New safe travel measures on buses in York

Many Park and Ride services will remain closed

waiting for a bus gifs | WiffleGif

As schools and shops will begin a phased reopening in June, bus operators, rail operators and City of York Council are making changes to ensure that safe travel options are available for residents.

More buses and trains will be operating and appropriate health and safety measures will be in place to ensure that social distancing guidelines can be adhered to, which may mean reduced capacity on board.

To help support essential journeys, on peak times, please plan ahead and travel outside of the busiest times, particularly first thing in the morning.
Changes on board

Bus operators are putting in place new safety measures to protect staff and customers. These include reducing the number of available seats on board each bus, encouraging the wearing of face coverings, ensuring alighting passengers are clear of the bus before anyone else boards and keeping a safe distance when boarding.

Please be patient and observe all the safety measures when travelling. You should not leave your house if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, including a high temperature, a new, continuous cough and loss or change to your sense of smell or taste. There’s lots more information on how to travel safely available online.

Customer safety information will be displayed at bus stops. When queueing please maintain a 2 metre distance between yourself and other passengers. Additional measures may be put in place at stops to manage social distancing

To help prevent unnecessary contact, please use cashless payment methods, such as contactless debit cards, smartcards or M-ticket apps wherever possible. To help support essential journeys on peak time buses, normal concessionary travel rules will apply from Monday 1 June.

Bus passes will be accepted for concessionary travel only after 9am on weekdays and at any time on weekends, with the exception of blind persons who are permitted to travel at any time of day in York.

Bus operators and the council are working to update timetables as quickly as possible. Please note that due to the short notice nature of these service changes, some timetables on journey planning websites, apps and real-time information screens may not be updated immediately. Please visit bus operator websites for the latest timetable information.

Park & Ride:

Services 2A, 7 and 9 (Rawcliffe Bar, Designer Outlet and Monks Cross) will run every 10 minutes at peak times, 15 minutes during the day and every hour during the evening. A half hourly service will be provided on Sundays
Last Park & Ride buses from the city centre will depart at 10:15pm (service 2A), 22:45 (service 7), 8:05pm (service 9, Mon-Sat) or 7pm (service 9, Sundays)
The Designer Outlet car park remains closed until further notice- service 7 is using the same stop as service 415 (on the roundabout)
Services 3, 8 and 59 (Askham Bar, Grimston Bar and Poppleton Bar P&R) will remain suspended until further notice

Further information about Park and Ride can be found online. You can also find information about how to support social distancing by using Park & Pedal from Monks Cross or Rawcliffe Bar:

A summary of all bus service changes is also available. Rail service levels are gradually being increased. Please use contactless card payments wherever possible and note that most rail services now require seat reservations before travelling. For the latest updates visit train company websites:

We have a plan. Lets call it a “Transport and Place Strategy”?

5 obscure HTTP methods - Twilio — We know they’ve got a plan. Must have by by now. Surely

Further details on how City of York Council is supporting businesses through a new Economic Recovery – Transport and Place Strategy – which will help accelerate rebuilding a healthy and inclusive economy, launches next month.

However the Council won’t meet to debate the plan until the end of June by which time many workers will have returned to their jobs.

As the government relaxes the restrictions for retailers from 15 June, the council is developing a strategy to build visitor, resident and stakeholder confidence that York is a safe, healthy and attractive place for everyone.

This new strategy forms part of the council’s Recovery and Renewal Strategy. The Economic Recovery – Transport and Place Strategy is in five interdependent strands that will be delivered over the next few months.

The strategy will focus on:

prioritising active travel (including cycling and walking) by investing in and improving park and cycle sites, increased cycle parking and new cycle routes

bintykins — I recently bought a cute bike and I am so happy...

The Big Idea? Park and cycle has been tried before with limited success. This is partly because of security/parking issues, partly because many people do not own or can’t ride an appropriate type of bike, or they may have physical capacity limitations and/or have concerns about cycling in poor weather.

providing a short term approach to car travel including “incentivised short stay parking” in some of the city centre car parks
maintaining confidence in and responding to the short term reduction in capacity on public transport – by working with bus and rail operators to ensure people can continue to use public transport with confidence
creating a people focussed city centre including increasing the city centre foot streets and public spaces to create an attractive environment that people can visit with confidence with space to social distance

The council says it “will deliver these measures at pace to best accelerate the recovery of the economy, allowing doors to open safely in June whilst protecting residents’ safety”.

The media release pointedly fails to recognise the barriers to walking and cycling in sub-urban and village areas where unsafe highway surfaces and obstructions are major concerns.

The Council says that residents will be able to give feedback about the plan once measures are in place by participating in the city-wide consultation “Our Big Conversation” helping to set a long-term vision for the city. This will be launched in the next couple of weeks

“Many of the transport and place measures will run for the duration of the one year period and potentially beyond. Although all measures will need to be flexible and remain under review based on government guidance, public health advice, local resident and business feedback, and ongoing assessments of the outcomes of the interventions”

(more…)

Mixed messages from York Council on cycling

The Council is using social media to promote cycling as a way to get to work when the lock-down ends. Many workplaces, offices and shops are expected to reopen during the next fortnight, putting added pressure on a compromised public transport system.

Cycling – particularly at this time of year – may be an option for some people.

But there is little evidence that the Council is addressing everyday barriers to cycling

This 100-year-old Guide To 'Self-Protection on ...

These days foot-pads aren’t the biggest threat.

The contraflow cycle lane installed on Bishopthorpe Road is an unnecessary hazard. Inexperienced cyclists trying to use it may indeed be intimidated, making them more likely to use other transport modes. (There is an alternative, quiet, route via Vine Street)

Meanwhile on the Tadcaster Road cycle path “social distancing” signs have appeared near the railway bridge. Fair enough, if a problem has been identified. Clearly more families are now walking or cycling to the Askham Bog nature reserve although social distancing on that site is also problematic.

Yet scarcely 300 metres further along the cycle path, its width is now reduced to less than 1 metre. Overhanging branches and weed growth are to blame (the weeds are actually now breaking up the bitmac surface) ..

A relatively easy issue to deal with but, despite reports to the Council, no work has been undertaken.

Better news further down Tadcaster Road with highway resurfacing works now ahead of schedule. The smoother carriageway surface is much safer for users of 2 wheeled transport.

Tadcaster Road resurfacing due to be completed by 12th June

Coronavirus York updates; 29th May 2020

Tracing and security – advice from NY Police

NHS test and trace

If NHS Test and Trace calls you by phone, the service will be using a single phone number 0300 0135 000. The only website the service will ask you to visit is https://contact-tracing.phe.gov.uk.

Contact tracers will never:

Ask you to dial a premium rate number to speak to us (for example, those starting 09 or 087)
Ask you to make any form of payment
Ask for any details about your bank account
Ask for your social media identities or login details, or those of your contacts
Ask you for any passwords or PINs, or ask you to set up any passwords or PINs over the phone
Ask you to purchase a product
Ask you to download any software to your device or ask you to hand over control of your PC, smartphone or tablet
Ask you to access any website that does not belong to the Government or NHS

North Yorkshire Community Messaging (NYCM) is managed by North Yorkshire Police. The official website is www.nycm.co.uk which will allow you to sign into your account to change your delivery method preference or locations of interest. It also contains a FAQs section, which may assist with any queries you have.

Cases

THERE has been one further confirmed case of coronavirus in the City of York Council area.The latest figures from Public Health England (PHE) show that the further one case takes the total for the area up 451.

THERE have been no new coronavirus related deaths recorded in the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the last 24 hours. The latest figures from NHS England show that the figure has remained the same as yesterday at 205

Over 450 opatients who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 have been safely discharged home by York Hospital.

Latest waste service update Thursday 28 May

More bad news on refuse collection in York. There are delays in collecting recycling, emptying green bins and removing some household waste across significant parts of the City

Some recycling has been out on the streets for 3 days now.

The Council says that it will work through today and tomorrow (Saturday) to clear the backlog.

The Council has also been urged to provide an update on the capacity and use of its bulky waste removal service which was restarted last week.

Similar information about the availability of “booking slots” at household waste sites like Hazel Court might help to reduce demands on the collection service.

The Council has said,

Household waste

“We were unable to collect household waste from small areas of Haxby, Wigginton and Strensall.

This household waste will be collected on Friday 29 May. Please present your containers for collection by 7.00am.

Recycling

We were unable to collect recycling from Rufforth, Clifton and Huntington due to operational restrictions to do with Covid-19.

We’ve been unable to return for recycling collections from Tuesday 26 May and Wednesday 27 May.

All this recycling waste will be collected on Friday 29 May or Saturday 30 May. Please present your containers for collection by 7.00am.

Garden Waste

We were unable to collect garden waste from from Haxby, Earswick and Huntington due to the large amounts being collected.

This garden waste will be collected on Friday 29 May. Please present your containers for collection by 7.00am.

We’ve been unable to return to St Aldred’s Mews due to access issues and will return as soon as we are able. We’ve also been unable to return for garden waste collections from Wednesday 27 May. We’re returning for this waste in Acomb and Heworth on Thursday evening”