Why does Brighton hate drivers?

[BensGrandad]

Correct.


A good Park and Ride scheme in north Brighton was part of the strategy. Sadly, the local politicians have failed to achieve this. The voice of the NIMBYs has been ten times louder than anything the Albion heard from Falmer. So what we now have is a transport strategy that is only 75 per cent achievable.

IMO the whole P & R in Brighton is wrong as regards location and pricing.

They should go and look at Ipswich where they have 4 P & R in the E W S N and operate from 7.am to 7pm and when I was there charged per car irrespective of no of passengers, at that time it was £2 per day £10 per week £20 per month and ran everyday. Because it operated from 7 -7 people from the outer villages drove to the P & R then went to work in the city by bus. Parking was very expensive in the city average £7 per hour. This P & R was used extensively even the boss of the pub we were working at told me to go in via this route to do the banking rather than drive and pay for parking.

 

[goldstone]

Correct.

I was part of the team that worked up Brighton's long-term traffic strategy in the early 1990s. The scheme was to shift the balance of priorities to ensure that public transport access to the centre is at least as quick as car access. A perfectly reasonable thing to do, since MORE town centre shoppers get there by bus than by car.

A good Park and Ride scheme in north Brighton was part of the strategy. Sadly, the local politicians have failed to achieve this. The voice of the NIMBYs has been ten times louder than anything the Albion heard from Falmer. So what we now have is a transport strategy that is only 75 per cent achievable.

In my view it has shifted far too much in favour of buses.

For example trying to get out of town along London Road is awful. I know it's a shopping street, but there MUST be a way to get traffic moving more quickly.

I honestly doubt that anything would tempt me to use any park and ride scheme. I would rather go to a different town. I just don't do buses!

Now, if they built a "Parkway" station at Waterhall (good spot for a football stadium as well!) for commuters to London, and Park and Riders to Brighton I might consider taking the train. To really tempt me there would also need to be a tram running down from Brighton station to the Clock Tower.

That would be sensible planning ... but expensive I grant you.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

IMO the whole P & R in Brighton is wrong as regards location and pricing.

They should go and look at Ipswich where they have 4 P & R in the E W S N and operate from 7.am to 7pm and when I was there charged per car irrespective of no of passengers, at that time it was £2 per day £10 per week £20 per month and ran everyday. Because it operated from 7 -7 people from the outer villages drove to the P & R then went to work in the city by bus. Parking was very expensive in the city average £7 per hour. This P & R was used extensively even the boss of the pub we were working at told me to go in via this route to do the banking rather than drive and pay for parking.

I don't disagree, BG. And I'm the council officer who came up with the pricing structure that is used for the Withdean P&R scheme!!

Withdean operates more or less at full capacity. It suits a particular segment of the market and keeps some cars out of the city centre. To that extent, it works. And it does demonstrate that some motorists are prepared to use P&R (which came as a surprise to a lot of local councillors at the time that I was managing the project).

There is no point in changing the pricing structure to attract more users. All you will get is congested streets around the stadium.

A proper scheme, with a decent capacity car park, would (or should) be priced in a quite different way - to encourage as many people as possible to use it.

Until that happens (if ever), the best that can be hoped for is that more people get to realise that the bus and rail services that focus on Brighton are really quite good - and are worth thinking about if you are at all bothered by traffic congestion, the time it takes to complete a car journey, or the price you have to pay for city centre car parking.
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[Lord Bracknell]

I honestly doubt that anything would tempt me to use any park and ride scheme. I would rather go to a different town. I just don't do buses!

Can I ask why not?

People said that about P&R in Oxford, York, Ipswich and a whole load of other places.

But the reality is that P&R has been very successful in those towns and that even the drivers of up-market cars have become regular users of modern buses.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Knock down all buildings in London Road (noone will miss anything there), and turn it into a six lane road running right into the middle of town. Then, build a couple of HUGE car parks, say, a five minute walk away from Churchill Square. When I say huge, I'm talking twenty floors of car parking space.

Problem SOLVED.

Nope.

The problem remains.

You'll still have to WALK the last five minutes.

I demand FREE PARKING INSIDE MARKS & SPENCERS. On the first floor, obviously. The ground floor just sells girls' stuff.

 

[The Large One]

You've answered your own point there, goldstone.

You said it's far too stacked in favour of buses, then say that traffic is awful getting out of town. Why is that? Cars that needn't be there.

Similarly, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face by taking the dogmatic approach of saying you're not going to ever use Park & Ride. It's one way of reducing traffic, yet you choose to add to it. Therefore, it can be argued, you are part of the self-fulfilling problem (of insisting on driving into the city), and part of the solution (by choosing instead to drive into another town and being part of their traffic problems).

You want to take a tram from Brighton Station to the Clock Tower? All of 400 yards? I assume you don't like walking.

 

[BensGrandad]

I believe that Withdean is not the ideal site as people have to drive to far into Brighton. An ideal site would be adjacent to the A27 or A23 or both and when that much talked about football ground is built at Falmer use their car park Mon - Fri and run the bus from there. It just need s another site East of Brighton, Rottingdean, Saltdean area and the problem is solved

 

[Mr Burns]

Most council's but particually Brighton council is full of spotty, gay, ethnic, college leavers who think they know best for everyone. But mainly because they see the car, as a moving cash machine, so they can waste money on everything else, and let the car driver pick up the tab.

If everyone stop using there cars like the council make out they want, then loss of revenue would see the country implode.

 

[Mr Burns]

Correct.

I was part of the team that worked up Brighton's long-term traffic strategy in the early 1990s. The scheme was to shift the balance of priorities to ensure that public transport access to the centre is at least as quick as car access. A perfectly reasonable thing to do, since MORE town centre shoppers get there by bus than by car.

.

I think thats a bit of billy bollocks there.

Whilst maybe, more people arrive in the centre of Brighton by bus (poor sods that work in the area), I would strongly doubt more shoppers get there by bus, than by car.

 

[glasfryn]

go out Sunday to go shopping in town end up grid-locked at the bottom of the Level for more than one hour,then nowhere to park due to drivers coming into the yellow grids just about everywhere....................hence one of the reasons for moving to West Wales where we traveled 10 miles on the first Saturday morning and never passed a car ........and never laughed so much.
I was born in Brighton and love it dearly but unfortunately it does not love me.