Closing Roads To Traffic & Widening Pavements For Social Distancing

[Minimo 59]

Speaking selfishly, all I can look forward to (as an elderly person with medical issues) is a much longer walk to/from bus stops to shops. I depend on being able to use High St bus stops. But that's progress I suppose.

 

[Andy C 86]

59 minutes ago, Minimo said:

Speaking selfishly, all I can look forward to (as an elderly person with medical issues) is a much longer walk to/from bus stops to shops. I depend on being able to use High St bus stops. But that's progress I suppose.

 

It is an unfortunate consequence of such change and certainly an issue I don't like to see.

 

It is strange times we are living in. I guess the issue is if they hadn't closed Leopold Street/Pinstone Street in the current circumstances there would be other issues - if they hadn't widened the pavements the shops couldn't open in that area, if they hadn't improved the area for cyclists then people might be on a bus rather than a bike leaving the buses oversubscribed.

 

All the buses that normally stop on High Street then go via Pinstone Street to Moorhead now go on Arundel Gate instead and back onto the old route at Moorhead. There are still buses that go up High Street/Church Street (the ones that continue up West Street) and of course trams still go up there too, so I guess the options other than walking further would be to change onto another bus or tram to get to High Street or alternatively consider if there are suitable alternative shops on the Moor.

 

Personally as I'm working from home I will probably keep shopping locally or ordering online for home delivery, can't really see myself heading into town much until cafes and pubs are open for sit down food & drink (and use of toilets!).

[Baron99 797]

For years there have been massive congestion problems for both public, commercial & private traffic at rush hour in the city centre, both in bound & outbound of the cit , heading down Pinstone St, onto the roundabout at Furnival Gate / Arundel Gate /  Eyre St & along Arundel Gate, again to the pinch point at this roundabout. 

 

SCC have seemingly increased the problem now by forcing the majority of traffic onto Arundel Gate & Eyre St,? 

 

One minor breakdown or minor accident & the whole city will grind to a halt for hours, public transport included. 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Baron99

[Andy C 86]

Changes to buses due to the closure of Leopold Street/Pinstone Street:

 

Buses 1, 11, 11a, 75, 76, 76a, 81, 82, 83, 83a, 86, 88, 97, 98: will no longer serve High Street/Leopold Street/Pinstone Street and stop on Arundel Gate instead.

AG12 (near Castle Square) - 5, 43, 44, X17

AG9 (outside convenience store) - 10a, 20, 24, 25

AG13 (outside Hallam University) - 80, X1, X10

AG123 (outside O2 Academy) - routes 1, 11, 11a

AG124 (outside Odeon Cinema) - routes 75, 76, 76a, 86, 97, 98

AG10 (top of Howard Street) - 5, 10a, 20, 24, 25, 43, 44, X17

CS1 (opposite Roebuck Tavern) - 5, 10a, 20, 24, 25, 43, 44, 80, X1, X10

CS123 (by roundabout) - 1, 11, 11a, 75, 76, 76a, 86, 97, 98

 

Buses 6, 30, 30a, 51, 52, 52a, 95, 95a, 120,  271, 273, 274, 275, X5: will no longer serve Leopold Street/Pinstone Street and stop on Carver Street instead. There are 5 bus stands on Carver Street (buses set down on the West Street end and pick up on the Wellington Street end):

CA1 - set down only

CA2 - set down only

CA3 - pick up routes 30, 30a, 52, 52a, X5

CA4 - pick up routes 120

CA5 - pick up routes 6, 51, 95, 95a, 273, 274, 275

 

Both sets of routes rejoin their normal route at Eyre Street roundabout (except for the 51 which is as normal from Cumberland Street). Note that for the next week or so there are likely to be delays on buses running via Carver Street as the council are behind with the roadworks to open up Furnival Gate to buses, meaning a circuitous detour via Moorfoot is necessary.

 

Buses that run High Street > Church Street > West Street continue on normal route but some bus stops on High Street/Church Street have been changed.

 

New bus routes: https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-gb/news/f1e521f2-f2c4-4289-8914-947fb3628505

New bus timetables: https://travelsouthyorkshire.com/en-GB/LandingPage/service-changes#sheffield

 

Supertram services see an increase in frequency and operating hours this week with the shops reopening meaning more people may want to travel, obviously the tram routes aren't affected by the City Centre changes although the Gleadless-Herdings/Halfway section of the network is currently closed for rail replacement works (trams still running from City to Gleadless, Malin Bridge, Middlewood, Meadowhall and Rotherham).

 

New tram timetables: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/news/yorkshire/2020/june/area-2-rail-replacement-6-june-to-24-july

Edited June 14, 2020 by Andy C

[Bargepole23 337]

28 minutes ago, Baron99 said:

For years there have been massive congestion problems for both public, commercial & private traffic at rush hour in the city centre, both in bound & outbound of the cit , heading down Pinstone St, onto the roundabout at Furnival Gate / Arundel Gate /  Eyre St & along Arundel Gate, again to the pinch point at this roundabout. 

 

SCC have seemingly increased the problem now by forcing the majority of traffic onto Arundel Gate & Eyre St,? 

 

One minor breakdown or minor accident & the whole city will grind to a halt for hours, public transport included. 

And no amount of tweaking routes will get away from the cause of the problem. Too many people using cars unnecessarily. 

[casualbystander 0]

how utterly ridiculous the high st will have enough problems after the virus it will not exist if this happens.

 

[Andy C 86]

Whilst there is social distancing regulations in force to fight Covid-19 then this has to happen - otherwise the shops cannot open as the pavements aren't wide enough - pedestrians need to be able to pass each other safely and there is also potential queues outside shops. Another reason is to accommodate an increase in cycling as an alternative to public transport whilst seating capacity is reduced on buses, trains and trams for social distancing. These sort of initiatives are happening nationwide with funding from the government.

 

The question is, after all this will the road layouts and bus routes return to the way they were pre Covid? It is quite possible I suppose people may think the City Centre is a more pleasant place to visit as a result of the changes and the changes could become permanent.

 

My worry with these changes is how much bigger picture considerations are built into the plans and thinking. There is a lot of talk of encouraging people not to travel by public transport during lockdown due to safety measures limiting capacity but once everything returns to normal we need to ensure that the facilities (eg bus stops) provided for passengers in the City Centre reflect the desire to have a public transport system that is  seen as attractive, quality, convenient and reliable that gets well used, including by those who have a choice, because otherwise way too many people will go by car instead which will mean either congested, nightmare roads or shoppers shunning the City Centre (or both).

Edited June 14, 2020 by Andy C

[Baron99 797]

54 minutes ago, Andy C said:

Whilst there is social distancing regulations in force to fight Covid-19 then this has to happen - otherwise the shops cannot open as the pavements aren't wide enough - pedestrians need to be able to pass each other safely and there is also potential queues outside shops. Another reason is to accommodate an increase in cycling as an alternative to public transport whilst seating capacity is reduced on buses, trains and trams for social distancing. These sort of initiatives are happening nationwide with funding from the government.

 

The question is, after all this will the road layouts and bus routes return to the way they were pre Covid? It is quite possible I suppose people may think the City Centre is a more pleasant place to visit as a result of the changes and the changes could become permanent.

 

My worry with these changes is how much bigger picture considerations are built into the plans and thinking. There is a lot of talk of encouraging people not to travel by public transport during lockdown due to safety measures limiting capacity but once everything returns to normal we need to ensure that the facilities (eg bus stops) provided for passengers in the City Centre reflect the desire to have a public transport system that is  seen as attractive, quality, convenient and reliable that gets well used, including by those who have a choice, because otherwise way too many people will go by car instead which will mean either congested, nightmare roads or shoppers shunning the City Centre (or both)

It won't take a genius to realise that If you cram all the buses, commercial & private vehicles on to two carriageways on either side of Arundel Gate & Eyre St., then that's going to cause increased congestion, if left this way, after the COVID-19 situation abates. 

 

Primarily the complaints will come from delayed bus passenger & bus companies.  Then what is the solution to the problem?  Reducing one carriageway on  the inbound / outbound of both Arundel Gate & Eyre St.,  by then installing bus lanes to increase to flow of public transport? 

 

But the problem still remains that you've forced traffic levels on to a smaller number of city centre roads & you still have a bottleneck / pinch point for traffic flow at the Arundel Gate / Eyre St. roundabout. 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Baron99

[alexander874 17]

You can see the logic in closing Pinstone Street, due to a row of shops with a footpath only down one side of the street distancing would be difficult and the highway itself is fairly narrow.

[Andy C 86]

3 hours ago, Baron99 said:

It won't take a genius to realise that If you cram all the buses, commercial & private vehicles on to two carriageways on either side of Arundel Gate & Eyre St., then that's going to cause increased congestion, if left this way, after the COVID-19 situation abates. 

 

Primarily the complaints will come from delayed bus passenger & bus companies.  Then what is the solution to the problem?  Reducing one carriageway on  the inbound / outbound of both Arundel Gate & Eyre St.,  by then installing bus lanes to increase to flow of public transport? 

 

But the problem still remains that you've forced traffic levels on to a smaller number of city centre roads & you still have a bottleneck / pinch point for traffic flow at the Arundel Gate / Eyre St. roundabout. 

I'm not sure in terms of traffic within the City Centre it will be a huge issue in normal circumstances (ie no breakdowns/incidents/roadworks blocking roads) as the West Street/Pinstone Street bus route is simply moved to the new route of West Street/Carver Street/Furnival Gate and the High Street/Pinstone Street bus routes moved onto Arundel Gate shouldn't be beyond the capacity of the road, other than the many traffic light controlled pedestrian crossings. The design of the City Centre for access by cars/vans etc is to arrive on the inner ring road then into the appropriate car park or loading bay and the only traffic on Leopold Street/Pinstone Street other than bikes/buses/taxis are generally just accessing a business or the John Lewis car park.

 

My wider issue is the attitude towards buses (and to a lesser extend trams and trains) being portrayed as something unclean that you should avoid and only use as a last resort and potentially (I honestly don't know what has been provided on Carver Street) bus stops with shelters, seating and electronic information boards replaced by a temporary sign in the middle of a pavement. With all this in mind will people consider using public transport when normality returns? If not that will not only congest roads across the city with extra car journeys but also hit the financial viability of operating a good bus/tram/train service.

 

Now to recap the buses on each corridor through the City Centre...

 

Buses 1, 11, 11a, 75, 76, 76a, 81, 82, 83, 83a, 86, 88, 97, 98: will no longer serve High Street/Leopold Street/Pinstone Street and stop on Arundel Gate instead. These join other buses already using Arundel Gate: 5, 10a, 20, 24, 25, 43, 44, 80, X1, X10, X17

 

Buses 6, 30, 30a, 51, 52, 52a, 95, 95a, 120,  271, 273, 274, 275, X5: will turn off West Street onto Carver Street (where the new bus stops are) instead of Leopold Street/Pinstone Street then head down Wellingon Street and Rockingham Street to rejoin the old route on Charter Row.

 

Buses and trams have increased most services to reflect more people travelling to shops, work, school etc this week.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Andy C

[Michael_N 36]

On 14/06/2020 at 15:43, alexander874 said:

You can see the logic in closing Pinstone Street, due to a row of shops with a footpath only down one side of the street distancing would be difficult and the highway itself is fairly narrow.

Indeed, but there needs to be alternative suitable access nearby for public transport users. Not everyone can walk/cycle and if we are trying to reduce congestion, surely public transport needs to be a viable alternative, once we've got back to normal after the pandemic.

[Andy C 86]

I've not had any reason or opportunity to visit the City Centre myself but looking at comments online the new bus routes are operating reasonably OK but the following issues are highlighted:

• the council hasn't finished work to open the revised route via Furnival Gate to buses in time but closed Leopold Street and Pinstone Street regardless, this has meant a circuitous diversion via Moorfoot which is causing buses to run late and in the case of route 30 to run at a reduced frequency.
•  There is a lot of confusion as to which buses stop at which stops on Arundel Gate which has led passengers to wait for their buses at the wrong stop and see their bus go sailing past them. The numbering of the stops isn't logical and the information for passengers could be improved.

Buses and stops on Arundel Gate, in geographal order heading from Castle Square tram stop towards Eyre Street roundabout:

AG12 (near Castle Square) - buses 5, 43, 44, X17

AG9 (outside convenience store) -  buses 10a, 20, 24, 25

AG13 (outside Hallam University) - buses 80, X1, X10

AG123 (outside O2 Academy) - buses 1, 11, 11a

AG124 (outside Odeon Cinema) - buses 75, 76, 76a, 86, 97, 98

AG10 (top of Howard Street) - buses 5, 10a, 20, 24, 25, 43, 44, X17

CS1 (opposite Roebuck Tavern) - buses 5, 10a, 20, 24, 25, 43, 44, 80, X1, X10

CS123 (by roundabout) - buses 1, 11, 11a, 75, 76, 76a, 86, 97, 98

Edited June 16, 2020 by Andy C