Car-free zones (also known as pedestrianised zones) are areas of a city in which personal car traffic is prohibited. I believe that most of Sheffield city centre should be highly car moderated if not car free, with some delivery trucks permitted during limited hours. Obviously, only with improvements to our current public transport service, cycle lanes and out of town parking for residents and visitors. Discuss at: http://vert-i-go.co.uk/

In Groningen, the Netherlands’ sixth largest city, the main form of transport is the bicycle. Sixteen years ago, ruinous traffic congestion led city planners to dig up city-centre motorways. Last year they set about creating a car-free city centre. Now Groningen, with a population of 170,000, has the highest level of bicycle usage in the West. 57% of its inhabitants travel by bicycle - compared with four per cent in the UK. (1)

Here is a short list or places in the UK which are heading in the right direction – food for thought (2)

* Cambridge City centre and university campus is pedestrianised. University town with heavy tourism; with cars banned most of the day from centre
* Oxford Medieval university town. Areas in city centre; Cornmarket Street, Radliffe Square surrounding the Radcliffe Camera and University Church, and Brasenose Lane are pedestrian only; Queen Street is bus only; many surrounding streets have restricted vehicular access
* Salisbury City centre and cathedral close, a large section of town centre is carfree, including the Cathedral Close
* Edinburgh Slateford Green carfree development
* York Several vibrant alley ways in the centre, including The Shambles, with streets too narrow for cars
* Leeds, A large part of the city centre is one linked pedestrian precinct
* Lincoln Several cobbled streets around the Cathedral and carfree area near the centre ..
* Norwich the first UK city to pedestrianise its central retail area, in the early 1970s.

Who would like to see a car-free Sheffield city centre? Do you think it would be detrimental for city businesses? Before long we may have congestion charges forced upon us regardless. Manchester, and Birmingham have both been named in relation to a possible congestion charges for their city centre.

For an in-depth discussion log onto http://vert-i-go.co.uk/

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race. ~ H.G. Wells

1) Global Ideas Bank - http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/...php?ideaId=378
2) List of Car Free Places - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_carfree_places

Discuss at: http://vert-i-go.co.uk/

The city centre of Derby was nearly all pedestrianised about 15 years ago. Lots of people thought that as buses couldn't access all of the centre, certain areas would die. Nothing of the sort happened and in my opinion Derby is still a much better place to shop then Sheffield.

Pedestrianisation would be fine, so long as people travelling from one side of the city to the other can easily go around and so long as enough parking is created on the peripheries for people who want to visit the centre and use a car to reach it.

Pedestian zones would be a good idea, but what about a smaller tram type system to link area

Why is everyone suddenly against the car. Some of us have to use our cars for work and there is no way around it. I work as a civil engineer and have to cart loads of equipment around. What happens if we get a job in town, as we frequently do, do i park on the outskirts of town and carry the equipment. I don't think so!

To compare our bicycle use to a flat city is meaningless. To say Norwich has been pedestrian since 1970 is spurious (most of the centre has historically been a large market)

Sheffields deisgn does not lend it self to being pedestrianised. the distance from the moor to the top of town is too long.

Its just another attempt by the anti everything hippy brigade to force people out of there car. The only way people will leave their cars behin is to provide a viable cost neutral convenient alternative. Until revenue from the blatant exploitation of car users is ring fenced for this perpose then cars are an inevitable part of life.

Of course it would be detrimental to businesses. How would you take your computer for repair, or buy something heavy, without being able to get your car close to the shop? Simple answer is that you wouldn't- you'd take your car somewhere out of the city centre where you can park close.

This plan is also reliant on the populations's ability to get about the place without cars. This takes a good public transport both to and through the city centre (and we can't forget that Groningen is actually a very small city, as cities go, so walking across it isn't such a big thing), plenty of parking for those who are expected to leave their vehicles, and also planned and effective access for those who have sufficient mobility problems to prevent them from accessing the city in other ways.

I think we have to remeber what has already be changed to anti-traffic in the last few years around Sheffield. Both roads on either side of Moor restricted and only lead back to ring road (i.e. Not easy to drive straight through). Road between fargate and Moor nearly bus only, not many cars can access. City hall route closed off cars access. Route by cathedral buses only. Closed off road by Sheffield Hallam. Route by Union buses only. Road that includes NCP moor restricted. Main dual carriageway bottom moor removed. Angel street buses only. Fargate, Moor, Markets. There is so much Pedestrian / Buses only just because of how Sheffield is so stretched out most forget.

yesterday i caught the bus for the first time in years,i travelled from handsworth to town and back,it took an absoulute age and i was charges £1.90 each way...sod that i'll go in the car next time....all the people on the bus could have got to town in a 5th of the time in 17 taxis for the same price..so wheres the insentive to get cars off the road?

I think we have to remeber what has already be changed to anti-traffic in the last few years around Sheffield. Both roads on either side of Moor restricted and only lead back to ring road (i.e. Not easy to drive straight through). Road between fargate and Moor nearly bus only, not many cars can access. City hall route closed off cars access. Route by cathedral buses only. Closed off road by Sheffield Hallam. Route by Union buses only. Road that includes NCP moor restricted. Main dual carriageway bottom moor removed. Angel street buses only. Fargate, Moor, Markets. There is so much Pedestrian / Buses only just because of how Sheffield is so stretched out most forget.

I don't see all of the above as "anti-traffic" ..Anyhow, Imagine going for a stroll around a pedatrianised centre during your lunch break, alfresco dining after work, or enjoying weekend shopping without having to worry about car traffic.. some people wouldn't think twice about driving to Meadowhell, park up and walk around inside an enclosed, sterile, artificial environment .. Fill the city with trees and green spaces I say.. I know its not going to happen, but I can dream.

http://vert-i-go.co.uk/
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I'm with you wishdokter.

I'd like to be able to cycle to work or into the city centre without having to concentrate so hard on staying alive (take note Lotus 'driver' who nearly rammed me on my bike outside Waitrose because he was on his mobile whilst turning the corner). There are lots of people who need to drive into town but if only those who didn't found a different way... Then at least those who need to can use their cars in something approaching an efficient way. I do have use of a car but would never dream of using it to go into town. But maybe I should just move to somewhere with less traffic...

Found a different way.

I'd love to find a way to get from one side of the city to the other that didn't involve the centre, the stupid restrictions and the road works.
But unless I can magic roads out of the thin air I don't think i'm going to have much luck.

As one poster has already said, comparing bicycle usage in Holland to anything in the UK is unfair.

The Dutch themselves say one of the reasons the bicycle is so popular there is because their land is mostly flat. You don't see any hills until you get to the German border and there the bicycle usage drops off.

In our conditions here, bicycles are fine for the fit, they don't serve the disabled and they don't serve the infirm and unfit that well so why build city centres that serve only one part of the population and disregard the rest? Or are all bicyclists dreaming of a Brave New World (see Aldous Huxley) where no one old, infirm or disabled is permitted to exist?

And another thing that cheeses me off ' the potential demands from households with children'. What about the potential demands from anyone else - or don't they count? Again the Brave New World *sigh*

I think pedestrianised areas are great to walk round, you aren't breathing in the carcinogenic diesel fumes from poorly kept buses for a start, and you can enjoy a nice cruise around the shops in the fresh air without the hideous problem of where to dump the car.

However I think proper planning should not just include the upwardly mobile fit and energetic 24 year old. It should include disabled people, be they mentally or physically disabled, blind or legless or suffering from MS, it should include the old, the middle aged and the young. The single and the couples and the marrieds with families. When I see a city centre planning project that is totally inclusive of the disadvantaged then I'll be impressed.

Regards

L.

The comment about not having to find somewhere to dump the car... how do you plan on reaching the eutopic pedestrianised area in the first place?