FW: Hitchin gyratory improvement - a massive missed opportunity
vicky wyer
Sent to Peter Lilley and copied to Councillors on Friday
From: vicky wyer [mailto:vicky...@ntlworld.com]
Sent: 17 April 2010 00:09
To: 'feed...@peterlilley.co.uk'
Cc:
'derrick...@hertscc.gov.uk'; 'ract...@googlemail.com';
'ray...@hotmail.com'
Subject: Hitchin gyratory
improvement - a massive missed opportunity
Dear Mr Lilley,
Many thanks for taking up my concerns about the Herts Highways ‘improvements’ to the Bedford Road gyratory in Hitchin last year. I have been very impressed by the lengths you have gone to on my behalf whenever I have raised issues with you.
I read with interest the letter from Roxanne Glaud of Herts Highways a few months back, replying to my concerns and defending the Bedford Road improvement scheme. Unfortunately it only confirmed how backward looking and outdated the ‘experts’ at Herts Highways are when it comes to transport improvements.
This week I came across the following article in the Evening Standard on Transport for London’s plans to scrap one-way systems to improve safety:
The article says “Experts today said the move is a general shift in policy away from one-way systems, with some councils banning the building of new one-way streets altogether.”
Martin Low, city commissioner of transportation for Westminster council said “It’s an outdated view to say that one-way is better.” John Franklin of the RAC added “One-way systems … cause logjams, frustrate motorists and with all the traffic going in the same direction there is a danger of driving too quickly”.
Peter Murray, Head of New London Architecture says “One-way systems reflect the dominance of the car and the failed go-faster policies of the traffic engineers. As we begin to realise that walking and cycling should be the dominant forms of transport, the one-way street should be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Unfortunately this comes too late for Hitchin. This, despite the fact that scrapping of the one-way system was favoured in past public consultations, and advocated in adopted policy documents such as the Hitchin Cycle Network Plan 2001 and the Hitchin Transport Plan 1998.
Can you please advise me what recourse is there for this massive missed opportunity and waste of public money?
How will you and county councillors hold Herts Highways to account for this? And how can they be prevented from continuing to design car-dominant schemes that are so damaging and discouraging to pedestrians, cyclists, people with disabilities and local shopkeepers?
I look forward to hearing from you
Kind regards
Vicky Wyer
Hitchin resident and member of the Hitchin Forum transport group
23 Priory Way
Hitchin SG4 9BJ
