I was waiting for the bus on church street and it was a river of buses... It lasted for at least an hour and a half... What was the cause of all this disruption???

No idea i just caught the end of.

Got on a bus at about 5.45 waited for ages then once we got onto West St it was clear.

I was in town around 5ish and as far as I could see there were loads of private cars going through the buses only bit of Leopold Street holding up all the buses. There were also a lot of cars turning in from that bit of road by the town hall. Quite legally, but they must have been rat running to get there.

Originally posted by max
I was in town around 5ish and as far as I could see there were loads of private cars going through the buses only bit of Leopold Street holding up all the buses. There were also a lot of cars turning in from that bit of road by the town hall. Quite legally, but they must have been rat running to get there.

What's rat running?

I got on a bus on Church Street at around 5:10 - the traffic seemed reasonably normal at that point. But by the time everyone waiting at the stop had got on board, the bus was completely hemmed in by non-moving traffic!
The bus was stuck there immobile for the next 10-15 mins - the traffic was solid and non-moving up to Leopold Street - I couldn't see beyond that. Quite a few people got fed up waiting, and got off the bus.
When the bus was finally able to move, it was very slow progress to Leopold St, then traffic flow was back to normal on West Street! There was no obvious reason that I could see for such a huge hold-up, but what Max said about private cars on Leopold Street makes sense.

StarSparkle

By the way, Disco_Cat, rat running is when car drivers, typically at peak times, try to beat congestion on main roads by using minor roads, which are obviously not designed to cope with the amount of traffic they then get.

cheers, as a none car user i miss out on such tactics.

This backed up traffic seems to be every night on Leopold Street and Pinstone Street at the moment. It takes me 20 minutes just to get through town round on to Arundel Gate. I don't know what's causing it but I'd like to know! It wasn't like it before the bus strike and I wonder if people are now carrying on using their cars rather than taking the bus.

In the past week the road network around the railway station and Granville sq has been changed,may be drivers are trying to find a new route to get around it.

75% pavement, 25% road, and too many buses. Enough said....

I think the problem with the traffic last night may have been caused by a broken down bus outside the train station.

Originally posted by unners
I think the problem with the traffic last night may have been caused by a broken down bus outside the train station.

It was broken down as I passed at around 3.30pm – surely it would have been dealt with in time for the rush hour?

Netherthorpe Road was solid from top to bottom as well, so it wasn't just in the middle of town.

It was broken down as I passed at around 3.30pm – surely it would have been dealt with in time for the rush hour?

It was still causing problems when I caught the bus back from town at 6pm - the bus drivers were discussing it as if it had just happened (unless of course they'd just come on shift so it was new to them).

One bus causing total chaos in town. Is this a prompt for another get rid of buses thread!!!! Of course, if it had broken down in a bus lane it would have been a totally different matter!!

Originally posted by MobileB
One bus causing total chaos in town. Is this a prompt for another get rid of buses thread!!!! Of course, if it had broken down in a bus lane it would have been a totally different matter!!

Ugh, people who bitch and whine about the buses being the scourge of mankind need to shut up IMO.

Let's see how they'd cope with having to get to and from work when they don't live on a Supertram route or in walking distance of their work :loopy:

Yeah, I got on a bus at 5.25 in castle market and got to All bar one leopold street at 5.45. slow moving or what! Couldn't see anything obvious either. When I got onto pinstone street there were lots of cars on the main road and cars trying to turn on to the main road from the side street where john lewis is which was blocking free moving traffic as they edged out. I had Hallam FM on and the traffic report only reported a car crash causing hold up just off the park way, which I can't see having that effect in town.

The only thing I could think of was that the cars were causing congestion by trying to go round the back then due to road works or something? trying to cut into the main road.

All this argument about buses being bad etc from you car lovers, everytime I listen to traffic news, it's always broken down cars and car crashes causing the problems. Very rarely buses. It annoys me, when I'm stuck on a bus in a jam due to another idiot driver!

There I sat for 20 mins to go a few hundred yards, looking at all the one driver cars craming from side streets onto the main roads, looking at all the people on the buses, which due to the jam there were a lot of buses stuck full of people. I began to wonder how bad it would be if all these people on the buses had a car each. ....Mayhem that would be. Bring in congestion charging like in London. Get cars out of the city centre.

Originally posted by Rich
Ugh, people who bitch and whine about the buses being the scourge of mankind need to shut up IMO.

Let's see how they'd cope with having to get to and from work when they don't live on a Supertram route or in walking distance of their work :loopy:

Hear hear, Rich.

There would be a lot more congestion and a lot more polution if everyone used their cars to get around.