Council urges us to go car free (From Northwich Guardian)

If the council is so 'supportive' of us going car free (even if it is just for a day), why don't they do something about the complete lack of any cycle lanes around Northwich?
For example, having to ride from Northwich to Knutsford is a bit of a nightmare! Plus wherever you ride around Northwich, due to the lack of cycle lanes you get idiots cutting you up all over the place.

The council are a complete joke saying that they are supporting cycling. What complete rubbish!

As a very infrequent cyclist I can say that there are very few safe routes, especially in winter.

Being a user occassionally of buses they are expensive, smelly and infrequent, some places require 2 buses which is ridiculous for the size of the town. And quite frankly
the I have heard some of the most disgusting fould language coming from fellow passengers along with foul body odour I am amazed anyone still uses them that doesnt get a free pass.

Being a frequent user of the trains, these are un reliable, also expensive and I am still amazed there is no shuttle type service between greenbank station and Hartford, this itself would make a huge difference.

As an even more frequent user of the foot, there are very few crossings and or safe places to cross on main roads. Footpaths are covered in dog mess from the antisocial dog owners, either bag it and bin it or flick it with a stick off of the path, its common courtesy and would make the whole place not only look nicer but smell better too.

And finally as a driver, I can get where I want when I want (as long as its in a circular motion through town) It is cheaper, its less hassle and I have somewhere to put my stuff, I dont have to stand out in the cold and wet waiting for the infrequent service to not show up, I can just jump in and go in a warm dry manner. You will never be able to encourage people to use the alternatives until public transport is the same at which point i expect hell to be full of icicles with the big red bloke figure skating.




I have to ask, is the begging of not using a car to make the traffic flow look good when it comes to the end of the gyratory trial?

I had been "doing my bit", getting the train and bus to work in South Manchester several days a week.

I've finally succumbed and bought a second car, because Transport for Greater Manchester has decimated the bus service out of Altrincham I was relying on - I wasn't prepared to spend 45 minutes a day (nearly 4 whole days per year) as dead time at Altrincham Interchange. What's more, if my second-hand car makes it past a year without any significant maintenance expenditure, then it will have worked out cheaper than the bus/train combination.

If the councils want people to ditch their cars, try sorting out public transport so that it runs regularly and reliably throughout the day, integrates at suitable points with minimal change times, and costs less than it would for a single person to take that journey by car.

As a pensioner I get free bus travel and my wife and I constantly use this option whenever we can. We also have a rail pass that reduces our fares by a third. It amazes me that some people are advocating stopping these facilities or reducing them to local journeys, some even advocate making us pay a pound each journey. To them I say that the whole point of the scheme was to get us pensioners off the road and so reduce pollution that is supposedly causing "Global Warming", sorry, "Climate Change" (Or whatever other fatuous title they are now giving to the idea that we humans are affecting the climate.) If they do stop or restrict these passes it will confirm the opinion I have always held that the whole thing is a massive "Scam" to extort money of a gullible public.
WHS.