Station plans are on wrong track
Dear Editor,
I’d like to respond to the proposals for phase two of the improvement works concerning Stirling Rail Station (Observer, December 7, 2016).
The initial proposals are for pedestrians and cyclists to be given priority in the area in front of the station and for the taxi rank and drop-off near the entrance to the station to be moved to one of the car parks.
I think that would be counterproductive, as people coming out of the station and looking for a taxi or the car that’s come to pick them up need to be processed as quickly as possible, to keep the station entrance – a bottleneck – clear.
Having them milling around, many of them with luggage, getting in other people’s way while they look for the signs and then make their way to the taxi rank or drop-off point will cause congestion, rather than relieving it.
Similarly with dropping off: people with luggage, going for a train, need to be dropped off as near as possible to the station entrance, not have to struggle with their luggage from a car park, possibly in the rain. Stirling has an existing one-way road right outside the station for vehicles picking up and dropping off.
In one end, and out the other. The problem is that the present zebra crossing takes the pedestrians right through the traffic path, which is both dangerous and inefficient.
How about simply removing the existing zebra crossing at the station entrance and making two new pedestrian crossings, one to the east and one to the west, beyond the ‘in’ and ‘out’ points so that there is no conflict between pedestrians and vehicle traffic?
Cyclists can go straight into the car park where cycle parking is provided.
Marjory Maxwell Pedestrian and cyclist, by email