News / Transport
Bus lanes plan will be ‘traffic vandalism’
Conservative councillors have criticised a plan for new bus lanes in Bristol claiming they will be “traffic vandalism”.
Bristol City Council is planning to install the new bus lanes on a stretch of Passage Road, a key commuter route running through the north of the city.
The bus lane is planned between the Crow Lane roundabout in Henbury and the top of Brentry Hill, and will only be in force during peak times to stop the number 1 bus from getting stuck in traffic.
is needed now More than ever
But there are concerns about reducing the space for drivers, causing extra congestion on the A4018 which is the main road into the city centre from junction 17 of the M5 and Cribbs Causeway.
Council bosses have been urged to revisit the proposals which were slammed as a “colossal act of self-harm” during a meeting of the transport policy committee.
Councillor Mark Weston, leader of the Conservative group, said: “There’s still time to pull back on it. You’re going to artificially create congestion and it’s going to be chock-a-block all the time.”
One potential issue with the plan is that drivers will have an alternative route, which could potentially cut out some of the traffic along the road.
Initially, the council had planned to put traffic calming measures in place along Brentry Lane but these proposals were removed from the current plan.
In a joint statement, Tory councillors Bador Uddin and Mark Weston objected to “the short-sighted misery” that they claim Bristol City Council are going to “inflict” on the residents of north Bristol.- photo: Conservatives
Weston added: “The original plan had traffic calming measures on Brentry Lane. The reason is Brentry Lane cuts out the (Crow Lane) roundabout.
“Now it doesn’t take a genius to realise that they’re not going to go to the roundabout and sit in the traffic, they’re going to go down Brentry Lane.
“But the traffic calming has been removed, apparently because rat-running won’t happen.
“I can only assume we’ll be riding our flying pigs to work when this doesn’t happen.
“The traffic calming at the very least has to go back in, otherwise you’re creating a drag strip.”
Mark Weston and Bador Uddin say that the A4018 Improvement Scheme on Passage Road is a “two-year construction project that will deliver little other than road rage” – photo: Karen Johnson
Weston was told, however, that the plans are now too far ahead to be changed. The work is due to start soon, although the exact date is unclear.
Green councillor, Ed Plowden, chair of the transport policy committee, said: “Mark, I would like to thank you for taking me around the area and educating me about it.
“I’m sorry but I think it might be just a little bit too late in the whole process for me to be able to act on that education.”
Previous proposed changes also included replacing the Crow Lane roundabout with a traffic light junction, banning certain turns off the road, and restrictions in Westbury Village.
These proposals were dropped in summer 2019 after proving very unpopular.
Main photo: Karen Johnson
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
