The existing problems that Chester faces concerning traffic congestion are numerous and varied. They range from dangerous conditions to frequent delays and occur all over the city but mainly in the City Centre (CBD).

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Paul Dunn        Chester’s Traffic Congestion        10BT

The existing problems that Chester faces concerning traffic congestion are numerous and varied.  They range from dangerous conditions to frequent delays and occur all over the city but mainly in the City Centre (CBD).

A number of solutions have been offered and Chester City Council have adopted lots of these ideas.  Although some are believed to have worked, some have definitely not.  I believe that some of the solutions, like Park and Ride schemes, which operate by collecting passengers on the edge of the city and dropping them off in the centre, have certainly failed to work, especially on Saturdays (a popular shopping day).  My regular experiences of travelling with different Park and Ride services has taught me that it’s just as easy to park your car on the edge of the CBD and walk into the centre of Chester than to use these special ‘faster’ services.  I think this is the result of two decisive factors.  Firstly, I don’t think that there are enough bus lanes and secondly, the dense traffic congestion prevents the buses travelling efficiently at busy times outside the city, although once they enter into the ‘no-cars’ zone, there progress may be smoother and faster but pedestrians often walk in the centre of the road making it difficult to make smooth and steady progress.  In light of these problems, I feel that Chester City Council should perhaps offer an extra bus lane and also advise pedestrians to walk on the footpaths at all times if possible.  An extra bus lane would be expensive though and if the new addition was made, unless the rode was made wider, then a car lane would have to be forfeited, increasing the traffic congestion to an even greater scale.

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If a parking discount was available to shoppers/commuters who use Park and Ride services, it may attract more customers and therefore remove some of the cars from the busy areas of Chester.  I personally, don’t feel that this would have a wide spread effect and although it may a little, it wouldn’t provide a long-term answer to Chester’s traffic problems.

Another big problem that Chester faces is the amount of traffic there is in and around the centre of the city (excluding the main shopping streets where most vehicles are forbidden entry).  There are a number of open ...

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