Traffic in Winchester - Trust Annual Report 1972
This year an Inquiry has been held into the City's Traffic Plan. A partial solution to Winchester's traffic problem was provided some thirty years ago with the construction of the present By-pass. With recent urban growth the problem again becomes acute as the frequent long traffic queues testify. It is hoped that the plan which has been continuously evolved over the years will provide a solution by transfering the main traffic flow to the north away from the historic area surrounding the cathedral.
The original central cross roads is to be finally moved away from Jewry Street and High Street to a new roundabout at the foot of Station Hill.
When the plan is completed this new roundabout will be the centre of traffic distribution for no less than ten destinations. Sign posts will be needed to point the way to Newbury and Andover (A34) Basingstoke (A33) London and the South (M3) Alton (A31) Petersfield (A272) Chandlers Ford (A34) Romsey (A31) and Stockbridge (A272).
If our destination is to be London, we are expected, on the highest authority to ignore the sign which directs us to the M3 one mile away and trundle up the A33 in search of the M3 at Popham, twelve miles away. Probably there will be no choice, and under the Basingstoke signpost we shall see the familiar yellow sign "Diversion M3 and London", because there seems to be no doubt that the construction of the M3 (if it ever comes) will attract so much traffic into North Walls that they will be proceeding at a crawl most of the way. It has to be remembered that the dual carriage way of North Walls only replaces roads lost elsewhere, and provides little extra traffic capacity. The statistics gathered in 1965 and 1970 give no reliable indication of traffic flow, since they were collected before the plans for the M3 were published, and assume that there will be seven points of access to the By-pass and not only North Walls. For this reason no calculation is possible at the present time of the increased traffic that will try to use this overcrowded thoroughfare. There is no way of calculating the effect of the M3 on this area at this stage, and it seems likely that it will be well nigh impossible for pedestrians to cross North Walls. Why is the lesson learned at such cost at Basingstoke not applied to Winchester?
Without the M3 the Winchester traffic plan might provide some alleviation but it must not be forgotten that the obstacle of the Durngate Bridge is performing a very useful function in restricting traffic from Easton Lane. When that obstacle is removed and the road improved the flow into, and away from, North Walls will be greatly increased. It seems that the citizens of Winchester are getting a very raw deal. The country's finest relationship between historic Cathedral City and open countryside would be ruined for all time. Having suffered the sight and sound of the construction of the M3, together with the concentration of increased traffic within the City walls, the citizens are not even expected to use it. Winchester if the Planners have their way is to have the unenviable distinction of being the first historic City to have a motorway so close, and secondly the only historic City to have motorway traffic directed through it.
A recent issue of the Sunday Observer reports on the anti-motorway revolution going on in Britain's cities. Road programmes are being scrapped or reviewed in Nottingham, Bristol, Bath, Glasgow, Newcastle and York. This arises both from public opposition and the feeling that the motor car is coming on a tide which will swamp every improvement, so it is useless to adopt the posture of Canute. In the place of these schemes there are plans for free, and frequent, public transport services connecting outer ring car parks with various business centres. In Abingdon there is already a dial a minibus service to collect passengers from their homes. Similar schemes are being planned for Maidstone, Chelmsford and Harlow. The need now is for the government to stop subsidising road programmes and to subsidise public transport instead. The motor car can be accommodated in cities, at the price of the city's destruction, but one thing is certain that all the road improvements in Winchester will quickly be swamped by the increased flow they will encourage. It is equally certain that other means will be found for moving people about if the road improvement never takes place.