Cardiff Gridlock

[Banjo]

Cardiff city is almost at gridlock in rush hour.

How have our glorious council leaders tackled this?

By approving a city center office block to accomodate 4000 extra
workers .

2000 of the workers are HMRC employees that currently work in LLanishen a few miles outside the city center.

 

[mjr]

Cardiff city is almost at gridlock in rush hour.

How have our glorious council leaders tackled this?

By approving a city center office block to accomodate 4000 extra
workers .

2000 of the workers are HMRC employees that currently work in LLanishen a few miles outside the city center.

Presumably some of which live in the city or on the other side and are currently driving through? Any planning application of that size must have included a transport assessment and travel plans and shoot like that, possibly doing various other actions to mitigate any negative effects. The usual problem is lots of little developments which councils won't/can't charge for mitigation actions that all add up to a significant amount of extra motor traffic.

Anyway, it could be worse - they could be trying to build new roads to so-called "tackle" congestion, like how bigger clothes tackle obesity.

 

[Banjo]

If extra trains are put on and the service is reliable and affordable then that would be great for those living near stations.

The existing tax office has a nearby station and road links to the motorway avoiding the city center.

The whole project reminds me of an ivory tower.

 

[Banjo]

Thanks User43827 for putting that far more eloquently than I could have.

Previously to transfer from Train to National Express coach service was a 100 meter walk.The temporary arrangement in Sophia Gardens about a mile away now means a taxi ride for anyone not able to carry luggage that far contributing further to the congestion.

I dont know what the final plan is .
Any time I need to go into Cardiff I either cycle all the way or drive part way and use my old folder (massive lock required).
I know some improvements are being done but Cardiff has to be one of the worst cycling cities in UK.

A ride along Cowbridge road from Culverhouse Cross to Canton is not for the faint hearted.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Inevitable - coming to a city/town/village near you soon. Most development appears to be approved without additional infrastructure being provided for the increase in traffic generated. It's too expensive.

 

[Banjo]

Your quite correct Adrian Yes those that go in by train would be able to get to Wood St quicker than Llanishen that's a no brainer.


Bringing in thousands of workers previously based outside the city centre cant possibly help. Long term high quality jobs encourage people to consider moving close to where they work , putting huge employers in a city center pretty much removes that option .

Unless a major overhaul of our road ,rail and cycling provision is proposed gridlock on the roads and third world experience on the trains are here to stay and get worse.

I certainly wouldn't hold up Amazon as an example of a good employer but look at their out of town warehouse in Swansea. Easy motorway link. Cycle path to City center and other places . Lines of buses outside at shift change time and car parking on site. But no shiny new building to showcase how well we are all doing.

 

[Drago]

If you're really lucky they'll throw millions of pounds of public money at some road scheme to make things barely perceptibly better, instead of addressing the actual problem.

 

[fossyant]

Manchester is gridlocked but the scale of building works going on now is incredible. A 4000 person office block is nothing..

 

[rivers]

Bristol is also gridlocked, but they're really not doing anything to help the situation. Sure they've got the metrobus rolling out soon, but it's being run by first bus, so will be overpriced and unreliable. So people will still drive into the city.

 

[Markymark]

I feel city centres are where businesses should be. It's good zoning. Out of towns will more likely be driven to. London hosts a huge number of workers. Nobody drives to work any more. The roads are clogged up with taxis and van couriers but that could easily be fixed should the mayor engage his brain.

 

[mjr]

Inevitable - coming to a city/town/village near you soon. Most development appears to be approved without additional infrastructure being provided for the increase in traffic generated. It's too expensive.

It's not quite as simple as "too expensive". The system has changed and developments now get charged a Community Infrastructure Levy that I think was to stop the old system of major developments paying "Section 106" agreement money being seen as bribes linked to particular developments.

So that's good, right? Most developments contribute towards infrastructure.

Except that local government can zero-rate areas or types of development to attract developers to there instead of elsewhere. Cue the race to the bottom with major urban overflows being zero-rated and government paying for the infrastructure and I suspect it being delivered too late (although it's a bit early to confirm this yet) - long after the residents in that new area have formed their habits, which probably will be motoring to services in the nearest town centre, overloading the road and possibly causing the later-built parts of infrastructure (probably cycling and public transport) to be cut in favour of putting the remaining budget towards more firefighting attempts to build out of congestion and pollution. Maybe I'm a cynic or maybe I just remember what happened before we routinely imposed planning conditions saying infrastructure had to be delivered before first occupation.

 

[Moodyman]

Yebbut, London has a very good public transport system which negates the need for a car.

It seems that Cardiff's public transport system is creaking with no planned improvements ahead of the 4,000 extra commuters.

 

[srw]

The roads are clogged up with taxis and van couriers

Completely clogged...

(And I had to wait so that the Southbound half of the road at the bottom actually had some traffic. That's an arterial road heading for London Bridge and in my experience is typical of the congestion charge area. I'm less familiar with the exotic far-flung wilds of zones 2-5.

 

[jonesy]

@jonesy any input on this?

I think it has been said already hasn't it: city centre locations can be accessed more easily by sustainable transport than sites out in the suburbs. I fully agree with those who say Cardiff's public transport needs improving, although there are already plans to do so, but to support a good public transport network you need to have a high density of jobs in its catchment area, so it is perfectly sensible to focus development in the centre. Putting it in locations that are car dependent on the grounds that public transport isn't adequate is self perpetuating.

 

[Drago]

There are already excellent sustainable transport options available to most people of working age - they're called feet, lungs, and bicycles. The solution exists and could be in place by Monday, but there's now will to do so from a public who'd rather sit in a traffic ham, and no will from our political masters to upset the car driving voters.

Democracy at work