Bringing in cafe society will cause traffic hell
AS a user of part of Bury New Road (A56), I experience the traffic jams and congestion on a daily basis when going to work.
This will be made worse when the road through Prestwich Village is made into a single traffic lane in both directions (M.E.N., March 3, Gridlock alert over £2M bid to create cafe culture).
Although the road is already struggling with the volume of traffic currently using it, council bosses say it will be an improvement and bring a ‘lively’ main road café culture.
Anyone using the A56 will confirm that it’s already pretty ‘lively’ on weekdays with bumper to bumper vehicles for most of its length and with the work scheduled to be carried out between 8am and 5pm, road rage is definitely on the agenda.
Although the work will last for 35 weeks until November, when it’s finished the result will be permanent.
Bearing in mind the increase in cars, why would anyone think it’s a good idea to narrow a main through route to create... a café culture?
Air pollution will no doubt also increase with queuing vehicles.
Coun Jane Black says the Council will be working closely with the contractors to ensure the impact of the work is carefully planned.
She’s not wrong using the word ‘impact’ because there’s certainly going to be plenty of that. Roads are there to carry transport and making them smaller won’t make vehicles suddenly disappear.
In an attempt to get where they are going, drivers will look for short cuts – and then barricades will appear to stop them using those other routes.
Drivers of vehicles using the A56 (which includes ambulances, fire engines, police, HGVs and delivery vehicles, not just cars) would probably prefer not to have to participate in the impact of the forthcoming temporary-leading-to-permanent changes and have the road remain as a double-lane route, even with its current problems, than face more delays when this major upheaval is completed. Observer, Manchester