Closing Roads To Traffic & Widening Pavements For Social Distancing

[welder1 11]

Completely agree with a topic i read on here "Another nail in the city centres coffin"Meadowhall must be rubbing there hands together,"dont bother with Sheffield cant park anywhere lets go to MEADOW HALL Free parking and better shops more diversity"Where does Sheffield city council get its ideas from,why dont they have the <removed> to put signs up either end of Sheffield saying "Sheffield City Centre Closed. Why do they have to close Pinstone St. anyway, just put a cycle lane in as for pavements how wide does a pavement have to be,one other thing that was mentioned social distancing, are we going to social distance forever? if these measures are going to be temporary all well and good, but you cant close streets off willy nilly, Sheffield is bad enough to navigate as it is, i want people to come into the City Centre not diverted to Meadow Hall, a main route out of the city centre and the council want to close it UTTER MADNESS   ps suppose planner 1 will put his sixpenny worth in when he reads this.

Edited May 23, 2020 by nikki-red

[Andy C 86]

This I assume is a temporary measure funded by the government as a combination of social distancing and accommodating increased active travel.

 

- it provides bigger pavements so shoppers and other pedestrians (including those walking to work) in potentially busy areas can maintain the 2 meter social distance

- It creates space for increased numbers of cyclists

 

At the moment public transport has much reduced capacity on each vehicle due to social distancing requirement, for example a double decker bus that could normally carry 70 passengers can now only seat 20 and a full size single decker bus can now only seat 12. As a result of this the government are encouraging those with shorter commutes to walk or cycle, with funding available to help those wishing to take up the cycle option. This leaves the seats on the buses and trams for those that are making longer journeys where active options aren't feasible.

 

It is also likely that more people are likely to commute by car with the government currently encouraging people to only use public transport if necessary and that has to be balanced with keeping the City Centre a nice and safe place to work, shop etc.

 

Pinstone Street (the bit between Church Street and the top of Fargate) is mainly only used by buses and taxis, so the only serious impact will be on buses which is a little bit frustrating for those that use and support public transport but it is only temporary - and the bus diversions are well established from when the road is closed for special events - generally those buses heading towards Abbeydale/Ecclesall divert via Arundel Gate and rejoin normal route at Eyre Street roundabout; those buses heading for Arundel Gate (such as 52 and 120) turn off West Street early and cut down via Moorfoot and Eyre Street.

 

Once social distancing measures are no longer deemed necessary to protect against the spread of the Covid-19 virus and everything returns to normal for bus, tram and train travel then the road and pavements can return to normal too.

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Andy C

[RollingJ 2,040]

I just hope your presumptions are correct, @Andy C, but I'm sorry, I just don't trust SCC to work that way. I agree with and understand the rest of your post.

[Baron99 795]

7 hours ago, Planner1 said:

And they aren't "sniffed at". 

 

SCC will have discussed this with the PTE and the public transport operators, whose opinions are taken seriously. Also there is the city centre Business Improvement District (BID) which contains representatives of many of the big businesses, who will also have been consulted.

 

It's not as if they are proposing to remove public transport access completely from a wide area. Some people might have a bit further to walk to a bus stop, that's all.

 

Ultimately, roads are closed using legal orders. People have the right to object to them if they feel it isn't a good idea. Councillors will have approved the closure and councillors have to consider the objections. The councillors are accountable to the electors at the ballot box. That's the democratic process and you can have your say. 

So according to you, "SCC will have discussed this with the PTE and the public transport operators, whose opinions are taken seriously. Also there is the city centre Business Improvement District (BID) which contains representatives of many of the big businesses, who will also have been consulted."

 

Pity they never consult or seek the opinions of the local electorate in such matters. 

 

As I said in my initial post, SCC appear to be using the fear of COVID-19 to implement such changes. 

 

"The councillors are accountable to the electors at the ballot box. That's the democratic process and you can have your say."

 

Not this year we can't as the local elections have been cancelled.  There again, I doubt whether this would have been mentioned in the manifesto? 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Baron99

[metalman 21]

12 hours ago, Andy C said:

This I assume is a temporary measure funded by the government as a combination of social distancing and accommodating increased active travel.

There appears to be nothing on the SCC page linked in the original post to suggest that these are only temporary measures and will be reversed at any point in the future.

[Planner1 438]

14 hours ago, Baron99 said:

Pity they never consult or seek the opinions of the local electorate in such matters. 

Well, they do actually consult on schemes. Like I said earlier the legal orders which back up closures, parking restrictions, one ways etc are advertised and everyone has the opportunity to comment or object. Where objections are received, there's a process for reaching a decision on them. Where the order is done on an experimental basis, you get the opportunity to object when it is advertised again to be made permanent if that's what is decided top put forward.

[Planner1 438]

15 hours ago, Baron99 said:

As I said in my initial post, SCC appear to be using the fear of COVID-19 to implement such changes. 

That's a rather negative way of looking at it.

 

I'd say they are using it as an opportunity to lock in the benefits to active travel modes that have happened as a result of lower traffic levels during lockdown. 

 

The government are requiring all councils to do this and are providing some money to implement measures.

 

Councils across the country are doing very similar things because they know that if we are going to continue social distancing, there won't be enough capacity on public transport, so people who might now walk and cycle will tend to go to using cars unless there are better and safer facilities for active travel modes.  

 

What they are doing is entirely in line with local, regional and national government policy to prioritise and encourage active travel and trying to significantly increase the number of people using active travel mores. If they can do that it will of course also help with the efforts to improve air quality and so satisfy legal requirements and reduce health risks.

[Michael_N 36]

I wouldn't really mind Pinstone Street been pedestrianised, if there were close viable alternatives for bus routes to take. What I don't agree with is why the road is to be closed in the direction of buses/taxis only, where as general traffic can continue to use it, travelling towards John Lewis. Just doesn't make sense and seems very anti public transport.

 

Perhaps a better idea, would be to open up more direct walking options from Pond Street bus station into the city centre, and stop the city centre expanding out in mass - so it doesn't take over 15 minutes to walk from say Haymarket to the bottom of The Moor. If things were more compact like for instance, Birmingham, then the situation with pedestrianisation wouldn't generally be a bad thing!

[Planner1 438]

1 hour ago, Michael_N said:

I wouldn't really mind Pinstone Street been pedestrianised, if there were close viable alternatives for bus routes to take. What I don't agree with is why the road is to be closed in the direction of buses/taxis only, where as general traffic can continue to use it, travelling towards John Lewis. Just doesn't make sense and seems very anti public transport.

 

Isn't this your answer (from article linked to in original post):

"Bus routes on this street will be diverted. Vehicle access from Furnival Gate into Pinstone Street (northbound) will remain open to ensure that the construction of key Heart of the City regeneration sites, and deliveries, can continue."

 

[Planner1 438]

1 hour ago, Michael_N said:

Perhaps a better idea, would be to open up more direct walking options from Pond Street bus station into the city centre, and stop the city centre expanding out in mass - so it doesn't take over 15 minutes to walk from say Haymarket to the bottom of The Moor. If things were more compact like for instance, Birmingham, then the situation with pedestrianisation wouldn't generally be a bad thing!

The council's planners have long felt that the city centre retail area is too stretched out and you can clearly see from the heart of the city project and the refurbishment of the Moor that they want to concentrate the retail activity into those areas.

[Guest makapaka]

There’s signs out on the parking spaces outside the shops on Broomhill (Morrison’s Sainsbury’s etc) saying that there will be no parking from 24/05 due to social distancing measures.

 

seems weird to me. I can’t see why that would be better than people driving to the door to get their stuff and driving off.

[altus 540]

10 minutes ago, makapaka said:

There’s signs out on the parking spaces outside the shops on Broomhill (Morrison’s Sainsbury’s etc) saying that there will be no parking from 24/05 due to social distancing measures.

 

seems weird to me. I can’t see why that would be better than people driving to the door to get their stuff and driving off.

It's about creating space for pedestrians to keep apart. Even those who drive to the shops are pedestrians once they've got out of their cars.