Vision to keep city moving

Written by Paul Elgood and published in The Argus on Tue 29th Jun 2004

Over the next 10 years we have to make a substantial leap forward to improve transport in Brighton & Hove.

People who drive into the city at peak times and weekends experience the congestion, sit in traffic jams, and often cannot find a parking space at the end of their journey.

An early warning of what might happen in the future occurred last summer when the council's air pollution monitoring at Lewes Road, Preston Circus and Grand Parade recorded higher than expected levels of pollution. It is surely no accident that these three areas attract high levels of traffic and are on main routes into and out of the city.

With major new developments taking place on the seafront and the continuing popularity of the city as a place to visit, this situation will reach intolerable levels if we don't act now.

The council has to find a way of enabling people to move around easily without adding to the burden of traffic coming into the centre. This can only be achieved by delivering a comprehensive package of improvements.

Part of the solution is to invest in genuine alternatives to the car - fast, economical and comfortable public transport that people will use and highway improvements that will give cyclists and pedestrians smooth and safe travel. We have to give residents, employees and visitors real choice about the best way of travelling in and around the city.

A top priority for the council must be to secure a rapid transport system. Proposals for such a scheme are outlined in a report to the environment committee on 1 July. We support its aim in providing a fast, reliable service along the seafront and connections to Brighton and Hove railway stations, and bus routes.

It is an ambitious project and will have to be constructed in stages, but eventually there could be a rapid transport link from the Marina, right the way along the coast to Shoreham Harbour - and it has the potential to bring people in from outside the city, by connecting with park and ride sites.

As yet Brighton & Hove does not have park and ride, but as other areas in the country have discovered, it can be a realistic solution to reducing the number of vehicles coming into the city centre. In areas such as York, the success of park and ride is seen as an environmentally sustainable alternative to bringing cars into the city centre. This could be our approach too. And for us it might have another potential benefit. Residents in the city voted overwhelmingly to have the South Downs designated as a national park. This will also mean easier access for the public to the South Downs, many of whom will, whether we like it or not, travel by car. By parking at a designated site, it would give visitors easy access to the Downs by foot, bicycle or bus, and prevent unnecessary driving around within the park. This would have undoubted benefits in terms of preserving this special environment and for the city as a whole.

Councillors repeatedly shy away from dealing with park and ride because the question of potential sites overrides the principal of whether the city should look further at the overall concept of park and ride. A fresh debate on the principal of park and ride is long overdue. Once that is determined then a discussion on potential sites could begin, but this should be seen as the second stage of debate and not lead or indeed decide the first stage.

This article first appeared in 'The Argus' 29 June 2004.