Lessons to be learned on 'pointless' bus lane
TRANSPORT chiefs have been scolded for going ahead with a "pointless" bus lane on a busy Bristol road, which caused daily gridlock.
A hue and cry over the lane on the inward bound carriageway on the approach to White Tree roundabout, Westbury Road, led to most of the 200-metre long stretch being removed in October.
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Protesters against the bus lane in July last year
But cabinet councillor Geoff Gollop said the there were lessons to be learned because of the way in which the issue had been handled by council officers.
Mr Gollop said: "If we are going to consult about issues, it doesn't mean ticking a box which says 'consult'. It means actually listening to the views which are expressed and acting accordingly.
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"At the end of the day, the council's purpose is to serve the people it represents, not make them put up with schemes that don't work."
A petition with more than 3,500 names was handed in to the council, which triggered a debate at City Hall yesterday.
Simon Brookes, one of the residents, said: "I am totally shocked that the citizens of Bristol – and their ability to function on a daily basis – have been treated with absolute disdain, a holier-than-thou attitude that has caused people daily hardship and inconvenience.
"These changes must have had an adverse impact on business in the city and an indication to business people travelling into the city that we were not 'open for business'.
Liberal Democrat councillor Gary Hopkins said people's views were taken into account before the bus lane was installed. He said it was naive to think that transport officers always got everything right first time.
Another Lib Dem, Steve Comer, said bus lanes had been very effective in other parts of the city.
Mayor George Ferguson said: "I think there are things which have come out of this which need serious review. I realise the importance of bus lanes in the right places but there could be no hard and fast rules."
He promised that he would never make decisions as a face-saving exercise and hoped that "it will never happen again, if it is judged that it may have happened before".
Councillors agreed to refer the issue to the mayor for further review.
Comments
by KBillies
Thursday, January 17 2013, 8:26PM
“Tim Kent has done more to address the problems of Bristol's Transport system during his tenure as the Supremo than DM Fishponds ever will in his boorish posts.
Raise a glass to Tim and distinguish between leadership and (poor) commentary.”
by DM_Fishponds
Thursday, January 17 2013, 6:01PM
“Apparently Tim Kent and Jon Rogers were at the meeting as well! I'm surprised that they didn't try to stick-up for Cllr Hopkins. Perhaps they thought that they couldn't have done any better!
To see Cllr Hopkins defending GBBN at the Full Council meeting, select the following web page:
http://tinyurl.com/b7kau7u
. . . then look in the right-hand box marked "Time Line" and select the following time:
00:45:33 "Petition on Greater Bristol Bus Network", down to: 01:12:25”
by DM_Fishponds
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 6:58PM
“@KA12345 - "What a fantastic viewing experience this was!! It was actually laughable seeing Gary Hopkins try to lie, manipulate and blame his way out of this fiasco!"
Yes! I hope everyone gets to watch it.
I only wish Tim Kent and Jon Rogers were there to squirm as well. They were nowhere to be seen. I wonder if the three of them had drawn straws before the meeting in a poor attempt at damage limitation.
Now Tim Kent is leader of the LibDems in Bristol he seems to have completely disappeared.
I am frequently reminded of their GBBN folly, every time I sit in one of their artificially created traffic jams behind a stationary bus at a sticky-out bus stop, or in a queue of traffic waiting for their new traffic lights to change when nothing is coming the other way! I think that we should continue to remind them of how they treated us until they decide that politics is not really for them.”
by KA12345
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 6:46PM
“Thanks for supplying the link DM..
What a fantastic viewing experience this was!! It was actually laughable seeing Gary Hopkins try to lie, manipulate and blame his way out of this fiasco!
I hope that this is a wake-up call to the councillers and residents of Bristol to pursue issues through, now that this has been mentioned and addresses in the house it will hopefully 'stick' for future issues..”
by DM_Fishponds
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 5:07PM
“To see yesterdays council debate on GBBN, select the following web page:
http://tinyurl.com/b7kau7u
. . . then look in the right-hand box marked "Time Line" and select the following time:
00:45:33 Petition on Greater Bristol Bus Network
Down to
01:12:25 Cllr Peter Main – Lord Mayor
Let us hope that George Ferguson is able to put right some of the worst examples of these GBBN-created problems.”
by bristolianish
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 12:21PM
“There is a marked tendency for the Council to tell residents what they are going to do as a 'fait accompli' and call THAT consultation. They did much the same with the introduction of a designated car park where I live. They went ahead with the scheme on the basis of a 24% response, ignored completely all the legitimate objections and justified it all by counting all non-responses as 'votes in favour'.”
by Magrathea2011
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 10:17AM
“The thing that still baffles me is the apparent 'obsession' this City has with 24/7 bus lanes which carry very little by way of actual people.
There are other and in my view far more effective ways of making use of limited road space without having to 'sterilise the road space by using bus lanes .
Two examples are:- the 2+ car sharing scheme and one which I personally prefer and is very effective in Cardiff, namely the 'tidal' traffic control system where lanes are 'switched' during peak times.
Why were these never considered ?
It is also possible to retrospectively adopt them relatively cheaply (hint hint!)”
by smoosername
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 9:44AM
“Gary Hopkins said people's views were taken into account before the bus lane was installed."
Really Gary? In the informal CONsultation you ran, there were 20 negative comments and 3 positive comments about the White Tree roundabout scheme. So 87% of comments were negative.
Guess what? You ignored all of them.
Don't worry though, the people of Bristol removed you and your LibDem CONsultation ignoring mates from 'taking our views into account' so the problem shouldn't hopefully arise again.”
by DM_Fishponds
Wednesday, January 16 2013, 9:12AM
“It was good to see Cllr Hopkins squirming yesterday as he tried to justify the poor decisions made by him during the GBBN fiasco. He also tried to shift part of the blame on the next Transport Executive, Tim Kent, who was nowhere to be seen.
Cllr Comer came to his aid by trying to list all the advantages GBBN has brought in his own ward, but this is contrary to the opinion of the Greater Fishponds Neighbourhood Partnership which encompasses Eastville.
Cllr Hopkins tried to explain that he had no problems with GBBN within his own ward of Knowle, which is hardly a surprise!
Congratulations to the Westbury Road campaigners who achieved more than the necessary 3,500 signature petition to force a council debate on the subject.
Will we have to organise another petition to get the council to accept that sticky-out bus stops are not only unwanted but down-right dangerous? And perhaps another one to resolve the Hockeys Lane problems?
Now that questions are being asked about the way CONsultations have been mismanaged over the last few years in Bristol, can criminal prosecutions be brought against the officers and executive members involved? Or do we have to wait until the next local election in May?”