Reading Borough Council Transport Consultation

Reading Borough Council Transport Consultation

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PurpleTurtle

Original Poster:

6,935 posts

143 months

Friday 13th September 2019
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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

AlexRS2782

8,023 posts

212 months

Friday 13th September 2019
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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.

wooly350i

2,248 posts

207 months

Sunday 15th September 2019
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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!

SGirl

7,918 posts

260 months

Sunday 15th September 2019
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^^^ This. The whole thing is just loaded towards “cars are bad”, there seems to be no way of highlighting their ridiculous numbers of traffic lights or the fact they’re completely ignoring the increase in population. Page is a disgrace.

Piersman2

6,596 posts

198 months

Tuesday 17th September 2019
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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. frown

Puggit

48,350 posts

247 months

Wednesday 18th September 2019
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I have nothing to add to the above. It was clearly tilted.

They've just approved the station at Green Park. There is access to use the station from the west (Burghfield area) - but no parking. That's only available from the A33 side. Go figure!

PurpleTurtle

Original Poster:

6,935 posts

143 months

Wednesday 18th September 2019
quotequote all
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.

Puggit

48,350 posts

247 months

Friday 20th September 2019
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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.

Bahnstormer

934 posts

245 months

Thursday 3rd October 2019
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Have worked in Reading the past 3 years and the commute has got gradualy got slower and slower so that it is now faster to go 6 miles by train and bus than to drive. I guess that's mission accomplished for them ! frown


PurpleTurtle

Original Poster:

6,935 posts

143 months

Friday 4th October 2019
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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 st 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

1,079 posts

57 months

Wednesday 9th October 2019
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Reading is abysmal.

Far too many unnecessary traffic lights. Non-existent cycling infrastructure.

Page needs to step down.

PurpleTurtle

Original Poster:

6,935 posts

143 months

Wednesday 9th October 2019
quotequote all
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.

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. rolleyes



ElectricSoup

8,202 posts

150 months

Wednesday 9th October 2019
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Stand for the LibDems in your ward, PT! Good chance of winning there.

outnumbered

4,067 posts

233 months

Wednesday 9th October 2019
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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 !


Edited by outnumbered on Wednesday 9th October 18:22

ElectricSoup

8,202 posts

150 months

Thursday 10th October 2019
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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.

RemyMartin81D

6,759 posts

204 months

Saturday 12th October 2019
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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.

ElectricSoup

8,202 posts

150 months

Monday 14th October 2019
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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.

ChevyChase77

1,079 posts

57 months

Wednesday 23rd October 2019
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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 !


Edited by outnumbered on Wednesday 9th October 18:22
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....

ChevyChase77

1,079 posts

57 months

Wednesday 23rd October 2019
quotequote all
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.

I think we're planning on moving further west, depending where you can get much more for your money property wise.

ElectricSoup

8,202 posts

150 months

Wednesday 23rd October 2019
quotequote all
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.

I think we're planning on moving further west, depending where you can get much more for your money property wise.
See I don't get that "it's getting rougher" thing. I think the opposite is happening. It was rough as a bear's arse when I moved here in 1995, there was barely a pub you could go in without wondering if you'd get out alive. Now it's a relative haven of peace and choice. It's been getting progressively more middle class year on year. All the flats going up in the town centre are mega expensive, but people are moving out of London to Reading in droves - people with decent jobs, young families.