£387,350 Coppergate fines saga drags on

A report has been published which confirms that £385,000 of Coppergate fines will be repaid before 31st March 2016. The applications deadline for seeking Lendal Bridge refunds is also being extended to the same date.

The report pointedly fails to indicate the costs that will be incurred in writing to all the drivers who were illegally fined between August 2013 and April 2014.

Nor is any information provided indicting how much has been claimed back by drivers who were illegally fined for using Lendal Bridge.

In total, though, over £2 million is involved.

Coppergate - Time to move on

Coppergate -signs

The Council now needs to publish an up to date statement detailing all of the costs of this disastrous transport initiative.

The Council has now accepted that the signage used to indicate a change of access hours (an hour was added to the restrictions at the beginning and end of each day) was inadequate. The restrictions were later successfully challenged through the Traffic Penalty Tribunal.

12,269 drivers are thought to be entitled to a refund. Many were visitors to the City.

Council officials are not suggesting that the restriction order be revoked. Rather they suggest that better signage be installed following  consultation with the Department of Transport.

It is anticipated that the original restriction hours will be re-introduced (although the officer report is silent on this point)

The elephant in the room remains the future use of “spy cameras”.  The use of ANPR surveillance systems have been on the increase in recent years but the badly handled Lendal Bridge trial seriously damaged their credibility in the eyes of many York residents.

The cameras have not been used since April 2014.

In our view, the Council should abandon their use, in enforcing traffic restriction orders, unless there is a clear and specific safety issue that could only be addressed by the use of cameras.

Instead a uniformed Police officer could from time to time check that drivers were observing any restrictions of Coppergate.

If one or two drivers – whether by mistake or design – slip though the road during the day then that is something that the City will have to live with.

The Council will also have to decide whether to revive the idea of a public inquiry into the shambolic initiative.

In the past Councillors who acted recklessly with public money could be forced to pay compensation to taxpayers. Those concerned – most of whom lost their seats in May – may well be beginning to wish that they had heeded the warnings issued  by officials before the trials started and many aggrieved residents who – in the first 6 weeks – had pointed out the obvious failings in the project.

20 mph speed limits

Confusing 20 mph signs Green Lane 24th June 2015

The reasonable suggestion by the new York Council that they would review the effectiveness of the wide area, unenforced, 20 mph speed limits, introduced by the last Labour administration, have predictably drawn national attention.

In the main this has been stoked up by lobbying groups from outside the City who seem ignorant of the impact that the new limits have had on traffic speed (and safety) in York.

As was revealed 3 months ago, the latest figures show that since the limits were imposed, vehicles speeds on some roads have actually increased.

Liberal Democrats continue to believe that the most appropriate speed limit should be set for each road bearing in mind its characteristics and accident record. Lower speed limits would be in place outside schools and in shopping areas.

It as this policy which Labour overturned in favour of a “one size fits all” approach.

The issue now is how to avoid adding to the £500,000 which has already been wasted on this project.

Given that the new limits haven’t actually had any significant impact on driver behaviour, there seems to be little urgency in making any change. There is time for local communities  to have their say.

However, as a principle, there is a stong argument for the limits to be revised if:

  1. There is a sustained increase in accident rates on the new 20 mph roads and/or
  1. Average speeds on new 20 mph roads are higher than they were when they had a 30 mph limit (clearly this already applies to some roads) and/or
  1. There is evidence that police resources are being diverted into enforcing 20 mph limits (when they should more properly be concentrating on accident black spots).

.Some of the more ridiculous signs on very short cul de sac should be removed.

No money should be spent maintaining the 20 mph signs which would effectively become advisory.

 

School pupils encouraged to become Modeshift STARS

STAR

 City of York Council has introduced the new Modeshift STARS (Sustainable Travel Accreditation and Roadsafety for Schools) scheme.

The scheme aims to encourage pupils, parents and staff to travel to and from school using sustainable travel.

The Modeshift STARS scheme is an on-line tool showcasing green travel options that also recognises schools that are working hard not only to encourage parents and staff  to travel to school more sustainably but use sustainable transport as part of their curriculum activities.

The aim of the project is to increase the number of people walking and cycling to school, and reducing congestion during the school run making it safer for everyone.

Mode shift starsSchools taking part in Modeshift STARS work towards a national award which recognises the continuing efforts a school makes to increase sustainable travel by the whole school community.

Jonathan Green, Head Teacher for Archbishop of York Junior school said: “Modeshift STARS has brought our whole school community together. It is a brilliant scheme that has encourages us to really look positively at how we travel to school and how we take responsibility for our village.”

For more information on Modeshift STARS visit http://www.itravelyork.info/for-schools/travel-planning/stars. For more information on sustainable travel in York visit www.itravelyork.info

Up coming road works in York – Skeldergate, Carr Lane, Kent Street, Copmanthorpe

  • Skeldergate is likely to be closed for approximately 5 days starting Mon 15th June for urgent utility repair works
  • Sun 14th Jun– 3-way lights at York Rd/Carr Lane junction during Yorkshire Water works
  • Sun 14th Jun– 4-way lights at Kent St/Heslington Rd/Cemetery Rd junction during highway repair works
  • CYC will be carrying out essential resurfacing works on School Lane, Copmanthorpe from 15th June

road works

First York to scrap number 13A bus service

Save our 13A bus service

First York have announced changes to bus services which they will implement from the beginning of August.

The number 13 and 13A services will be scrapped.

The latter provides the only link to the City centre from the Hamilton Drive area and is likely to lead to calls for the Council to substitute a tendered service. There are a lot of elderly people living in the area served by the 13A.

First say that Harrogate Coach Travel will run a replacement which may mitigate the loss of the 13 Haxby to Copmanthorpe (via Tadcaster Road) service but details are awaited.

The announcement comes only hours after First announced that it would be running 9 buses an hour (!) between the Railway Station and the University. The number 4 already provides 8 buses an hour. The combined service would provide a theoretical frequency of one every 3 minutes (and is probably the nearest thing to continuous public transport short of a conveyor belt!!). 

Of course, York’s’ traffic conditions will mean that  buses on this route are likely to “bunch” so frequencies in practice may be much less than promised by the timetable. 

First have said that they intend to re-route the number 4 at the University end  but no details have as yet been made available.

Another major change affecting Acomb concerns the route of Service 5 which will be revised to run via Boroughbridge Road, Beckfield Lane and Ostman Road to serve more of north Acomb (instead of Carr Lane and Woodlea Avenue).

According to First, the proposed changes are:

  • Service 1 (Chapelfields – Wigginton) revised timetable to improve reliability
  • Service 4 (Acomb – University of York) revised route to the University
  • Service 5/5A (Acomb – Strensall) revised route between Station Rise & Boroughbridge Rd (via current 10 route). In Acomb service 5 will be revised to run via Boroughbridge Road, Beckfield Lane and Ostman Road in both directions omitting Carr Lane and Woodlea Avenue.
  • – Service 6 (Clifton Moor – City) frequency increase to every 10mins from 12mins (Mon-Fri only) to meet demand. Revised route to the City with the University link now provided by service 4
  • – Service 10/10A (Nether Poppleton – Stamford Bridge) rerouted between Rougier Street and Boroughbridge Road via the current route of services 5/5A serving National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, Salisbury Road and Water End. In Stamford Bridge services 10/10A will operate in a one way clockwise loop from The Square via Main Street, Burton Fields Road, Battlefields Way, Moor Road, Church Road, High Catton Road, Roman Avenue North, Roman Avenue South, High Catton Road and Church Road to The Square and then current route back towards the City Centre
  • Service 12 (Foxwood Lane – Monks Cross) revised timetable to improve reliability with an extra earlier journey from Elmfield Ave at 0643 and an extra later journey from the Stonebow at 1751
  • The current service 13/13A Copmanthorpe/Acomb/Haxby will be withdrawn due to low demand (customers will be able to use new service 13 between Haxby & Copmanthorpe provided by Harrogate Coach Travel Ltd.

NB. The Council announced last week that bus use in the City had reached a high of 15.6 million journeys last year. Most of these will have been generated by the new Park and Ride sites although the Council has so far declined to reveal the numbers using stage carriage services.

More City centre cycle parking required

One of the quickest – and cheapest – ways of reducing traffic congestion in York is to encourage more people to walk or cycle when making short journeys.

The promotion of cycling has been a Council objective for over 15 years. Encouraging more people to cycle has played its part in preventing traffic congestion getting worse in the City (despite what some may claim, journey times have actually changed little over the past decade).

FULL cycle racks in parliament Street

FULL cycle racks in parliament Street

The last government provided the City with £4.6 million and an opportunity to make a major investment in sustainable transport. We think that the Council got its priories wrong when it spent over £1 million on a cycle path in the Clifton Moor area running parallel to the A1237. Several months after it was opened there is precious little evidence that it is being used to any extent.

There is a lesson for the Council in this.

FULL - Davygate cycle racks

FULL – Davygate cycle racks

People will use a bicycle for certain types of journey but they want off road cycle paths to be safe, to follow the shortest possible route and to end at a popular destination.

A few years ago the Council decided to route a cycle path around the perimeter of Hob Moor. There was a clear “desire line” running from Thanet Road to the railway underpass. It was argued that a cycle path running across the middle of the moor would have disturbed ground nesting birds.

However a few years later and, although the bitmaced path is well used, the desire line continues to attract large numbers of pedestrians as well as some cyclists.

Effectively the wildlife faced a “double whammy”.

If the Council seeks, and is allocated, more sustainable transport funding then it will need to be smarter about how it uses it.

One obvious deficiency is the lack of cycle parking in the City centre.

Empty market stalls

Empty market stalls

A convenient and secure place to leave a cycle will be a top priority for most cyclists. On days when the weather is fine there are few cycle rack spaces available. Cyclists chain their bikes to a wide variety of bits of street furniture. Inevitably some are vandalised and the wrecked bike  often remains for weeks as a testament to neglect while posing a minor threat to passing pedestrians.

Unused are near M & S

Unused area near M & S

To often parked cycles detract for the appearance of our historic streetscape.

There is, however,  space available for more parking in many areas including the in the Shambles market area.

Limited use of market area

Limited use of market area

Demountable cycle barriers (which retract into the footpath when an area is required for a special event) are one option that could be trialled.

Investment of this sort is one of the most economical ways of encouraging people to leave their cars at home.

Cycle parking next to historic buildigs

Cycle parking next to historic buildings

It merits the allocation of more resources than ill considered gimmicks like “congestion commissions”.

Join residents and businesses in the BIG York Challenge!

City of York Council is encouraging York businesses and their employees to get into gear and join over 270 people and 39 businesses who have already joined the i-Travel York BIG Challenge.

The i-Travel York BIG Challenge started on Monday 1 June and offers prizes to those who clock up the most journeys using different modes of sustainable travel during the six-week period, plus weekly prize draws for taking part.

Picture-of-different-vehicles.

This can include walking, running, cycling, scooting, skating, bus, train, park & ride, park & pedal, car sharing, electric car, teleconferencing or working from home, so almost everyone should be able to join in.
Some of the city’s largest employers have joined, including York College, The Vangarde Shopping Park and Aviva.

Registering is simple via: www.itravelyork.info/bigchallenge

The BIG Challenge is being run by Sustrans, the national sustainable transport charity, in partnership with i-Travel York.
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Congestion “Commission” was an expensive gimmick

Although there has been no official statement from the new coalition rulers at the York Council, it seems likely that plans to establish a “congestion commission” will be scrapped when it holds its first Executive meeting on 25th June.

The Council leadership are right to get some of the detritus that it inherited, from the last administration, out of the way quickly.

Similar statements of intent would be welcome on issues such as the future of the Guildhall, the Knights rugby club, Coppergate fines. Oliver House etc.

Coppergate - Time to move on

Coppergate – Time to move on

The “Commission” idea was floated by a discredited administration which was desperately trying to recover from the Lendal Bridge shambles. Rather than face the criticism that is usually attached to taking any decision about transport in the City, Labour hoped to deflect the odium onto third parties. Hence the establishment of a Commission which would no doubt have agonised again about congestion charging and the like.

The debates would have been at a huge cost to taxpayers – £135,000 was quoted.

The Council already has a transport plan. It was agreed in 2011 and offers a balance of initiatives aimed at reducing congestion. It needs updating, not least because the decision to bring a trial cross river access restriction forward from 2025 to 2013 has seriously damaged its credibility.

But any transport strategy has to be affordable. With dualling of the northern by pass still elusively outside the resources of even the “combined authority”, talk of trams, tubes, extra river bridges and river buses would be just that – talk.

A1237 dualling still illusive

A1237 dualling still illusive

Any updated transport plan needs to build on what has been successful over the past decade when congestion levels have remained more or less stable.

There has been some modal shift to cycles and walking. Buses were becoming more popular until Labour made the grand gesture of evicting the ftr without having anything half as attractive to passengers to substitute, while new roundabouts on the A1237 have eased bottlenecks.

Now Labour have played an old – and discredited card – when claiming that “80 people a year” die in York as a result of poor air quality. This was the favourite claim of former transport chief Dave Merrett who – after much pressing – admitted that the figure was simply a local extrapolation of national respiratory death statistics.

No one knows how many local deaths, through respiratory diseases, are caused by the pollutants emitted by vehicles (or industry for that matter) but most would, no doubt,  support verifiable actions to address locations where pollution levels are sometimes high (mainly narrow terraced streets like Gillygate).

New electric bus fleet launched last week

New electric bus fleet launched last week

So some marks should be awarded to the last Council for beginning the roll out of the type of electric buses first trialled in the City in 2010.

More of this kind of thinking – making the best use of advancing technologies – will take the city forward in a measured and affordable way and with a reasonable chance of carrying the local population with it.

i-Travel York on Acomb doorsteps

More than 6,000 homes in the Acomb and Poppleton areas of York will be able to benefit from free travel advice when a team of i-Travel York travel advisors continues one of the biggest door-to-door exercises undertaken in York.

Over 8,000 homes in the city have already befitted from the personal travel planning scheme throughout 2013/14. During this time nearly 30,000 individual resource items and 6,000 personal travel challenges were issued to residents.

From Tuesday 19 May, i-Travel York advisers will be visiting households, beginning in Poppleton, to encourage even more residents to consider using more sustainable and active modes of transport including walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing.

As part of the exercise, advisers will provide information such as bus and cycle maps, and offer personal ‘challenges’ for individuals to try out a new form of sustainable transport.  Participants will also receive incentives such as a free All-York bus taster ticket, a pedometer or a bike health check to help them on their way.
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