So I wanted to buy a newspaper today, and why should I not ? It can last a week and gives all the tv information that I need, so obviously I took the car to the local supermarket. It took 30 minutes to do a journey that I can walk in 15 minutes . Maybe that is the problem. Until it is more difficult to take the car I am going to take the easy option.
I don’t know about you but everywhere I go I seem to run into road works. Maybe creating cycle lanes in roads that are not that wide anyway or quite often , I am not sure why they are doing them in the first place. This is how it is , the infrastructure is creaking under our massive love of motor vehicles.
So polluting petrol and diesel powered cars are not great for the places that we live in and the rat run is as old as the hills. One of the first places to deal with this was the Mitchell Avenue estate in Jesmond that cut itself off from the world and the rat runners by reducing the access to one entry. That really does stop the problem and left them with a place that the residents could have a fairly peaceful life. More recently the golden triangle took similar measures to stop the rat runners and that worked very well for them too.
The government stepped in recently and closed Salters Bridge, Castle Farm Bridge, Haldane Bridge , Argyle Street Bridge and Stoneyhurst Road Bridge in Gosforth.
Probably not popular with commuters but generally any people that I know that live in those areas are pleased with the quietness and increased safety that this has brought.
We now are moving on to the next phase of improving things with the Low Traffic proposals. Five admirals , Fenham and Heaton have basically just cut themselves off and the thing is that if you only leave one access it will stop the rat runners. Not popular with commuters I would have thought but it will reduce pollution in those areas.
The final area to take part is Jesmond East and unlike the other areas which were purely residential , this area includes shops and restaurants . Unlike the other projects they decided not to enclose the area and you can access the estate from both ends. Not a very wide street and quite a few cars there even at quiet times.
Of course these measures only move the problem and I would have thought that the result will be gridlocks on Osborne Road , Jesmond Road and other nearby roads that are still open.
Hence, the move to Electric Vehicles ,cycling and walking. The corner house already has dangerous levels of pollution near a number of schools so the plans to stop people using cars on a Sunday may become reality.
Maybe more of us will have to take to cycling and walking soon. It is going to make life very difficult for some elderly and disabled people but there does not seem much of an alternative.