On Thursday evening, 8th November, at a
meeting of the Canterbury Society, Lynn Sloman of Transport for
Quality of Life
delivered an eagerly awaited presentation on her blueprint for future
sustainable transport in Canterbury .
The hall of the Dominican Priory was packed with over 100 people, including
city and county officials and councillors.
Dr Sloman, who was
brought up in the Canterbury area and attended
Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School, has been carrying out a special survey of
transport and traffic in Canterbury ,
commissioned by the Canterbury Society with funds secured by Canterbury 4 Clean
Air. She will now be considering the
responses from the Question and Answer session on Thursday evening and from
council officials and others who have seen the draft, and writing the final
copy of the blueprint. The intention will then be to persuade the city council
to adopt it and incorporate it into its transport policy.
The
basic aim of the blueprint is to reduce congestion and improve air quality in
the city, and to make Canterbury
a much more attractive and healthy place to live in and visit, on the model of
similar cities here and on the continent.
Measures
to achieve this would focus on improving infrastructure for sustainable means
of travelling to provide economical and reliable alternatives for those
travelling around and into the city by car. These would include:
·
more regular
bus services
·
more
designated bus lanes
·
a much wider
network of segregated and continuous cycle paths across the city
·
more cycle
parking
·
the promotion
of car-sharing amongst the city’s largest employers
·
clusters of
car commuters in feeder towns
Also
key to the blueprint is the design and location of new development. High density
development next to and including frequent and reliable access to public
transport and cycle lanes, with local services and shops, will see low car use.
Low density development with slip road access to major roads encourages people
to get into their cars.
There
are some encouraging success stories to build on. Bus use in the Canterbury area
has increased by almost 300% since 2000, a spectacular result which no other UK
town comes anywhere near to matching. Moreover,
the city boasts the Great Stour Way cycle path from Chartham to Canterbury, an excellent
asset to the city’s transport network.
We
look forward to the completed report and will be lobbying hard for the
implementation of its recommendations.