'Everyone wins' with bus lane extension (Read 538 times)

[admin]

'Everyone wins' with bus lane extension
SURELY everyone who drives around Sheffield dreads the slow crawl up Ecclesall Road in what seems like eternal rush hour traffic.

What could be a two-minute journey often takes 15 or 20 minutes, and the buses too are forced to inch along among cars packed bumper to bumper.
Now bus chiefs are appealing to Town Hall bosses to press ahead with plans to extend bus lanes to keep traffic moving.
Faced with protests from businesses along Ecclesall Road, council chiefs have delayed the decision - probably until after the election.
Lib Dems have slammed the move as a cynical pre-election ploy and called on Labour to announce a timetable for the decision.
But Labour says the plans have been put back so "further investigations can be carried out".
The plan had been to extend bus lane times by half an hour in the mornings and evenings throughout the city. That would mean bus lanes starting at 7.30am instead of 8am, and at 4pm instead of 4.30pm.
Brandon Jones, commercial manager at First South Yorkshire, reckons new bus lane times are vital if public transport is to be given a chance to get cars off the road.
First operates many of its most popular services along Ecclesall Road, including the 81, 82, and 84 services. The bus firm says they carry more than 55,000 people every single week.
"But after Abbeydale Road it is the worst road in the city for congestion," he said.
"Saturday is the worst day of all. You get people travelling to football matches, families using their cars during the day, when in midweek their cars would be sitting outside their houses.
"First provides over 1,700 seats an hour in the daytime, capable of removing over 1,000 cars an hour. But if we don't do anything we are facing gridlock."
First says shoppers make up a huge percentage of its customers, and that more people on buses would mean more people in shops.
"Bus lanes would be a win-win situation for everyone," added Mr Jones. "The buses would be more reliable, which would mean more people using them. That would take more cars off the road, freeing up the traffic. Everyone wins."
First also plans to introduce more low-floor buses along Ecclesall Road later this year.
Announcing the delay Coun Terry Fox, cabinet member for environment and transport, said: "We have received a large number of helpful comments and suggestions from our consultation on the proposed Peak Hour Clearway changes.
"In order to fully investigate all of these and respond to them, we need a little more time.
"People have questioned the need for some of the existing clearways and, as part of the work we are doing, a full review is being carried out to help us decide whether they should be retained."
n What do you think? Should bus lanes be extended? Email [e-mail] or write to The Star, Letters, York Street, Sheffield, S1 1PU.

[tango]

Yes it is good especially now that bus lanes are apperaing in rotherham too now with the new one in dalton and 2 are planned in eastwood along fitzwilliam road one on the dual carriageway bit heading towards doncaster near the asda roundabout and the other one on approch to the town centre at st annes roundabout.

They need some bus lanes along st anees road due to all the traffic going and coming from retail world and all the housing estates in north east rotherham and the derne valley.

[tango2]

The problem being,,, a bus lane to the motorist reads,,,,"please park here"