Had trouble getting into work this morning? (20/5). I've just returned from a trip to Broomhill and the place is packed solid with traffic, same as it was this morning. Cars and lorries tailback to Crosspool and I imagine along Fulwood Road to Ranmoor.

Why?

The council would probably tell you it's due to the roadworks and 'improvements' to the Ring Road at Shalesmoor. They'd be lying.

The reason why traffic is snarling up every road in the region is due to the City Council's brilliant transport policies. Yes, where only a few weeks back you could use the bus lane on Western Bank (after 9.30) you can no longer do so. Want to turn up a side street and find an alternative route? No! That's "rat-running" and so they've done all they can to prevent you doing so: one-ways, no entries, no-right turns for the simple reason that 'we don't want you to'.

Before the 'improvements' in Broomhill, in the morning during clearway hours one could drive down the nearside of Fulwood Road (city bound) in order to go up the road past the library (Taptonville Road, is it?). Can't do that now; they've made sure you have to sit in the queue of traffic and face the consequences of being mad enough to take your car into town.

And what are they planning now? Another bus-lane on Ecclesall Road in the name of 'improving traffic flow'. They must think we were born yesterday. Remove the bus-lanes, try it for a week and I guarantee traffic will move easier.

But they don't want that! I bet the first thing they do to the ring road at Shalesmoor is to put traffic lights every ten yards. Anything to stop traffic moving.

I'm now going to lie down with some cucumber on my eyes...,

You could always use a Bus?? :hihi:

I will join you Ousetunes. I also use that area in the mornings and find the same as you.

The other thing that gets up my cockney schonk is that why do drivers insist on not using bus lanes when they are allowed too. Not just in the S10 area but all over the city. I think I have only come across one bus lane that is excempt from cars in Sheffield and that's just past Charles Clarks and leading under Wicker Arches. Are there anymore?

Originally posted by Avalon
You could always use a Bus?? :hihi:

and sit in the traffic on the bus? Brilliant thinking!

Originally posted by Ousetunes
and sit in the traffic on the bus? Brilliant thinking!

if more people used public transport then there would be less cars on the road and you wouldnt be stuck in traffic on the bus!!!

but think this is a case of pot calling kettle as i drive and have not been on a bus since i passed my test last june:hihi: :hihi:

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Had trouble getting into work this morning? (20/5). I've just returned from a trip to Broomhill and the place is packed solid with traffic, same as it was this morning. Cars and lorries tailback to Crosspool and I imagine along Fulwood Road to Ranmoor.

Why?


Because everyone is out enjoying the freedom of driving their cars.

'Enjoying the freedom'?

Nothing stresses me more! I usually walk to Broomhill from work just to avoid driving, but couldn't do so today.

What also irks me is the volume of heavy traffic on the roads, huge lorries delivering goods to shops. I just wish more could go on the railways.

The notion that driving is a pleasure is a non-starter.

As my father used to say when stuck in traffic (well, shout actually, whilst turning a puce colour)

"The last people who knew what they were doing with the roads in Sheffield was the Luftwaffe!"

I think he may have had a point.

The bus lane by the University is a great idea (for those on the bus and those on bikes) and in my opinion makes no difference to the flow of traffic. Instead of 2 lanes of traffic jams leading up to the University roundabout, you now have one. It makes no difference, you still have 100% capacity at the actual roundabout....

+ the buses get into town quicker.

The fact of the matter is there are too many cars. I cycle from Crookes to the University every day and the majority of cars have 1 person in them. Thats the problem.

I don't have a problem with driving and cars, but there is no physical way of getting this amount of cars onto a finite amount of road space at rush hours.

Originally posted by Ousetunes

What also irks me is the volume of heavy traffic on the roads, huge lorries delivering goods to shops. I just wish more could go on the railways.


Wouldn't you still need big lorries to get stuff from the rail goods yard to the shops ?... they did when I was a lad :D

Originally posted by Ousetunes
What also irks me is the volume of heavy traffic on the roads, huge lorries delivering goods to shops. I just wish more could go on the railways.

Or even deliver in the evenings.

Sheffield needs an underground system, but the bloody hills get in the way.

Originally posted by Greybeard
Wouldn't you still need big lorries to get stuff from the rail goods yard to the shops ?... they did when I was a lad :D Not if your commerce or industry is next to a line; like Tescos, Sainsburys, Arnold Leaver, Gresham, B&Q, Currys, Royal Mail and som any moor who insist on using the road.
Go deliver by rail !

Also ... reopen the stations so we can NOT use buses and NOT use cars, damn it Beeching !

If traffic on the West side is so bad, why not move to the Dark Side of Sheffield instead?

I don't know why, but my morning commute from the Northern General into town has been cut from 30 minutes to 20 all this week.

That's even with the, er, improvements of the ring-road extersion forcing me to make a major detour.

Is it half-term or something :clap:

i completely understand what your talking about ousetunes! for the past few weeks travelling to work has been a nightmare...
i get the bus and normally it takes 15 minutes (give or take) to get from crookes to town but for the past few weeks it been on average half an hour!! its all the conjestion on witham road! argh! keep having to get up and earlier to get to work on time...!

Originally posted by Abdul
If traffic on the West side is so bad, why not move to the Dark Side of Sheffield instead?

:clap:

Abdul, sincere thanks for the advice.

(But I think it should be known that I wouldn't move to The Dark Side for all the tea in China.)

Trouble as far as I can see if you got rid of the bus lane then you'd end up with an almighty scrap just before the roundabout. How many cars in the LH lane on Western Bank would want to turn up to Walkley or down St Phillips?

If you make the LH lane a left turn or straight on (Broad Lane) then you've got a lot of cars going a hell of a long way on the outside of the roundabout (past two junctions) which is bound to lead to a lot of prangs.

Originally posted by Avalon
You could always use a Bus?? :hihi:

Why should car users have to pay twice to get around?! They're already getting hammered to death with tax on this and added charges onto that, so why should they walk past their car, wait yonks for a bus, get their head bitten off by the driver, listen to mingers slagging one another off whilst being sat next to someone who takes up 2/3 of the seat, arrive late for work and have to pay an extortionate ammount for the priveledge?!

Me thinks not!

Ofcourse it's your choice whether or not to own a car and pay all the charges that come with owning one, but it's a bit rich for someone to suggest giving all that up to pay twice and suffer all the downsides of using public transport too!

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
Not if your commerce or industry is next to a line; like Tescos, Sainsburys, Arnold Leaver, Gresham, B&Q, Currys, Royal Mail and som any moor who insist on using the road.
Go deliver by rail !

Also ... reopen the stations so we can NOT use buses and NOT use cars, damn it Beeching !

None of that is likely to alleviate the traffic problems in Broomhill :D

In fact quite a lot od stuff does get moved around the country by rail, but with the network congestion during the day arising fom competing and often unco-ordinated passenger services there's little room for expansion.

And I think you'll find the govt. are planning yet another Beeching job on 'uneconomic' local rail passenger services :loopy:

BTW - did you know that under the Department of Transport’s rules for new public transport schemes, the predicted losses to the exchequer from fuel taxes must be added to the capital costs of the project ? ...even more :loopy:

Originally posted by Longcol
Trouble as far as I can see if you got rid of the bus lane then you'd end up with an almighty scrap just before the roundabout. How many cars in the LH lane on Western Bank would want to turn up to Walkley or down St Phillips?

If you make the LH lane a left turn or straight on (Broad Lane) then you've got a lot of cars going a hell of a long way on the outside of the roundabout (past two junctions) which is bound to lead to a lot of prangs.

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand your point. If you approach the roundabout in accordance to The Highway Code then there should be no prangs from anybody.

As I recall it, after the bus-priority traffic lights, the motorist has a choice of three lanes:

nearside lane: to turn immediate left up Winter Street or to go down St Philips Road (nearside lane). I believe the arrow on the road points to the left;

middle lane: arrow on the road states to travel in a straight direction, ie, Broad Lane. However, there's no reason why you can't turn down St Philips using the outside carriageway. But I'd definitely check my nearside wing-mirror to ensure cars in the nearside lane have gone either up Winter Street or down St Philips (nearside) as they should have done;

offside/right-hand lane: to go down Broad Lane (using outer lane of that road) or to turn right toward St Marys.

Simple enough to me. Apparently not so to others.

Originally posted by Abdul
If traffic on the West side is so bad, why not move to the Dark Side of Sheffield instead? You mean like moving to Hillsborough or Crookes, rather slip a gun down my throat and have my manhood removed and fried and fed to a dog, brrr dogs :gag:

You seem to assume that all drivers follow the highway code!

Fact is an increasing number don't - ie yesterday morning traffic from Crookes was unable to cross junction at Broomhill lights about 50% of time when we had a green light because of drivers from Fulwood direction who had blindly entered the junction without looking if they could get clear of it.

Point I was trying to make is that if you had cars using both lanes of Western Bank on the approach to University roundabout, you'd have an almighty scrum from with drivers from both lanes trying to get into the middle lane for the roundabout, and probably quite a few numpties trying to get from the LH lane in to the right turn lane.

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Forgive my ignorance, but I don't understand your point. If you approach the roundabout in accordance to The Highway Code then there should be no prangs from anybody.

As I recall it, after the bus-priority traffic lights, the motorist has a choice of three lanes:

nearside lane: to turn immediate left up Winter Street or to go down St Philips Road (nearside lane). I believe the arrow on the road points to the left;

middle lane: arrow on the road states to travel in a straight direction, ie, Broad Lane. However, there's no reason why you can't turn down St Philips using the outside carriageway. But I'd definitely check my nearside wing-mirror to ensure cars in the nearside lane have gone either up Winter Street or down St Philips (nearside) as they should have done;

offside/right-hand lane: to go down Broad Lane (using outer lane of that road) or to turn right toward St Marys.

Simple enough to me. Apparently not so to others.

The problem with that though is that they have forced two lanes of traffic into one around the traffic lights and then spread them out into three lanes meaning that someone wanting to go up Winter Street or Netherthorpe Road (St Philips Road is the one that runs parallel but for some reason everyone calls it St Philips!) means you then have to spread across three lanes moving from right to left which is not exactly the safest of manouvers. I would agree, that is an accident waiting to happen.

Just one other point since with my Saturday morning hangover - why does this Council think the way to move traffic quicker is to put down more bus lanes? Where is the concrete prove that this happens? My experience is that it takes buses and cars longer to get anywhere simply because of the bottle necks that are created where bus lanes end. If they just accepted that people will not get out of their cars and get on buses because of the reasons outlined in an earlier post. They should be looking at traffic flow not bus flow.

Oh, I walk to work by the way!

Read in this week's Sheffield Telegraph plans to 'improve traffic flow' around the Crosspool area. Funny thing is, residents and business alike aren't aware that the traffic situation actually needs improving. Typically, it's councillors getting their grubby hands on something that is working fine and turning it into something that irritates everyone who lives, works and travels through this area.

And the main reason for these improvements? To help buses get through!!!

So now, where once people could park with relatively little difficulty, where delivery vans could get near to shops and where residents and businesses have operated side-by-side and with cohesion, the council is turning this into chaos.

They are using their usual one-size-fits-all approach, that what had 'worked' elsewhere will happen here. So we can expect, bus lay-bys being filled-in so the bus now stops in the middle of the road; parking bays which always reduces the space where cars could park before; limited waiting times in aforementioned bays; yellow-line overkill (viz. Sandygate Road, Fulwood Road, Whitham Road et al) and no doubt kerbs brought out into the roads, corners at junctions extended and woah, we've been informed that Benty Lane is going to become a One Way.

I remember Mrs Thatcher, on being elected quoting: "Where there is discord, let us bring harmony."

Sheffield City Council have the knack - in transport policies at least - of being able to turn that phrase round to "Where there is harmony [on the roads], let us bring discord."

And they're supposed to represent us.

Originally posted by Captain_Scarlet
You mean like moving to Hillsborough or Crookes, rather ... have my manhood removed

You make me think you already have.

You sound more like Joe 90 than Captain Scarlet ;)

"And what are they planning now? Another bus-lane on Ecclesall Road in the name of 'improving traffic flow'. They must think we were born yesterday. Remove the bus-lanes, try it for a week and I guarantee traffic will move easier."


I disagree. The number of extra car users generated cos they don't want to ride on the bus anymore (since they would stuck in traffic too) would just bring you back to the usual levels of congestion.

The bus lanes down ecclesall road (my only experience of bus lanes in sheffield i'm afraid) let buses down there far quicker than cars during rush hour - and theres 1 or 2 buses every minute of some shape or form that will take you into town. Its avery quick service.

THe only time buses get stuck in traffic down ecclesall road is when people illegally park on the bus lanes when the restrictions tell them they shouldn't.

Let me guess - "But those areas where parking before the bus lane cam along anyway" - yeah well sorry but theres lots of streets around there, not to mention the public transport which i rate pretty well in this area. If people weren't so reliant on having a car or two outside every house then there wouldn't be a problem in parking on peripheral streets.

I'd love to hear some peoples Power/Energy views on this forum. I swear if just one of you says "why can't we just keep using coal and oil" then i'll scream and then leave!

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Had trouble getting into work this morning? (20/5). I've just returned from a trip to Broomhill and the place is packed solid with traffic, same as it was this morning. Cars and lorries tailback to Crosspool and I imagine along Fulwood Road to Ranmoor.

Why?

The council would probably tell you it's due to the roadworks and 'improvements' to the Ring Road at Shalesmoor. They'd be lying.

The reason why traffic is snarling up every road in the region is due to the City Council's brilliant transport policies. Yes, where only a few weeks back you could use the bus lane on Western Bank (after 9.30) you can no longer do so. Want to turn up a side street and find an alternative route? No! That's "rat-running" and so they've done all they can to prevent you doing so: one-ways, no entries, no-right turns for the simple reason that 'we don't want you to'.

Before the 'improvements' in Broomhill, in the morning during clearway hours one could drive down the nearside of Fulwood Road (city bound) in order to go up the road past the library (Taptonville Road, is it?). Can't do that now; they've made sure you have to sit in the queue of traffic and face the consequences of being mad enough to take your car into town.

And what are they planning now? Another bus-lane on Ecclesall Road in the name of 'improving traffic flow'. They must think we were born yesterday. Remove the bus-lanes, try it for a week and I guarantee traffic will move easier.

But they don't want that! I bet the first thing they do to the ring road at Shalesmoor is to put traffic lights every ten yards. Anything to stop traffic moving.

I'm now going to lie down with some cucumber on my eyes...,

There is nothing wrong with bus lanes!
However I do agree that there has to be a happy medium.
the problem with Sheffield is if you want to get anywhere you have to go around in a circle to get there.
The bus drivers will tell you that because in the late 1980's/early 1990 the council started to cut of roads in the city centre and making one way streets everywhere that if a car or a bus breaks down in the city centre its bedlem.

Originally posted by Ousetunes


Sheffield City Council have the knack - in transport policies at least - of being able to turn that phrase round to "Where there is harmony [on the roads], let us bring discord."

And they're supposed to represent us.
I completely agree with you. I think the planners in Sheffield are all graduates of the Baldrick School of Planning. I wish their maxim was rather "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".:loopy:

I love the bus-stops that don't have a layby, but actually have a bottleneck placed there instead, so the traffic is reduced to one lane for both directions of traffic.

When a bus stops, the entire road is blocked in both directions.

What, in the name of all that is holy, is the thinking behind this absolutely ridiculous system?

IT ACTUALLY CAUSES CONGESTION THAT WOULD OTHERWISE NOT BE THERE.

Originally posted by jackthedog
I love the bus-stops that don't have a layby, but actually have a bottleneck placed there instead, so the traffic is reduced to one lane for both directions of traffic.

When a bus stops, the entire road is blocked in both directions.

What, in the name of all that is holy, is the thinking behind this absolutely ridiculous system?

IT ACTUALLY CAUSES CONGESTION THAT WOULD OTHERWISE NOT BE THERE.

Calm down dear, - it's just a traffic calming measure :D

Originally posted by jackthedog
I love the bus-stops that don't have a layby, but actually have a bottleneck placed there instead, so the traffic is reduced to one lane for both directions of traffic.

When a bus stops, the entire road is blocked in both directions.

What, in the name of all that is holy, is the thinking behind this absolutely ridiculous system?

IT ACTUALLY CAUSES CONGESTION THAT WOULD OTHERWISE NOT BE THERE.

Traffic that will probably get stuck at the next set of traffic lights anyway 50 metres down the road...