Get rid of the cars!

One man's dedication to ridding the streets of cars and handing power back to pedestrians appears to be working wonders ...new role as chair of Living Streets.

.........Underlying Loveday's approach is some hard economics. He has shown the good burghers of Norwich that giving pedestrians the right to roam is good for business. Examples are at every turn as he takes me on a guided walk around the city. Despite its name, Gentlemen's Walk has been traffic-free since only the early 1990s. "Traders didn't like the idea at first," Loveday recalls, "so we did a three-month trial and found that pedestrian flow increased by 300% at peak times." Result: no further objections from retailers.
Chris Arnot Wed March 14, 2007 The Guardian
Cardiff could learn a lesson here. Don't give in to the car lobby!

Cars parked inconveniently is Anti social behaviour

I thought it might be useful to get Professor Stuart Cole view on this campaign. So I wrote to ask.

Please could you give your support to my campaign to stop pavement parking, reduce congestion in cardiff and improve public transport.

I was doing some research on asbos and found that the government's favoured measure of anti-social behaviour ignores those problems that the public tell them are of most concern. A Home Office study found that the public ranked 'speeding traffic' (43% ‘very big’ or ‘fairly big’ problem) and 'cars parked inconveniently' (31%) as the two biggest 'anti-social' problems in their area. 'Teenagers hanging around' (28%) was ranked only the sixth most significant problem and 'noisy neighbours' (9%) was twelfth.

also cited in House of Commons Home Affairs Committee Anti–Social Behaviour Fifth Report of Session 2004–05 although vechicle related nuisance "Inconvenient/illegal parking" is perahps convienently missing missing from other research asking residents for their concerns anout asb!

Queen Street Railway Station Disgrace!

What a mess. As you come out of Queen Street station you have to cross the road TWICE to access Queen Street itself. Two sets of lights to wait for! How stupid is that - what idiot designed this? There are ususally more PEOPLE than cars!
It is time the station was cleaned up and modernised to make it accessible to all. How about connecting the station to the shopping centre opposite - now that would lake sense!

No Bus at Xmas and I haven't even a donkey!

As I said on Saturday, November 25, 2006

Don't plan to shop/party in the city centre at Xmas or New Year by bus! or WORK?

You would think that we would encourage people to go by bus into the city centre at Christmas and the New Year but no way!Cardiff Bus will be running a normal service up until Christmas Eve. Then the service will run as follows:Christmas Eve - Sunday 24 December - Normal Sunday service but with last buses at approximately 18:30 - far too early too stop so don't plan on shopping too late.Christmas Day and Boxing Day - No Service so don't plan to visit family or go to the park. Wednesday 27 to Saturday 30 December - normal Saturday service but with reduced daytime frequencies on main routesNew Year's Eve - Sunday 31 December - Normal Sunday service but with last buses at approximately 1900 so isn't this bad for business and won't it encourage people to drink and drive?
New Year's Day - No Service - spoil sportsTuesday 2nd January 2007 - normal service resumes

I think the post office shouldn't block bus stops in the City Centre either.

Car lobby says boo and cardiff county council gives in!

Not environmentally friendly Cardiff! Car first capital

Cardiff parking zone plan changes

Plans for controlled parking zones (CPZ) in some of Cardiff's suburbs have been altered by the city council after objections were raised.

Lack of green spaces put kids off waking

'Stranger danger' threat and lack of green spaces put kids off walking

Beulah Road now and 1925!

Relationship between walking levels and perceptions of the local neighborhood environment

Perceived 'stranger danger' and lack of green spaces put off children from walking more, suggests research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The research team surveyed six primary schools in Birmingham, UK, located in a cross section of areas in and around the city.

In all, the responses of 473 children between the ages of 9 and 11 were collected on the grounds that lifelong patterns of physical activity are established at around this age.

The survey covered questions about how often the child had walked in the previous week, their perceptions of the local environment, and their individual preferences for modes of travel. A smaller group of parents (191) responded to questions about car ownership and family matters, including ethnicity.

Children who made more than the average 20 trips by foot in the previous week were classified as ‘high’ walkers, and comprised just over 40% of the sample

Those who walked less than this were classified as ‘low’ walkers and comprised well over half of the sample (58%).

There was no difference between the sexes, but higher numbers of children of black and minority ethnicities were classified as ‘low’ walkers. Those whose families owned at least one car also tended to walk less.

Only a third of children felt that heavy traffic made the local roads dangerous. Furthermore, this view did not deter children from walking.

More of those who were classified as high walkers perceived the neighbourhood to be full of traffic.

Almost two thirds of children and over three quarters of parents expressed anxiety about ‘stranger danger.’

And children classified as low walkers were more likely to worry about strangers when out alone, to claim that there were insufficient local parks and sports grounds, and to prefer travelling by bus or car.

"Our findings suggest that perceptions of the local environment are related to walking levels in children," conclude the authors, adding that walking is a convenient way of boosting exercise levels and tackling the rising tide of childhood obesity.

Contact: Emma Dickinson edickinson@bmj.com
44-020-738-36529
BMJ Specialty Journals

Public release date: 6-Dec-2006

Intelligent design needed in Cardiff!

Brownfield is a loose term used to describe land which has already been developed, as opposed to green field sites, which have not. Unfortunately residential gardens also qualify as brownfield sites. Increasingly speculators are being allowed by councils such as Cardiff County Council to use this loophole in areas where house prices are high such as Cardiff North and buying up property which are advertised encouragingly as on ‘ a large plot’ proceed to knock it down and build two or more. Pressure is also used to persuade home owners even 3 at a time to sell up so the land can be used for building. This should be stopped or at least strictly regulated as it is overdevelopment, leads to more land being concreted over adding to flash flooding, adds to congestion and completely alters the character of a neighbourhood.

Genuine brownfield sites are being developed in city areas with no regard to traffic congestion which already almost gridlocks Cardiff particularly on Caerphilly Road. About 600 homes have been developed to a FAR FROM ‘liveable’ design which means for example that there are no cycle lanes or consideration of pedestrians or children resulting in streets of fear trapping people in their homes. All is excused because planning was granted x number of years ago and we are as a community expected to tolerate this nonsense.

The Eddington Transport Study misses the opportunity to point out the obvious that we must put the car at the bottom of the hierarchy of road users. The biggest barrier is that transport decision makers believe that this is what people want when actually the majority want greater investment in more environmentally friendly modes of transport. The same applies to planning.

Western Power Distribution proposed to build 326 houses around the reservoir which they decided to reduce in size. The Llanishen Reservoir Action Group have fought hard for five years against the proposal and after the Council failed to decide on the proposal within their eight -week statutory period it was referred to a public enquiry. Western power actually hired people to pose as ‘park type wardens’ and went into local primary schools to persuade them that the plans would benefit the community! They came back with an amended second proposal but they say if they don’t get permission to build 246 houses on the Llanishen site they will drain the huge reservoir dry, stop all access and tear down the sailing centre. In an email to Cardiff Council, Western Power says the move would be to “minimise our costs and risks”. Ted Thurgood of the Action group said " it is important that we save some of the green areas left in our beautiful city that our forefathers fought so hard to keep." Yes indeed, but why is it so difficult –in spite of the grand words - so much for policies and practice that in reality aren’t what any community wants.