Traffic - Trust Annual Report 1992
Financial problems within the Winchester City Council, and the resulting moratorium on all major capital expenditure, are regrettably taking their toll on several traffic-oriented projects.
The principal effect has been the postponement of the Pilot Park and Ride scheme which had been due to start before the end of 1992. The required car-park land at Bar End has not yet been purchased, and a delay until well into 1993 is forecast.
However, bearing in mind that a Park and Ride scheme relies heavily on the easy passage of its buses, consideration is being given to various experiments, the most significant of which are a bus-operated traffic-light change at the Upper Brook Street/St. George's Street junction, a very short rush-hour-only bus-lane at the bottom of St. George's Street, and a westward-going one-way Upper High Street.
The "traffic calming" of Upper Brook Street past the Heritage Centre was the forerunner of several similar projects. The calming of The Square is now complete, and the calming of Parchment Street and Middle Brook Street is imminent. It is expected that the calming of these two "rat-run" streets will reduce the inflow into Friarsgate and St. George's Street.
It is of interest that the example of a calmed Upper Brook Street has led to requests from residents for the calming of sixteen further streets. City Council policy on this is not yet clear.
Residents' parking areas and waiting restrictions are increasing, which will force daily commuters in particular into using City centre and peripheral car-parks. Car-parking charges are being carefully monitored, particularly in view of a decline in car-parking and excess charge revenue.
Although the underlying trend in car-park charges is upwards, a reduction in the charges for the Friarsgate multi-storey car-park has been approved and a car-park refund system for big-spenders in the shops is under consideration.
In general the Trust welcomes the great majority of traffic improvements and adjustments, but we must always remember that Park and Ride, to which we are firmly committed, only succeeds where it is complemented by the reduced availability of city-centre car-parking.
The objective is to reduce Winchester City-centre traffic levels in the face of an unremitting increase in overall national traffic.