York to ban cars from city

[saaby93]

surely it's polluting buses that need banning first?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-y...

[Agammemnon]

Presumably there will be an exemption for the mayor & his staff, council officials, people on council business, etc?

[Jasandjules]

Agammemnon said:

Presumably there will be an exemption for the mayor & his staff, council officials, people on council business, etc?

I am sure their private taxis etc will be exempt indeed, comrade.....

[smn159]

York is about a mile across within the walled bit isn't it?. The ban seem like a good idea to me.

[Wills2]

The area they are talking about is less than half a square mile, the walled part of the centre, it's tokenism but it'll be ill thought out and badly implemented and no doubt costs millions (somehow)

[Starfighter]

It may be small but the walled centre contains 2!of the 3 bridges across the Ouse.

Interesting that the worst areas measured were the main bus depot and a cab rank. Now that may give some an idea of where to start.

[Pedro Raynard]

Agree with the tokenism view however, Lendal Bridge falls within the walls and as with the bus lane debacle this will have an impact if included within the vehicle ban.

[anonymous-user]

No one should be surprised by headlines like this at all.

We had the Bristol discussion last year and it was generally agreed that places like York, Bath, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Oxford, etc would likely look to ban diesel or diesel and petrol sooner rather than later.

Probably sooner than we all think.

Time to buy an electric bicycle?

[Jonny_]

Starfighter said:

It may be small but the walled centre contains 2!of the 3 bridges across the Ouse.

Interesting that the worst areas measured were the main bus depot and a cab rank. Now that may give some an idea of where to start.

Yes, that part stood out to me as well. Not many private cars in taxi ranks or at bus stands...

But then I'd expect little better from York council. They've always been anti-car, apparently living instead in a fantasy world where public transport is not hideously expensive, or comically unreliable, or inconvenient, or overcrowded, or impractical, or, as for lots of the surrounding villages, just plain non-existent.

[snuffy]

Me and the missus usually have a weekend break in York once I year and we always stay in a hotel that's just a few minutes walk into the centre so I dont think I've ever needed to drive right to the middle anyway. So I doubt if would affect me.

But I did get a fine for driving over Lendal Bridge and that really knobbed me off. I got the money back after they were forced to give it back. And this leads me to think the council is so incompetent that they will most likely will cock this idea up big time.

[Mikebentley]

That’s York and Bristol off my list then.

[grumbledoak]

Mikebentley said:

That’s York and Bristol off my list then.

Pretty much my feelings. I have no pressing need to visit either of them.

[Monkeylegend]

All electric cars as well.

[anonymous-user]

grumbledoak said:

Mikebentley said:

That’s York and Bristol off my list then.

Pretty much my feelings. I have no pressing need to visit either of them.

Where do you draw the line though?

It has already been mentioned in other discussions that this type of thing will probably be extended to many other cities and large towns, probably soon we think.

Even if towns don’t go for outright bans, I think they will dream up ever more unusual schemes to severely limit cars entering towns.

Are you not going to visit any of them in future? It seems a little bit of cutting your nose off to spite your face really.

You are perfectly entitled to not want to visit, and I understand that. Just don’t be too hasty is all I’m saying.

I don’t think a ban on private cars will stop me visiting any UK town or city. I’ll just have to use whatever facilities are available. Travel there by train, use a park and ride system, etc

I love cars and I enjoy driving, but I think I’ve just accepted that within the next 10 years we will all witness massive changes in the way we use private cars, the way we own private cars, and where we can go in them.

[Europa1]

Wills2 said:

The area they are talking about is less than half a square mile, the walled part of the centre, it's tokenism but it'll be ill thought out and badly implemented and no doubt costs millions (somehow)

It's quite a bit bigger than half a mile square.. I agree with your sentiments though.

[grumbledoak]

Lord Marylebone said:

I don’t think a ban on private cars will stop me visiting any UK town or city. I’ll just have to use whatever facilities are available. Travel there by train, use a park and ride system, etc

I love cars and I enjoy driving, but I think I’ve just accepted that within the next 10 years we will all witness massive changes in the way we use private cars, the way we own private cars, and where we can go in them.

You are free to do as you please.

There is absolutely no UK town or city that I want to visit enough to use a train or a park and ride.

[otolith]

grumbledoak said:

You are free to do as you please.

There is absolutely no UK town or city that I want to visit enough to use a train or a park and ride.

Urban driving is horrible. If I have to get into central Manchester, London, etc, I will always take the train if possible.

[Eyersey1234]

saaby93 said:

surely it's polluting buses that need banning first?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-y...

They are wanting all buses going into York to be Euro6 emissions from tomorrow, First still have a lot of work to do as even as of a few weeks ago had barely anything in York that complies.

[snuffy]

otolith said:

Urban driving is horrible. If I have to get into central Manchester, London, etc, I will always take the train if possible.

I used to work in central Manchester and for me using the train was not a viable option. Door to door (car park 2 minutes walk from the office) was between 60 minutes and 90 minutes depending on the time of day. Door to door using the train (so including walking from my house to the station, then from the station to the office) was 2 hours. I know it depends on where you are traveling from, but for me the train was never an option.

[Countdown]

snuffy said:

I used to work in central Manchester and for me using the train was not a viable option. Door to door (car park 2 minutes walk from the office) was between 60 minutes and 90 minutes depending on the time of day. Door to door using the train (so including walking from my house to the station, then from the station to the office) was 2 hours. I know it depends on where you are traveling from, but for me the train was never an option.

I work in Central Manchester. The vast majority of people in my team either use the Train or the Tram, partly because driving in is horrible, partly because parking fees are extortionate. I still drive in as I car-share with my son who's at Uni and my employer provides me with a parking space, but the difference between driving and public transport is borderline.

If Cities are going to penalise car users I think they first need to invest in the Public Transport infrastructure. For Manchester that means extending the Tram network and providing more express buses.