The Pedestrianisation Of City Centres

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by Clive_ofthe_Kremlin, May 23, 2020.

  1. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    I like this idea very much. I wonder how many decades it would have taken for them to do something so radical if it weren't for the virus?

    Transport planning for the future clearly should not be designed with the private monster truck in mind, however electric it may be.

    The only thing that concerns me is that there's mention of allowing cyclists on these pedestrian streets. If they do, they need to be well separated off. I'd rather cram along the pavement hemmed in by juggernauts in relative safety than run the gauntlet of short-tempered gonks dressed for the tour de bloody France and those stupid orange 'ants eye' goggles and a camera on their hat, weaving in and out of us walkers at high speed while cursing and kicking out at people in their way and so on.

    Pedestrianisation should mean foot traffic ONLY.
     
  2. MarlonsCellMate

    MarlonsCellMate Reservist

    I'll be honest, I'm dead against it. People forget that traders need access to Dixons. They do say it will help people in wheelchairs.
     
    lm_wfc likes this.
  3. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    Beat me to it!

    Ooooh Jill you know your onions.
     
  4. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    I know a cracking owl sanctuary.
     
    K9 Hornet and Keighley like this.
  5. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    We could go shopping?
     
  6. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    *Smash cut to owl*
     
    Keighley likes this.
  7. MarlonsCellMate

    MarlonsCellMate Reservist

    Fit as many pedestrians as you like but on an 8 inch path. Watford? 12 inches.
     
    DaveWFC likes this.
  8. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    The high st is dying and one of the reasons for it is that it's so much easier to drive to and park at retail parks.

    Councils need to manage access and offer free parking for say an hour if they want to regain business.

    Anyone that thinks mixing pedestrians and cycle tracks is a good idea need to spend a few minutes observing the clusterf*** at the top of Watford high st outside what used to be Clements.
     
  9. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Beware the coming electric scooters....
     
  10. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Free parking is the answer for the High Street.

    I live in West Sussex, and people come from miles around to shop in my local High Street. We even have branches of all 4 big banks in our high street plus about 3 or 4 of the smaller ones too, and why? IMO because we have plenty of FREE PARKING.

    There are two large car parks to the rear of the high street with up to THREE HOURS FREE PARKING, and also ONE HOUR FREE PARKING in parking bays right in front of the shops.

    I really think if more high streets woke up to this idea they would begin to fight back against the out of town shopping malls.
     
    Keighley and FromDiv4 like this.
  11. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    Yeah but do we really want to go back to traffic choked town centres and high street shops? Is it not trying to flog a dead horse keeping these high street shops open? People, especially young people, evidently like buying online and they will have got even more used to it during the crisis.

    Times change and the high street needs a complete reinvention to make it a place of public entertainment, leisure and socialising rather than commerce. It should be the centre of the community.
     
    Moose likes this.
  12. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    I thought out of town shopping malls were even more a thing of the past than high streets.
     
  13. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    It’s the cars that make me avoid the High St. Too much trouble to get there, traffic jams, pollution, noise.

    On the occasions I’ve been out recently it’s been a joy to just go where you need to. That has to be worth dissuading people from unnecessary car use for ever.
     
  14. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Agreed, but not everyone heading to it in cars.
     
  15. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    Older urban areas were never designed for the traffic load that has built up. The psyche here is still wedded to the use of the car for everything even moderately short journeys.

    Compared to Germany for example urban planning is years behind. From green corridors, creating habitat in the connurbation, moving commuters to attractive housing near the place of work rather than more and more dormitory towns. And with regards to cycling using data to create models for efficient, interesting cycle routes in the urban area. Cheap and easy access to bikes and ensuring conflict with road users and pedestrians is minimized by thorough education and physical measures allowing people of all ages to cycle without fear of being killed. Not to mention the use of cargo bikes in the delivery of goods within the shopping district.

    All of this is designed in mind at all levels of government from the federal, lander to the local level to improve the well being of the population and environment.
     
  16. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

  17. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    It's a good idea if the surrounding area can cope but certainly around Meister manor, the traffic on a Saturday is as bad if not worse than rush hour during the week. We have a very high population density around historic towns which is just a bad fit.
    The government need to adequately address parking and public transport at the planning stage rater than to rub their hands together with the thought of cramming as many flats in as possible to hit a target.

    Every bedroom in any new development should have an off street parking place and when they build flats out of offices that are near town centers there should be additional parking signed over to council control for shops or stations. There's a new development near me that had no off street parking. The council's though was that it's by a station people buying flats there should not own cars and use the secure bike racks provided. Guess what? the busy road is now choked both sides and when two buses meet it's chaos. Eventually they'll ban parking there and the problem will be pushed further out.
     
  18. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    Yes, 100% agree with that. I’m fairly near to Windsor, the amount of parking there has not changed over time, in fact it’s drastically reduced because over the past few years they gradually made all the nearby residential streets permit only to stop people parking there who worked in the town. At the same time they’re building flats on every possible bit of land they can, and converting offices into flats once the leases are up. It’s an absolute nightmare and I wouldn’t countenance driving into the town centre on the weekend anymore.
     
    hornmeister likes this.

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