It’s fair to say traffic congestion and public transport are probably the BIGGEST issues facing residents in West Leeds and across the city.
Our article about councillors in Armley, Bramley & Stanningley and Kirkstall this week debating a raft of proposals to tackle congestion lead to a BIG response on Facebook. Here are some of your ideas on what needs to be done …
Dig up the cycle superhighway
Paul Wheatley said:
“Easy… Dig up the cycle lanes and make Stanningley Road three lanes of traffic.”
Crag Wilig added:
“I’ve yet to speak to anybody who has asked for a tram or who has said yeah it would be great if i left my car at home. Oh, and by the way, can you please install another cycle lane that eats in to the road space for other vehicles and makes it more dangerous for everybody.”
Infrastructure improvements
Claire Rose felt getting people out of their cars was essential. She said:
“Our public transport infrastructure MUST be improved! We have to incentivise people to leave their cars at home and commute into Leeds by other means.
“Bus lanes are great, but if you have sections of road along key routes where you go back down to one lane again, it loses its value quickly. Kirkstall Road is a good example.”
‘More bridges’
Mindy Goose said the Kirkstall Lites area needed to be managed better. She added:
“Traffic queues are ridiculous. More bridges? Slip roads? People aren’t going to use the bus if they have the convenience of their car, it would be good to fix the infrastructure, rather than dream up cycles, buses and trams…”
Ban inner city motorists COMPLETELY …
Steve Kind has a more radical idea:
“So far I have seen NO official proposals that will do anything significant to ease either Kirkstall Junction or the plague of unofficial park and ride in Burley. Tinkering will not work and “incentivising” motorists to behave differently has failed time and time again.
“We need to adopt measures to keep motorists out of the inner city postal districts COMPLETELY except under a very tightly defined set of qualifications. I can’t say where the exclusion zone should begin for the whole city – but in LS4 & 5 it should clearly be OUTSIDE the B6157.
“Inside there should be no private vehicles at all EXCEPT for bona fide residents, people who work within the zone and can demonstrate clearly that they absolutely need personal transport in pursuit of their employment, and disabled people for whom alternative transport cannot be arranged.”
Kate Earl wrote about lifting the prohibition on parking alongside the allotments on St Michael’s Lane:
“There are hardly ever any coaches at all parked there; even on match days they have tended to park round the corner on Broomfield Close, or in the car park and it is a wide road with ample space for parking. I think allotment holders with vehicles would also be happy.”
Shopping park problems in Stanningley and Kirkstall
Shannon Devine points a finger at new shopping developments:
“The traffic got 10 times worse when Kirkstall Bridge shopping place was built. Often backs all the way up to the Wythers, or all the way up Kirkstall. I suspect the same will happen in Stanningley when that shopping park opens.”
Don’t forget Farnley and Wortley!
And poor Lesley McCluskey is feeling a tad left out when she asks:
“What about Worley and Farnley? Is anything going to be done to help traffic there?”
Whoever designed and passed for implementation the current ongoing ‘improvements’ at Stanningley Bottom needs sacking.
Road not suitable, make a half arsed attempt at shared surface which was so badly designed it was never going to work. Redesign the shared surface and end up with what you began with, a road!!
Its attrocious. Within 12 months vehicles driving over the central reservation kerbs will see them cracked, tarmac pulled out and potholes developing.
Why not research shared surfaces properly and design appropriately?
Wow, generally what a depressing thread of comments! It’s all ‘me and me car, me and my car, me and my car’ ad Infinitum.
Until we get people moving away from the convenience of cars we’ll never tackle congestion and air quality. It needs a shift in attitude as much as more thought and effort from council and bus companies
Lose the cycle lanes and put in dedicated bus lanes. They are already in place down Stanningley Road – they should be extended all the way from Bradford. I would change from car to bus if it was a faster ride but I would never cycle. I think bus fares should be subsidised – if it reduced the cars it would be worth it for the reduction in pollution. More park and ride schemes like the one at Elland Road would be a good.