On 15 Sep 2014 at 12:21pm smiler wrote:
I want Station Street pedestrianised.
It's closed for improvements at the moment and its so much nicer than its ever been.
Who's with me
On 15 Sep 2014 at 12:34pm lewes born and bred wrote:
And where are all the cars going to go, you know, the ones that come from the leisure centre, the railway station, the dump, the school and the college....up Rotten Row !!!!
Not the greatest idea ive seen on here, Smiler !!!!
On 15 Sep 2014 at 12:46pm smiler wrote:
That's a good idea.
They might have to widen Rotten Row a bit though
On 15 Sep 2014 at 12:51pm Clifford wrote:
Is that why the High Street has been jammed solid this morning?
On 15 Sep 2014 at 1:57pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Nevill Road going south was much busier this morning too. I think they must have altered the timing to let more cars come up from the Hollow.
Traffic was solid up Bell Lane and Winterbourne Hollow this morning, till about 9.20.
On 15 Sep 2014 at 3:04pm The Twister wrote:
Go back to the 18th century. Why don't you propose the deinvention of the wheel while you're at it.....
On 15 Sep 2014 at 5:07pm Dobbin wrote:
Let's go back to horse drawn stuff though we might then be up sh*t street rather than station street
On 15 Sep 2014 at 8:58pm Zebedee wrote:
Bicycles are good, as is (or should be) public transport. Cars in town centres degrade them immesurably. Cliffe High Street is a pleasant place to shop and hang out. Any main roads west of this aren't. The reason for this is cars, simply.
On 15 Sep 2014 at 9:38pm Historian wrote:
Who exactly is responsible for the timings of the traffic lights ? They need to pay attention. We had to wait for three changes, just to get through the bottleneck today ! And we didn't notice that they had turned off the High St / Station St lights either.
On 15 Sep 2014 at 11:08pm Xplorer1 wrote:
Historian - pedestrians still have to cross the roads at the x-roads.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 9:18am Traffic Lights wrote:
The traffic lights coming up station street have not been altered. Both last night and this morning they were operating as normal.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 9:41am Southover Queen wrote:
Well the next five weeks are going to be lots of fun. There doesn't seem to be any way in or out of Southover which isn't blocked by furious horn tooting vehicles - I tried to get down Rotten Row last night which was entirely blocked by cars who couldn't get out onto the High St, and who thought it perfectly sensible to "overtake" the parked cars while going nowhere. I didn't try Winterbourne Hollow/Bell Lane but I'd guess it was just as bad. Certainly someone somewhere needs to take some action with managing traffic flow - perhaps, given that half the staff at ESCC park in the Winterbourne anyway, there'll be a bit more pressure than just residents moaning!
On 16 Sep 2014 at 10:23am Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Public transport or bicycles simply isn't practical for a lot of people, Zebedee. It may be ok for most people who both live and work in or near the town centre, but many people don't.
The bus services are infrequent and unreliable and many people have health problems that make cycling painful. Public transport often takes a lot longer and is more expensive.
Once a week, I work in Eastbourne. To get the bus and the train means leaving earlier and getting home later than driving and it costs twice as much. As I have a car, it'd be madness not to use it, given the cost and time factor of the alternative.
Ironically, now that both councils have introduced "agile working", where many staff work at home much of the time but come into the office for meetings etc, they've added to the congestion. Where it was viable to buy a season ticket and use public transport, it's not worth it when they're not coming into town for a full week, so they drive in on the days they have to be in Lewes.
More and more people have jobs that require them to attend at more than one site, so they need a car to travel between the two.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 10:58am stevet wrote:
The traffic that chokes up the centre of Lewes is the only bad thing about the town. The High Street is often gridlocked through cars waiting half in the middle of the road for the bottleneck lights to change, and stopping buses passing on the other side. I wish there was a feasible, imaginative solution to reduce the traffic and improve everyone’s enjoyment of the area, in the manner that is common in German and Dutch town centres. Only problem is where do we send the traffic?
On 16 Sep 2014 at 10:58am WalkerCyclistMotorist wrote:
Car use is dropping, though, ACT. Car ownership is also dropping among younger people.
I'm not talking about banning cars though. I use one myself. It's more a case of redesigning towns and cities so that they prioritise the pedestrian, which would help businesses in the long run. I just disagree strongly with the idea that streets should be designed for the motorist first and then other users fitted in where necessary. It should be the other way round.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 11:55am Zebedee wrote:
Yes ACT. Public transport should be a lot better. It should be frequent, quiet, non-polluting and cheap (if not free). Over the last fourty years all our governments have failed to create a cohesive transport policy and our urban centres in particular, pay for this.
Our governments continue to fail us in almost every way possible. They certainly don't work for the interests of the majority.. or for the common good.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 12:39pm Taff wrote:
If all road users were more considerate then some of the Jams may not exist. Those users that must stop all other road users taking that particular area of tarmac because its theirs. Then along comes a bus whilst they sit out in the open, exposed!
If SQ cannot get out of Southover I suggest you buy a street map of Lewes. Road works will never ever be convenient.
Failing these then I would suggest everyone rides motorcycles. Dont need to pay to park either.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 2:43pm Southover Queen wrote:
Why thank you Taff. As it happens I do have a street map, which shows that without Station St there are but two ways to go north of town from the south and both are totally jammed up with bewildered (and frankly selfish) drivers. If you consult your map I think you'll find the same thing. It would be nice if the council put in some measures to make the traffic run slightly more smoothly so that on the very rare occasion that anyone from Southover *should* wish to venture north (such as go to the supermarkets) there were some way of doing it.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 5:31pm Scooter wrote:
Seeing people walking freely up and down Station Street (pre work starting) is fantastic. It's easy to see how pedestrianising it would benefit the town. I work on this road and it's one of, if not the most polluted, noisy and wretched spots in Lewes. It will be interesting to see if people stubbornly refuse to get out of their cars over the coming weeks, or find other ways to get around.
If we thought more like the Europeans a lot of us would have scooters...sadly we'd rather fight for our right to sit in our tin cans and clog up the streets.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 6:20pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
It's a nice idea, Scooter, but how would someone elderly or someone with a load of luggage get from the station to the High Street to get a bus home?
The congestion around the prison lights has been dreadful at rush hours the last 2 days.
Re your traffic light question, Historian, both this morning and this evening there was a man wearing a Siemens jacket standing near the lights on the prison corner with a laptop, watching traffic and tapping away. I wonder if he was something to do with the traffic lights? Siemens sell traffic light control systems.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 9:10pm Zebedee wrote:
Well designed public transport ACT.
On 16 Sep 2014 at 10:16pm Traveller wrote:
Never mind 'well-designed' how about any attempt at design or planning? Anyone visiting Lewes (or returning to it from Scandinavia, as I recently have) is struck by the sheer noise and smell of the traffic much of which appears to be just passing through or circulating around ancient one-way systems. It diminishes all of our lives in this town. The answer to your query,ACT, is that they would get a bus from the station, which would be designed as a transport hub. Don't hold your breath.
On 17 Sep 2014 at 7:36am Sussex Jim wrote:
Scooter- how would you get any deliveries to your place of work in your pedestrian paradise?
On 17 Sep 2014 at 10:19am Historian wrote:
Its great to have a regular, fast and efficient bus system, but really do the 28 and 29 buses really need to be double deckers ? they are rarely full and run regularly enough if that is the case, or maybe just the rush hour ones if you disagree.
On 17 Sep 2014 at 10:45am stevet wrote:
Historian, my experience is that the 28/29s are nearly always full enough to warrant a double decker. When ever I take one in the middle of the day I am surprised how busy they are. The only times they are not is the late evenings.
On 17 Sep 2014 at 1:25pm Taff wrote:
SQ, either you have to sit and wait or detour over to Kingston then sit and wait on the Brighton Road before going further North. Could park in Cooksbridge and get the train? Nah, get a motorbike and have some fun too.
On 17 Sep 2014 at 1:40pm Town Flyer wrote:
Scooter says:
Seeing people walking freely up and down Station Street (pre work starting) is fantastic.
Does this mean that no work has started yet, and if so, why is the road closed prematurely?
On 17 Sep 2014 at 2:27pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Before the station can be a "transport hub", they'd have to sort out the weight issues on the railway bridge. I believe there's some uncertainty as to who's responsible, Network Rail or ESCC.
I'm not sure it'd be feasible unless they put in a proper drop-off point like the one at Brighton. It's chaotic enough just when they have buses instead of trains because of engineering works at weekends. Imagine that on a weekday, with all the through-buses going via the station!
Motorbikes ARE the obvious answer, Taff, but I have yet to find one that can accommodate the dog....
On 17 Sep 2014 at 2:58pm Zzz.. wrote:
You need a trailer.
On 17 Sep 2014 at 7:41pm Dunk wrote:
It is making Montacute Road/Barons Down Road/Winterbourne Lane busier as well with good people who would normally wait for the lights by the prison using the cut-through instead.
Is there any reason why the road by Accessorize (nee Monsoon) can't have it's one-way direction reversed for a few weeks?
Lewes always has been awkward to get around.
On 17 Sep 2014 at 8:44pm the ref. wrote:
Subud trying to raise their selling price?? - 'blissful property in quiet quaint position' (only joking).... always suspicious of that word 'hub' though.