Reading Borough Council Transport Consultation
Discussion
If you've ever driven in Reading rush hour you'll know traffic can well be a nightmare.
Reading Borough Council are canvassing the public for opinions and given that they have a lot of skin in the game (they own the Bus Company, and Tony Page, Lead Councillor for Transport proudly does not drive), there is only one way this will go in the absence of a Third Thames Bridge - more bus lanes, more anti-car measures.
Apparently they are disappointed by the low level of responses to it. This is probably due ot the fact that they've made bugger all effort to promote it, in my view. Given that this is the regional bit of the country's most popular motoring website I thought some of you may wish to participate.
https://www.pclconsult.co.uk/transport2036
Got a week to do it, closes Friday 20th September 2019
Reading Borough Council are canvassing the public for opinions and given that they have a lot of skin in the game (they own the Bus Company, and Tony Page, Lead Councillor for Transport proudly does not drive), there is only one way this will go in the absence of a Third Thames Bridge - more bus lanes, more anti-car measures.
Apparently they are disappointed by the low level of responses to it. This is probably due ot the fact that they've made bugger all effort to promote it, in my view. Given that this is the regional bit of the country's most popular motoring website I thought some of you may wish to participate.
https://www.pclconsult.co.uk/transport2036
Got a week to do it, closes Friday 20th September 2019
If it's anything like the consultations that were done about speed limits in areas like Richmond, Twickenham, etc, being dropped to 20 - regardless of the views against any plans whatever they want to do will still get voted through. Especially if it leads to ways that said council(s) can charge & fine to get back the £££ that is missing from their budgets.
Fairly sure Reading are on the list of many towns & cities, like Bristol, Portsmouth, Bournemouth (and many others around the UK) that all want to introduce chargeable LEZ's (like London) ASAP so i imagine that will figure pretty high up on the council agenda to get whatever plans they have pushed through.
Fairly sure Reading are on the list of many towns & cities, like Bristol, Portsmouth, Bournemouth (and many others around the UK) that all want to introduce chargeable LEZ's (like London) ASAP so i imagine that will figure pretty high up on the council agenda to get whatever plans they have pushed through.
I got to the second batch of questions and thought what a waste of my time then gave up.
The questioning is weighed towards cutting traffic by what ever measure there is at their disposal and they’re not addressing the real issue, ie; the massive building programme going on in and around Reading which inevitably brings in more people/ more traffic, they’ve pissed about for 50 years debating a third bridge and are still side stepping that issue whilst the traffic continues to come in to Reading via Caversham from Oxfordshire daily yet it’s Oxfordshire whom they claim is objecting to the bridge in Berkshire!
Reading borough council will do just as they please, as they did with charge parking around the RBH!
The questioning is weighed towards cutting traffic by what ever measure there is at their disposal and they’re not addressing the real issue, ie; the massive building programme going on in and around Reading which inevitably brings in more people/ more traffic, they’ve pissed about for 50 years debating a third bridge and are still side stepping that issue whilst the traffic continues to come in to Reading via Caversham from Oxfordshire daily yet it’s Oxfordshire whom they claim is objecting to the bridge in Berkshire!
Reading borough council will do just as they please, as they did with charge parking around the RBH!
I live in Reading so thought I'd fill in the form. What a waste of time, laughably tilted to their agenda. I actually made it to the 5 page where I was aked to select my gender (various listed options), religion, ethnicity, age, etc....
What any of those have to do with traffic I'm struggling to understand.
I despair, in ALL levels of government.
What any of those have to do with traffic I'm struggling to understand.
I despair, in ALL levels of government.
Indeed it is ludicrously weighed in favour of 'cars are bad'.
Rush hour traffic in Caversham has been abysmal all week, thanks to one set of road works outside the Pru building on the Kings Rd gyratory which is due to be in place until 10th October. We're at maximum capacity and any kind of blip causes vast parts of the town to go gridlocked.
I am a long time critic of RBC and Tony Page. I have always been in favour of a third bridge, but it needs to be much more than that. I quite get why the residents of South Oxfordshire don't want a load of traffic dumped into their rural roads with no capacity upgrade, but the flipside of that is that many of their residents are able to live in their desirable locations thanks to well-paid jobs in the M3/M4 corridor, many of whom commute through Reading but never stop to bring anything to the economy. All they bring is congestion and pollution. I think the stat I saw was somthing like 35% of rush hour traffic was non-stop through traffic. Get rid of that and you've solved a large part of the problem - it flows pretty well, outside of rush hour.
Therefore, in the absence of any Central Govt funding for a complete road overhaul, including a northern bypass and associated road upgrades in South Oxfordshire, I think the best interim solution is ANPR based congestion charging on Reading and Caversham bridges for non-Reading residents, with all profits from it ring-fenced for improvements in public transport.
I think this will displace a lot of traffic that has no business being in Reading. Will it piss of the denizens of Henley on Thames and Pangbourne when people seek other routes across the Thames? Undoubtedly, yes. But it's only when places like that start to suffer will the people in power to make these decisions do something about it.
It also needs a lot more joined up thinking about rail travel. In my youth every train had a guard's van where you could stash your bike. Nowadays they don't exist and you are not allowed to take your bike on a peak time Waterloo train, Paddington ones need a reservation. Where is the sense in that? That's before you even scratch the surface of it being a really dangerous town to cycle in, and a bike theft problem at the Station that is worse than any I have known elsewhere in the country, all of these things are complete disincentives to getting people out of their cars.
Rush hour traffic in Caversham has been abysmal all week, thanks to one set of road works outside the Pru building on the Kings Rd gyratory which is due to be in place until 10th October. We're at maximum capacity and any kind of blip causes vast parts of the town to go gridlocked.
I am a long time critic of RBC and Tony Page. I have always been in favour of a third bridge, but it needs to be much more than that. I quite get why the residents of South Oxfordshire don't want a load of traffic dumped into their rural roads with no capacity upgrade, but the flipside of that is that many of their residents are able to live in their desirable locations thanks to well-paid jobs in the M3/M4 corridor, many of whom commute through Reading but never stop to bring anything to the economy. All they bring is congestion and pollution. I think the stat I saw was somthing like 35% of rush hour traffic was non-stop through traffic. Get rid of that and you've solved a large part of the problem - it flows pretty well, outside of rush hour.
Therefore, in the absence of any Central Govt funding for a complete road overhaul, including a northern bypass and associated road upgrades in South Oxfordshire, I think the best interim solution is ANPR based congestion charging on Reading and Caversham bridges for non-Reading residents, with all profits from it ring-fenced for improvements in public transport.
I think this will displace a lot of traffic that has no business being in Reading. Will it piss of the denizens of Henley on Thames and Pangbourne when people seek other routes across the Thames? Undoubtedly, yes. But it's only when places like that start to suffer will the people in power to make these decisions do something about it.
It also needs a lot more joined up thinking about rail travel. In my youth every train had a guard's van where you could stash your bike. Nowadays they don't exist and you are not allowed to take your bike on a peak time Waterloo train, Paddington ones need a reservation. Where is the sense in that? That's before you even scratch the surface of it being a really dangerous town to cycle in, and a bike theft problem at the Station that is worse than any I have known elsewhere in the country, all of these things are complete disincentives to getting people out of their cars.
And all of PT's points where mentioned on the local social media pages when the consultation was brought up.
I also posted that residents of South Oxon should be charged for access to Reading. We live just south of Reading - and never entertain the thought of driving through it, but I guess those in South Oxon have little choice.
I also posted that residents of South Oxon should be charged for access to Reading. We live just south of Reading - and never entertain the thought of driving through it, but I guess those in South Oxon have little choice.
On a side note, I cycled into Reading last night to go on a work do, went past the taxi rank at the main entrance of the station (Station Hill).
Despite the fact that RBC are regularly losing their s
t about climate change and NOX pollution there were (at least) 50 black cabs sat there, most of which had their engines idling whilst sat doing nothing.
Do RBC do anything about that? Nope, 'cos they are totally in hock to the Reading Taxi Driver's Association - head thereof is the very recent former Mayor.
Despite the fact that RBC are regularly losing their s
t about climate change and NOX pollution there were (at least) 50 black cabs sat there, most of which had their engines idling whilst sat doing nothing. Do RBC do anything about that? Nope, 'cos they are totally in hock to the Reading Taxi Driver's Association - head thereof is the very recent former Mayor.
ChevyChase77 said:
Reading is abysmal.
Far too many unnecessary traffic lights. Non-existent cycling infrastructure.
Page needs to step down.
Let's put our sparring from the 'Spoons thread aside CC, on this I completely agree with you. Far too many unnecessary traffic lights. Non-existent cycling infrastructure.
Page needs to step down.
The problem is that he runs (more than seemingly Transport) on that Council like a camp Bond villain.
However, Labour have a long-term hold on the Council so don't expect that to change any time soon. He failed in his bid to get elected as Labour candidate for Parliament so he's got his feet very much under the RBC table until retirement.
I'm also told that he doesn't drive, so probably does not GAF about car drivers.
While we're grumbling about traffic in Reading, has anyone else noticed that they've made Portman Rd/ Richfield Ave into a 30 limit now ?
A friend who used to be a Reading councillor (tory) told me that Cllr. Page doesn't even live full time in Reading, he reckons he's mainly based somewhere in East London. Not sure if it's true, though !
A friend who used to be a Reading councillor (tory) told me that Cllr. Page doesn't even live full time in Reading, he reckons he's mainly based somewhere in East London. Not sure if it's true, though !
Edited by outnumbered on Wednesday 9th October 18:22
ElectricSoup said:
Yeah, spotted that. Just thinking it lucky that it wasn't reduced to 20. Which the entire town will be in 10 years, mark my words.
Already is +unofficially). Chick-fil-A can't save it. Always been a sthole with an inflated sense of self worth...always will be. To use a battlefield chat colloquialism. Reading is cancer.
That chicken shop can suck my ginger nads, the fking fascists, they will never get a penny out of me.
Aside from that, a fairly harsh critique of Reading there. Not exactly Shangri-La, no, and I'll be delighted to leave the place once I'm retired, but until then it's not really much better/worse than any other major town in the London commuter belt.
king fascists, they will never get a penny out of me.Aside from that, a fairly harsh critique of Reading there. Not exactly Shangri-La, no, and I'll be delighted to leave the place once I'm retired, but until then it's not really much better/worse than any other major town in the London commuter belt.
outnumbered said:
While we're grumbling about traffic in Reading, has anyone else noticed that they've made Portman Rd/ Richfield Ave into a 30 limit now ?
A friend who used to be a Reading councillor (tory) told me that Cllr. Page doesn't even live full time in Reading, he reckons he's mainly based somewhere in East London. Not sure if it's true, though !
Unfortunately there are too many flats being built around Reading (hence the reduction in the speed limit on Portman Rd) and no sign of any major infrastructure improvements. Traffic that is already a nightmare will become much, much worse so Page can bring up his congestion charging and get it pushed through....A friend who used to be a Reading councillor (tory) told me that Cllr. Page doesn't even live full time in Reading, he reckons he's mainly based somewhere in East London. Not sure if it's true, though !
Edited by outnumbered on Wednesday 9th October 18:22
ElectricSoup said:
.
Aside from that, a fairly harsh critique of Reading there. Not exactly Shangri-La, no, and I'll be delighted to leave the place once I'm retired, but until then it's not really much better/worse than any other major town in the London commuter belt.
Same here. It's getting worse/rougher all the time.Aside from that, a fairly harsh critique of Reading there. Not exactly Shangri-La, no, and I'll be delighted to leave the place once I'm retired, but until then it's not really much better/worse than any other major town in the London commuter belt.
I think we're planning on moving further west, depending where you can get much more for your money property wise.
ChevyChase77 said:
ElectricSoup said:
.
Aside from that, a fairly harsh critique of Reading there. Not exactly Shangri-La, no, and I'll be delighted to leave the place once I'm retired, but until then it's not really much better/worse than any other major town in the London commuter belt.
Same here. It's getting worse/rougher all the time.Aside from that, a fairly harsh critique of Reading there. Not exactly Shangri-La, no, and I'll be delighted to leave the place once I'm retired, but until then it's not really much better/worse than any other major town in the London commuter belt.
I think we're planning on moving further west, depending where you can get much more for your money property wise.
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