plan

[Westdene Seagull]

Everyone has their priorities - and transport budgets, as set by the DfT (rather than the DoH) are also important for keeping people - and economies - moving. It's like you're making out sustainable transport isn't important. From a health point of view (walking / cycling), I could make a case that it is.

I completely agree with you on this point ( bet you didn't expect that ! ) BUT I'm also of the view that an equal amount of thought and planning should go into getting traffic flowing as fast as possible. People will still use their cars regardless and so to keep congestion and therefore pollution to a minimum we should work out how to get private traffic in and out of the city as fast as possible rather than just concentrating on "persuading" people out of their cars.

A good example of what I mean is I drive along the OSR say two or three times a week to the North Laines area. It used to be a breeze but since the road space of cars has been reduced there are queues from the Upper Drive all the way back to Hove Park. Now I'd be f***ing fuming if I owned a house along that stretch now they have all those extra car fumes pumping out during both rush hours. By all means encourage cycling etc but purposely slowing private traffic ( and it can only have been on purpose because even a non-expert could have predicted the result on OSR ) actually increases pollution.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

I don't disagree (and I did say I was biased; I know it isn't as simple as saying 'more money for NHS nursing teams'), but this particular project isn't exactly being universally-acclaimed as an essential piece of transport infrastructure. It may indeed solve some problems, but it also could create some new ones. Also I, and certainly my wife, aren't going to walk/cycle/take the bus any more that we do at present.

Yes but lots of people do walk and cycle around this system, hence why I voted for it during the extensive consultaion. Cyling and driving around there (I use it most days) is danjourous and it needs updating. If the planners who create these projects don't know what they are doing then we are all doomed and gridlock beckons, perhaps this is the plan as you will then be forced to cycle, walk or bus it..

 

[The Large One]

Firstly had a quick search on tourism growth, couldn't find it, maybe its there somewhere. As the "pretty" much UK's top destination, don't think so. Perhaps in the top 25 or so but no where near the top, London, Edinburgh, Lake district, Snowdonia, Blackpool, The dales, York do I need to carry on. I believe your unsubstantiated statistics may have been made up!

Secondly my "informed" opinion is just that, my PERSONAL opinion and one that I myself without any help from anyone else have arrived at over a long period of time, and, having never the desire or need to live in any large town/city.

Brighton isn't only about tourism. If you're going to compare like-with-like (i.e. British towns and cities visited), according to the Office for National Statistics, Brighton comes in at No.11. Of all the places above Brighton in the list, only Oxford and Cambridge are smaller.

EDIT: Just re-read it - this applies to overseas visitors.

As you were.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

If the planners who create these projects don't know what they are doing then we are all doomed and gridlock beckons,

Let's be honest, regardless of political loyalties, these plans are created by remote consultants who have no idea how our city works so we're f***ed anyway !!!!!!!

 

[Brovion]

Certainly agree with that. My other half is a hospital nurse and she's having her money cut for the overnight shifts she's obliged to take. The sort of person she is (i.e. caring) she just gets on with it regardless. I'd tell them to stick it personally, but nurses just don't do that. And in the meantime, we get another pointless traffic queue creation scheme at vast expense.

Completely off this topic but it IS a disgrace. My wife works in Brighton, part-time, 9 to 3. However she is rarely home before six as she now has to do her paperwork in her own time (as all her paid time is now spent seeing all the extra patients she's been given as they've reduced the team size - and she struggles to do that). In addition, as she's basically a caring person, she also finds herself doing bits of housework for patients (putting on washing for example) as quite often social service cuts means that people aren't getting the level of care they used to. Then to add insult to injury she has to put up with the bien pensants calling her 'lazy' and 'selfish' because she drives round Brighton. That Wendy Craig played a district nurse and she cycled everywhere, why can't you?

 

[Wally Gould]

not sure what you mean by "improving the homeless"? or "improving the elderly"? "the elderly" fall under adult social care, which was the area of the budget that took the biggest hit after the central cut-backs........as for the homeless, it's a big problem in b+h and one that i'm involved with at ground level. The size of the problem means that simply throwing a load of money at it probably isn't the best answer....often the issue is medical (mental health/addiction)...it would help if other cities stopped giving their homeless people one-way train tickets to brighton for a start.

schools in b+h are generally pretty decent aren't they?[/QUOTE]I take your point, I just get frustrated at all the wasted money on schemes that will not bring 'real' benefit when I can see lots of other deserving cases.

 

[Wally Gould]

How would you propose "improving the elderly" ?

ok ok, playing with words. Frustration when there are far more deserving cases for 'spare' cash.