I've just has a flyer through my door from Veronica Hardstaff, Labour Councillor, containing an update about Hillsborough Tram Gate.

Veronica has been talking to the highway engineers. Work will start this financial year to install new signage and move the "gate" to Ripley Street. Cameras will be installed, and police will monitor the "gate", which will only be in force from 7am to 7pm. Box junction marking is being installed at the bottom of Forbes Road to make the crossing safer.

Does this make sense to any of you guys? Surely the gate is already at Ripley Street?

I'm pleased that they've made the correct decision with regards to dropping the restrictions in an evening; however, there is no mention of weekends?

K x

I'm glad it'll be at peak times only - 7am-7pm Mon-Sat would be good.

I presume Ripley Street is that road that all the buses used to stop on before the interchange was built?

Originally posted by jackthedog
I'm glad it'll be at peak times only - 7am-7pm Mon-Sat would be good.

I presume Ripley Street is that road that all the buses used to stop on before the interchange was built?

Map of Ripley Street here (http://www.multimap.com/map/places.cgi?client=public&lang=&advanced=true&db=GB&cname=Great+Britain&overviewmap=&addr2=ripley+street&addr3=sheffield&pc=s6) .

I think you're thinking of Forbes Road.

K x

Maybe the original plan was for the gate/cameras to be right at the junction with Lansett Road/Holme Lane which may have allowed cars to peel off left onto Holme Lane without being caught. At least this way, all non-taxi/bus traffic would have to divert up Ripley Street which is what they shoud be doing anyway. The cameras may also help to enforce the "no left turn" sign at the bottom of Ripley Street.

However, all the traffic coming down Walkley Lane is going to be ugly. I hope this will be compensated for in the traffic signals.

Originally posted by LottieWat
However, all the traffic coming down Walkley Lane is going to be ugly. I hope this will be compensated for in the traffic signals.

I was thinking that. :mad: Hopefully though, the traffic not coming into Holme Lane from Langsett Road will make it freer flowing!

K x

Originally posted by jackthedog
I'm glad it'll be at peak times only - 7am-7pm Mon-Sat would be good.

It's not at peak times only, it's 7am-7pm.

I presume Ripley Street is that road that all the buses used to stop on before the interchange was built?

The 'gate' area has been extended to include the streatch of Langsett Road between Forbes Road and Ripley Street, but in the town-wards direction only. This is the section alongside the bus station. It makes it clearer by being alongside the bus station.

It's a bit fiddly trying to describe it in words ;).

In effect, the town-wards side of Langsett Road is restricted from Bradfield Road to Ripley Street. The outwards side of Langsett Road is restricted fRom Forbes Road to Holme Lane.

Hope that make sense.

So does that mean that you won't be able to turn left from Bradfield Road onto Langsett Road towards town any more then?

I must say I don't really think Labour have got anything to crow about over this... they were in power when it was set up, and they've had a full ten years to work out what to do with it... hardly an impressive rate of progress really.

I still think it's ridiculous that the 7am-7pm restriction will still apply at weekends.

Im confused by the Tram/Bus gates...if i need to get to Maplin Electronics i have to go through the gates in my car...does this mean i will get a fine in future???? :confused:

I agree that the weekend restrictions are not needed and make no sense but I'm really fed up sitting on a bus with 20/30 other people waiting for 20/30 cars with 20/30 selfish ratrunning car drivers to get through the lights. If they do'nt want to wait in the traffic on the ring [and I use the term loosely]road catch a bus

Originally posted by Avalon
Im confused by the Tram/Bus gates...if i need to get to Maplin Electronics i have to go through the gates in my car...does this mean i will get a fine in future???? :confused:
It's a loosening of restrictions, so if you weren't breaking the restrictions in the past, you won't now. If you were breaking the restrictions in the past, you still will be but only during 7am-7pm; you no longer will be from 7pm-7am.

So does that mean that you won't be able to turn left from Bradfield Road onto Langsett Road towards town any more then?

If you are currently allowed to turn left from Bradfield Road into Langsett Road, you will be more allowed to do so; you will be less restricted.

This point is a bit confusing as I've regularly travelled from Owlerton to Walkley this way, and I don't recollect seeing any restriction signs; certainly not any as big as the ones you see travelling south along Middlewood Road. I'll check this point out.

The bus/tram gate on the Middlewood side (outside Woothworths) remains the same and only public transport and cycles are allowed to cross. From Holme Lane again only public transport and cycles are allowed to turn right into Langsett road. The'Gate' on the Langsett Road side will cover the area outside the Interchange (Forbes road to Ripley street).The main blockage is when a tram stops to pick up on the towards City side and drivers who enter the gate area trigger the traffic sensor in the road to change the lights and cause grid lock on the main crossover.Hopefully if this area is to become a yellow grid box type junction it will stop this blockage building up on the junctions.Time will tell.

The main cause of holdups on the town side of Hillsborough corner (heading towards town) seems to be the set of traffic lights at the bottom of Forbes Rd which in my view are pretty unnecessary in the first place. On many occasions a car will be sat at those red lights and a tram will pull up behind it at the tram stop, but because of the siting of the lights (or the tram stop) the tram can't go forward enough so that its doors are positioned at the right (grooved) places on the tram stop. Then the lights go green, the car goes through, and then the tram pulls forward about 2 feet to the right place and stops again. Then by the time the tram is ready to move off, the lights are at red again. All this time other traffic is building up behind the tram, often blocking Hillsborough corner in the process. I don't see this getting much better because cars will still be able to turn left from Bradfield Rd onto Langsett Rd, i.e. cars will still legitimately be in a position to be on that stretch of road. But maybe if there isn't the volume of traffic coming across Hillsborough corner from Middlewood any more it might improve.

What really bugs me about the whole thing is that everywhere else the council installs measures to stop people rat running down residential streets and forcing them onto the main road... yet in Hillsborough it forces them off the main through road and onto choked up little streets like Taplin Rd. And as I've said before on this forum, there simply is no good way to get from the Walkley/Crookes area across to Middlewood without going about a mile out of your way. Closing off a main road without giving people a viable alternative is just stupid.

Ok, I've got the map in front of me now.

After the new order is enacted:

Middlewood Road in the townwards direction is restricted outside number 6 (Thresher's?) during 7am-7pm

Langsett Road in the outwards direction from Ripley Street to Rudyard Road during 7am-7pm.

Holme Lane is restricted in the townwards direction from Walkley Lane to Langset Road in the lane that turns into Langsett Road, all 24hrs.

This means that all traffic can turn left from Bradfield Road into Langsett Road. Traffic can turn left or right out of Rudyard Road into Langsett Road.

Only bus/tram/taxi/cycle are allowed to turn right out of Holme Lane into Langsett Road.

Only bus/tram/taxi/cycle are allowed to travel along Middlewood Road towards town outside Thresher's during 7am-7pm.

Any vehicle that starts its journey outside Barclay's Bank without first travelling past Thresher's can travel across into Langsett Road without restriction.

I think I might upload the map to try and clarify this....

I think she's wrong - we need more bus / tram gates and more traffic lights to further disrupt traffic flow - lets grid lock the city totally.....in fact lets dig up the roads and walk everywhere - vote labour they really care.....

Originally posted by jgharston

Only bus/tram/taxi/cycle are allowed to travel along Middlewood Road towards town outside Thresher's during 7am-7pm.

Any vehicle that starts its journey outside Barclay's Bank without first travelling past Thresher's can travel across into Langsett Road without restriction.



Er... how on earth can a vehicle start its journey outside Barclay's Bank without going past Thresher's? Perhaps I can turn left from Holme Lane, do a three point turn in the road outside Barclay's, and then go into town across Hillsborough corner. That will at least save me the effort of going down past the Jet garage, all the way round the roundabout and back up Bradfield Road to turn left onto Langsett Road.

Or maybe if I get Scotty to beam me up outside my house and then beam me down outside Barclay's I'll be OK.

Originally posted by Internetowl
I think she's wrong - we need more bus / tram gates and more traffic lights to further disrupt traffic flow - lets grid lock the city totally.....in fact lets dig up the roads and walk everywhere - vote labour they really care.....

Excellent idea! I'm all for it!

Originally posted by metalman
[B]Er... how on earth can a vehicle start its journey outside Barclay's Bank without going past Thresher's?

Yes, it's a real oddity. I missed it when I first saw the map, it looks like a photocoping blemish. If I was doing it I'd have made it the stretch from Hillsborough Road to Bradfield Road, not just the patch outside Thresher's.

Actually, if I were doing it, I probably wouldn't have put the current mess in in the first place.

That makes two of us then.

Resurrecting this from a couple of months ago in case you think I've posted two rapid consecutive posts.

So er... has anything happened about the tram gate then? As far as I can see the answer is no, despite the fact that in the first post of this thread in February things were supposed to be happening in 'this financial year' which if you ask me ended at the end of March. There were also various rumblings on this forum about the police starting to enforce the tram gate, but again nothing seems to be happening. Can anyone tell us any new of any progress?

All that's happened lately is that things have got worse thanks to the closure of the bottom of Loxley Rd as a result of the Second Great Sheffield Flood (still not repaired/reopened despite an estimate of about two weeks). Getting anywhere from my house is now almost impossible without going down lots of little side-streets, which the council then targets as rat-runs and starts putting in humps and road-narrowing.