The proposed experimental Traffic Regulation Order to ban eastbound traffic on Dorchester
Street between 10am and 6pm for a period of 18th month for all motor
vehicles excluding buses, taxis, cycles and emergency vehicles is, it seem to
us, a further example of the failed piecemeal approach to the complex problems
of traffic management in Bath. Solving one problem without a plan to address
the new problems it will cause.
For a significant number of residents this closure will mean
that they will only have one practical exit route out of the city centre over
North Parade Bridge and its junctions with the roads at each end which are
always chaotic, often heavily congested and regularly completely gridlocked.
Traffic merges on to the bridge from two car parks and the
local courts; there are bus stops, coaches park by the swimming baths waiting
for school parties and often delivery vehicles block one lane while delivering
to the clubs and restaurants. The traffic lights at the junction with
Pulteney Road let out very few vehicles at a time and often into traffic which
is gridlocked. The few spaces created when the lights change are often filled
by the cars emerging from the car parks and so no-one further back moves –
and the queue backs up into the city centre.
We are not yet entirely clear what long-term decision about
coach drop off will be made following the ill-fated Bog Island experiment but
under most likely scenarios they will continue stopping very close to the
exit of the road over North Parade Bridge and this will continue to cause
additional congestion in the immediate area. It is not clear whether
coaches are to be included in the vehicles permitted to use Dorchester Street.
If not, this will mean a huge increase in coaches crossing North Parade
Bridge.
It is high time that the responsible authorities stopped
just tinkering with Bath's real and complex traffic management problems and
developed a comprehensive management plan to address them.
