Traffic - Trust Annual Report 1994
The Trust's role in 1994 has been to monitor the activities of the combined County Council/City Council Winchester Movement and Access Panel and the City Traffic and Engineering Committee, particularly where their decisions might concern the character of the City, or the need to have a reasonably efficient City which is also a pleasant place in which to live.
The constricting geography of Winchester, sitting as it does in the valley of the Itchen River, does not simplify the management of traffic. However, the Trust has always believed that the unpredictability of human behaviour when faced by new traffic or parking controls leads to a need to experiment before finalising new traffic schemes. In support of this cause, the Trust has supported experimentation with traffic-calming, one-way systems, Park and Ride and public transport as a means of finding out what does and what does not work, or what is acceptable to the local resident, shopper and motorist, and what is not.
At the time of writing there are so many balls in the air that it is difficult for the Trust to take a line. The M3 is partially open, the pilot Park and Ride scheme has recently started, inter-related traffic-calming measures are not yet complete, and an important experimental one-way system is settling down, and is showing success in some important areas but is causing difficulties in others.
With regard to the M3, although the Trust is closely watching its effect on City traffic flows, especially Gamier Road when it is reopened, the primary work of the Trust is concerned with the landscaping of the approaches to the city.