Unchain The Brighton Motorist

[Herr Tubthumper]

I'd like to see it close up. To sit on the sofa. To see if the printer fitted neatly where I wanted to put it. To get a good close up look at that table. It's small items I get delivered online. If it's big and expensive I want to see it. And I do at out of town shopping complexes that I can get to quickly on the bypass, take the kids with me and park for free.

You need a car to be able to go and sit on a sofa? The problem I mention in my previous post is clearly worse than I thought.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Surely a car free city center with exceptions for those vehicles that need to do their business within the sensible car free boundaries is not that difficult a concept to grasp. Once the idea is floated then the fine details of making it work for most people can be worked out. The idea of a blanket ban on cars of every kind being banned from the city center is ridiculous, but then I would bet my life that this is not the idea.

The usual reactionary NSC negativity, misinformatio, assumptions and hyperbole seem to be stifling any real debate on this subject. Many of the arguments against the idea can easily be turned into arguments for the idea.

No hyperbole ( I like that word but had to look it up), assumptions or misinformatio ( you made that one up I think) allowed on this thread thank you.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

It's this attitude which is the problem. I'm not convinced people need cars as much they feel they do. Some might do but a hell of a lot of people don't. And all the while this attitude prevails then the centre of Brighton will be the clogged up choking mess it currently is.

The golden age of motoring is long gone, why on earth would anyone go across town or drive around unless they had too. Driving around Brighton isn't fun anymore, I'm sure you can fine a few exceptions but mostly people use their cars to carry stuff or get to work without leaving at 6.30am.

Ok I agree about parents taking their kids to school but in defence many normally take them on the way to work. If you go into town at 9.15am you can get around fairly easily till about 12 and the same again at 2.30 till 4pm

Maybe some people don't need a vehicle for some journeys but there is a lot that do.

 

[brighton bluenose]

I'd like to see it close up. To sit on the sofa. To see if the printer fitted neatly where I wanted to put it. To get a good close up look at that table. It's small items I get delivered online. If it's big and expensive I want to see it. And I do at out of town shopping complexes that I can get to quickly on the bypass, take the kids with me and park for free.

Yeah I take your point ~ BUT you don't need to drive into town to check out that sofa!

 

[Guinness Boy]

In time the furniture shops would relocate to outside the pedestrianised zone so you could do just that. Are there any furniture shops in the city center that you can park close to now. My last visit was last year but I can't imagine trying to park near enough to any particular shop to take home large items.

You and TLO are missing the point. A diverse high street needs furniture businesses, organic butchers, cafés and sports stores. It's only getting the middle two these days. It's not JUST the Greens fault but the point is they profess to support local shopping while actually doing nothing of the sort. A city centre full of vegetarian cafés and book shops is no more diverse than one full of pound shops and bookies.

 

[brighton bluenose]

Because I want to see, touch, feel, hear and even smell what I might be buying. Because I might want to ask a few questions about the product. Because I don't want to have to drive to collect the item when they try to deliver it when I am at work. Because I don't want to pay the return carriage charges when I discover that it is not the item I want?

Sanctimonious arse.

The point was about uneccessary car travel and clogging up the town that's all!
Sanctimonious? Unintentionally maybe! An arse? Definitely not!

 

[Barrel of Fun]

You and TLO are missing the point. A diverse high street needs furniture businesses, organic butchers, cafés and sports stores. It's only getting the middle two these days. It's not JUST the Greens fault but the point is they profess to support local shopping while actually doing nothing of the sort. A city centre full of vegetarian cafés and book shops is no more diverse than one full of pound shops and bookies.

You only need Snoopers Paradise (and a few cafes), the rest of the units in North Laine could be turned in to little cottages.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

The golden age of motoring is long gone, why on earth would anyone go across town or drive around unless they had too.

The answer is laziness.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Just because it's not full of high street brands doesn't mean it's not a shopping area.

Lets just say that if there is a apocalyptic breakdown of society, the safest place will be the North Laines Shopping area then!

 

[Guinness Boy]

You need a car to be able to go and sit on a sofa? The problem I mention in my previous post is clearly worse than I thought.

No you need one to go to a furniture store because they're all out of town. No such problem if I need some vintage clothes or a decaffe soya latte.

 

[BadFish]

You and TLO are missing the point. A diverse high street needs furniture businesses, organic butchers, cafés and sports stores. It's only getting the middle two these days. It's not JUST the Greens fault but the point is they profess to support local shopping while actually doing nothing of the sort. A city centre full of vegetarian cafés and book shops is no more diverse than one full of pound shops and bookies.

I agree but the question I was asking was if a furniture shop is currently able to operate in the city center? And can someone get to it in there car to pick up good? Genuine question I don't know the answer to.if the answer to either question is no, then wouldthe proposed changes make any difference.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

The answer is laziness.

That maybe so for a few `HT but its not the case for everyone.

 

[Guinness Boy]

And for balance the supermarkets are just as bad. The number of places in town that have become supermarket branded convenience stores is a disgrace.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

No you need one to go to a furniture store because they're all out of town. No such problem if I need some vintage clothes or a decaffe soya latte.

The furniture stores I used to go to were city-centre. Look, sit, buy, get delivered to house. Simples and no car needed.

 

[brighton bluenose]

I agree with Chicken Runner61 and as a lifelong Brightonian I would never consider the North Laines as a 'shopping area'. It's a tourist area of quirky little shops with high prices for stupid tourists to pay. It's not a shopping area for locals, unlike London Road, which used to be a shopping area and is now ruined thanks to no-one being able to get there by car for several years in a row.

Not everyone can just get the bus or cycle round the City. If you are a parent dropping little kids off at nursery and then school (two different sites) then on to your job where you start at 8am, you can't do that by bus or cycle. Nor can you repeat it at the end of the day by public transport - it's not possible unless you have kids old enough and safe enough to ride on the roads (not an option in my case and I am typical of other working parents I know).

Sorry but the idea that the North Laines is just a 'tourist area' is absolutely ridiculous and, with respect, you have absolutely no evidence to back that up in terms of visitors and whether they are local or not!

 

[BadFish]

The golden age of motoring is long gone, why on earth would anyone go across town or drive around unless they had too. Driving around Brighton isn't fun anymore, I'm sure you can fine a few exceptions but mostly people use their cars to carry stuff or get to work without leaving at 6.30am.

Ok I agree about parents taking their kids to school but in defence many normally take them on the way to work. If you go into town at 9.15am you can get around fairly easily till about 12 and the same again at 2.30 till 4pm

Maybe some people don't need a vehicle for some journeys but there is a lot that do.

Do those people that do can be permitted. Then they get clearer roads.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

That maybe so for a few `HT but its not the case for everyone.

Obviously but I do feel a significant number of people use cars out of pure laziness. I knew people who regulatory used their car for 1-2 mile trips to supermarkets. That's lazy.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

The answer is laziness.

No it's not. It's for a number of reasons :

1. A car provides the flexibility to go somewhere when you want and to equally leave when you want.
2. Public transport is extremely expensive.
3. Why the hell should a council determine how you travel ?

 

[Guinness Boy]

Obviously but I do feel a significant number of people use cars out of pure laziness. I knew people who regulatory used their car for 1-2 mile trips to supermarkets. That's lazy.

I'm guessing you're under 60, in reasonable health and childless.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

No it's not. It's for a number of reasons :

1. A car provides the flexibility to go somewhere when you want and to equally leave when you want.
2. Public transport is extremely expensive.
3. Why the hell should a council determine how you travel ?

My reply was, in part, to a comment about driving across town. Walk or cycle or get public transport. Brighton has a huge congestion issue and it is in part the attitude of people like you and others which contributes to the issue. Think about your actions and their impact on others; otherwise the situation will get much worse.