“Richard - I arrived in Bristol in 1987 and had to contend with the massive congestion and free-for-all around the old hotel near Temple Meads (by the former flyover). With the flyover gone, the junction was improved with traffic lights and traffic flowed once more. Now, its all jammed up again, not due to the ligths, but the neverending rise in the number of cars. Do you really want to go back to the 1980's?. turning off the lights won't make much difference - traffic might flow slightly better in localised areas, but you're simply pushing the problem elsewhere.

One of the post correspondents wants the lights at the end of Clarence Road turned off. This is stupid, as it will make life difficult for pedestrians and cyclist to cross here. It won't solve congestion either, as I often see both Clarence Road and York Road on the other side of the river jammed from end to end. Congestion can also act as a deterrent to driving, so if people learn that the traffic is flowing better, they're likely to get back into cars and you're back to square one.

A simple equation for the editor and journos at this paper:

More cars + finite space=congestion.

Finite space minus cars = less congestion.


Therefore, the best way to reduce congestion is to reduce the number of vehicles - simplez!. Well done to Ken Livingstone in London for having the guts to take on the car cult and introduce a congestion charge. We need one here.”

“The Siemens Gravy Train is now coming to an end!

I would be very interested how much our council spends with Siemens on the installation and maintenance of the city's traffic lights.

Every new installation seems to include every possible expense. At the roundabout junction on the ring road where it intersects the A420 at Warmley, on the approach from Downend there are a staggering 7 traffic lights. That is for one junction on the roundabout! If a driver cant see one set of lights they shouldnt be on the road!

Who decides how many lights should go up at a junction? and how much influence Siemens has because I have a gut feeling the council approves anything they recommend under the terror of health and safety!

Money for old rope Siemens!
Good for the Evening Post running this campaing and lets hope that Bristol City Council will see sense”

“"....londoner please stop comparing Bristol to London,

population of london approx 8 million plus 3 million tourists plus commuters so total 11 million+ Versus Bristol less then 1 million...."

Exactly! So by that reckoning, you should have 11 per cent of London's problems. But you don't. Bristol has the reputation of having one of the worst traffic problems in the country. As I eluded elsewhere, the majority Bristolian attitude towards public transport is utterly backward. I've seen it over 25 years. It seems to be sliding behind even more.

Bob the Bilde - I've agreed with most of your points in a post elseswhere. Sure, London still has congestion. When I used to travel into central London from a SW suburb by bus over 25 years ago, the journey took an hour and 20 minutes. I did the same journey a few months ago. It took 25 minutes. This is because of the congestion charge, bus priority measures, doubling the number of bus services in the area, enhancing surface rail connections and making sure that there are fast and reliable bus links to rail and tube stations. That whole area has been transformed. Its population has doubled.

Successful societies have efficient, integrated, affordable public transport. It plays a key part. Clearly not Bristol. Even where bus or rail services are reasonable, Bristolians make them unreliable by faffing about. You may get the best public transport systems in the country, but because of your attitudes and ignorance of how to use them, you will never make the most of them.”

“Perhaps the council can really be proactive this year by turning the traffic lights off and the Christmas lights on... wow what a city we could be once more... long live the 1980s”

“To qualify as an an accident cluster site under the council's own rules there have to be five or more accidents in three years in a 40m radius at a particular location, or an average of one accident every thirty weeks or so. How will they be able to tell in a two to six week trial period whether safety has been adversely affected? If there are no accidents in the trial period it won't mean a thing.”

“I like to refer to Sharon's comments about first bus, yeah right, in that statement don' you think you shuld be adding cyclists, boy racers, general idiots in rush hour traffic just trying to get that one space nearer by going through a red light.......Perhaps you should look around a bit more before singling out one type of road user and just for the record i think you'll find that wessex buses are more proan to red lights than first, oh no sorry they just drive down the pavement in clifton in rush hour traffic....!!!”

“Turn off lights at PEAK times?

Surely its the OFF-PEAK times, when you're stuck at a roundabout without any other traffic about (like I was recently on the ringroad) that ought to be given some consideration?”

“Really? I nearly got knocked today, some numpty (the majority of cyclists take care on the roads) on a bike blantantly ignoring the red light for him and the greenman for me. This was in the centre by the taxi stands. He thought he was clever by swerving. Then some bafoon in a car sped up as the light went from amber to red by Cabot Circus.”

“Unfortunately Michelle many of the roads in Bristol are old and were simply not designed for the volume of traffic that now uses them. Places like the city centre and Gloucester Road for example. There is only so much you can do without knocking everything down and starting from scratch to build proper dual carriageways throughout the city with flyovers etc big enough to also carry buses and trams etc. Obviously if someone were planning on building a brand new city the road network would be a lot different. Think of the wide boulevards of Paris and Berlin as an example of what we should have rather than our ancient narrow roads.”

“Oh yes turn off the lights in the city centre at peak times. I know its near to BRI but how will the ambulances and Police get through the gridlocked, fighting drivers?”