Journey through Bristol an ordeal

AGAINST my better judgement, my wife and I decided to go shopping in Broadmead and Cabot Circus.

The torturous route to the

Galleries car park was like a tour of the parts of Bristol which I hadn’t visited in years, due to the bus gates surrounding parts of Bristol.

The car park was surprisingly empty, I wondered why?

Eventually the shopping trip came to an end and my ordeal started. Deciding to travel up Newgate, right down Union Street, left onto Rupert Street, transverse the Centre onto Anchor Road and towards Hotwells and onward to home, it appeared that another bus gate had been installed at the junction of Union Street and Rupert Street.

I did note the traffic can still travel down Rupert Street from the Haymarket roundabout, but all other traffic must travel along the Horsefair and exit Broadmead in the Old Market direction. It took me the best part of 30 minutes, moving slowly, allowing pedestrians to cross as the traffic moved.

How can the newly installed traffic measures...

* 1. Improve the quality of the air within the broadmead and Cabot Circus area, with nose-to-tail traffic?

* 2. Encourage people to visit these shopping areas, post Covid-19, with these bus gates?

I’m aware of the various buses that service the greater Broadmead area, but given the current passenger restrictions, these are sometimes not an option.

Marvellous Marvin, the Bristol mayor, needs to review these decisions before these shopping areas decline any further.

Cribbs Causeway shopping centre is always an option.

Pete Murphy, Bristol