Henbury Loop Line

If you want to see Henbury station re-opened and used as an important transport resource for north Bristol and beyond, take a look at the video and sign the petition.

Along with the rest of the local Severn Beach Line, a re-opened Henbury station and loop line is an obvious part of the answer to Bristol's unsustainable transport problems.

 

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Will Motorway Man Close the Bus Lane?

With missionary zeal, Westbury motorists are leafleting the suburbs this week in an attempt to get the Westbury bus lane closed all together.

As previously reported on Trym Tales, the City Council has agreed, under pressure from campaign group This Bus Lane is Madness to drastically reduce the length of the new bus lane, which currently runs from Henleaze Road to White Tree Roundabout on the inward bound stretch of the A4018 (Westbury Road).

Sensing a full victory for may be in their grasp, motorists from BS9 are urging their fellow commuters to sign an online petition in order to force the convening of a full council meeting to consider the issue. Under present council rules, an e-petition which attracts 3,000 signatures will automatically trigger such a gathering.

Describing the present proposal to reduce the lane to 120 metres as "useless" and "face-saving", campaigner and Westbury resident Simon Brookes is urging residents to spread the word about the petition.

With 2767 signatures at the time of writing, it seems likely that the 3,000 target will be achieved. In fact, a comparison with other petitions on the Council's site indicates that this one has more than double the amount of all other current e-petitions combined!

Trym Tales therefore has a series of questions to ask the petitioners:

1. Are those who have signed serious about seeing a significant reduction in the number of cars making short journeys at peak times in and out of the city centre?
2. If so, do they accept that such a reduction will require more people to cycle, walk and use public transport?
3. Are they aware of studies showing that frequency of journeys, reliability of schedules and speed of journey time are the major factors in increasing passenger use of suburban buses? And that, within realistic variables, such increased use can be as high as 55%?
4. If the current bus lane is removed, are signatories content with the fact that nothing will have changed as far as bus and cycle use between Westbury and the city centre?
5. Do they have an alternative proposal for reducing the number of short journeys between BS9 and the centre at peak times?  

I read this somewhere once:

"The present system is ideally suited for delivering the results you are currently experiencing."

What is the new system that will deliver significantly different results? (Assuming we want them.)

 




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Westbury Road Bus Lane to be Removed - Sort of

Westbury Road, Durdham Downs, Bristol (Photo credit: brizzle born and bred)

Reports in this week's Evening Post of the demise of the Westbury Road bus lane have, it appears, been somewhat exaggerated.

The controversial bus lane came into being earlier this year between Henleaze Road and White Tree Roundabout on the city-bound side of Westbury Road. It has been blamed by campaigners for significantly increasing car journey times across the Downs at peak times, with motorists (and even buses) routinely backed up to the zebra crossing at the junction with Westbury Hill.

Following a high profile campaign by, among others, Westbury resident Simon Brookes, supported by councillor Geoff Gallop and local MP Charlotte Leslie, it was reported in the Post that the City Council had agreed to remove the lane and restore the road to its former state.

Not so, according to campaign group This Bus Lane is Madness. An update today on the group's facebook page describes the Post's article as "misleading." Tim Kent, councillor responsible for transport,

"has agreed to remove less than half of it."

The group claim that the actual plan is to modify the lane by shortening it. 

"This must be some attempt to save embarrassment as the remaining 120 meters is no use to man nor beast."

Trym Tales supports action to reduce car journeys in and out of the city centre (see photo), and wonders whether it has been possible to even asses the effect of the bus lane with so many other city-bound routes having been partially closed in recent months. Major road works on Northumbria Drive, and the continued closure of Wellington Hill, have meant that the only routes into and across the city centre in recent months have been via Westbury Road or the Portway. Has it, under these conditions, been possible to say how much of the recent congestion is a result of drivers avoiding the road works in favour of Westbury Road?

When the Henleaze and Wellington Hill roadworks are both completed, we may see a different picture emerging.

Or, we may then all conclude that the bus lane was just a white elephant.

What do you think?

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Related articles

• The Bristol Post published Scrap bus lane, say transport campaigners