Urban Transport in Wigan

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Urban Transport in Wigan

Introduction

        In most cities in Britain, the speed of modern traffic is often slower than the horse drawn trams of the nineteenth century. Traffic in London now averages a speed of thirteen kilometres per hour. In the ironically named ‘rush hour’, thousands of frustrated drivers sit in stationary cars, drive a few metres and then remain stationary again. A lot of cars only carry one person, this being the driver and twelve per cent of people spend more time travelling in their car than they do at home with their families.

        Every year, the number of vehicles on the road increases. Since 1975, traffic on roads has rose by eighty five per cent yet the length of the public roads has only risen by eleven point two percent. This means that the extra traffic isn’t spread evenly throughout Britain’s road network. This problem is at its worst in towns were roads are even more neglected than city roads. Although Wigan’s traffic problem isn’t as major as some towns and cities, it still has a traffic problem. I am going to investigate if Wigan’s traffic problem is significant enough to warrant a by-pass, which would separate the major roads that run through Wigan from Wigan’s roads into and out of the town centre. A bypass would stop traffic travelling all the way around Wigan to get into the town centre.

Here is a graph to show the rise in Great Britain’s road traffic:

‘Everyone has experienced urban congestion. The issue is what to do about it.’

Methods of reducing, the problems caused by urban congestion.

        The way we try to tackle our traffic problems is called a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The carrots are positive encouragements and the sticks are penalties to try and make car usage less attractive. Schemes that towns like Wigan or cities have or cities have or could set up are as follows:-

Park and ride

        Park and ride schemes reduce the amount of cars in the centre of towns and cities by tempting motorists to stop outside the city and take the bus or other forms of public transport into the city or town centre. Schemes like this can be very cheap and as simple as providing a car park for a train station, these schemes can also be very profitable. A fine example of this is the city of Glasgow whose income from the scheme is more than one million pounds more than the cost of running it. People mainly use the scheme because the car park is secure and the fares are low.

Kiss and Ride:-

        This scheme is even cheaper to provide. The scheme works by someone driving you to a train station e.g. the person’s wife. The person then kisses you goodbye and then drives the car away. This scheme could be very attractive to a couple who live outside a city.

Generally better parking:-

        Traffic problems can be reduced by making less parking spaces or changing the cost of the service. For example if the maximum stay on a car park is a few hours, this is long enough for people to shop but not long enough for commuters. This means that business might benefit whilst commuting by car is discouraged, this is a win-win situation. Private parking in a town or city centre creates problems and some towns and cities want to tax this heavily.

Buses:-

        Since 1975, bus mileage has steadily reduced by twenty eight per cent. Buses are just as slow as cars when caught in congestion. This is why bus lanes have been created so that buses can overtake slow traffic. Buses with transponders make traffic lights turn green when approached. Buses also greatly cut pollution fumes which are another plus.

Bikes:-

        Bikes are faster in city and town centres when there is congestion, they use fifty times less energy, are cheap and can keep commuters fit.

Contents

        

My overall aim is to see if Wigan has similar traffic problems to the country as a whole. Plus I will be investigating if Wigan’s roads are at the point were they are too congested and need a by-pass to ease the traffic flow in an around the town centre.

Has Wigan got a traffic problem and what is the best way to solve it?

Here is a short description of Wigan’s location:-

Lying midway between Liverpool and Manchester, Wigan is the country's twelfth largest metropolitan district. Wigan has roads; (some major) radiating outwards from the centre. Wigan has a Victorian street pattern in its CBD and most importantly, it lacks a by-pass linking the M6 and M61 motorways which forces traffic through the narrow streets of the town centre.

Here is a map showing Wigan and the surrounding road network from quite a distance away:-

And here is a map showing Wigan and its surrounding streets from a much closer distance:-

And finally here is a map showing Wigan aerially from a close distance:-

        

Wigan has a population of 301,900 and is a local government area in the northwest of England. Wigan is an industrial town in Greater Manchester, midway between Liverpool and Manchester. Wigan stands on the River Douglas and the Leeds and Liverpool canal; it is also connected to the M6 and M62 and so often gets traffic from these major roads travelling through its rather small Victorian style streets.

What data I will need to collect in order to make my study appropriate.

        In order to make my study appropriate I will have to collect certain types of effective data. The types of data I will collect and the reasons for this are as follows:-

  • Environmental Survey, - I will do this simply by smelling the air around certain sites in Wigan and plot them on a scale. I will carry this out for volume of traffic, noise level, crossing potential and parking restrictions.
  • Questionnaire, - I will do this by asking random people that I see in Wigan questions on the traffic situation in Wigan and how they travel to and from and what they do in Wigan.
  • Traffic survey, - I will record the type and frequency of vehicles that I see at certain times in the day. I and my group will concentrate on Scholes/Greenough Street while other members of my class will observe other junctions and streets in Wigan in order for us to get a wider picture of Wigan’s traffic.
  • Decision making exercise, - I will look at certain sites in Wigan and judge their potential in being future ‘Park and Ride’ sites for Wigan.
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Aim 1:- A Traffic Survey of Wigan

Prediction:-

        I predict that traffic will be busier in Wigan town centre in the morning than the afternoon. I believe this to be true because in then morning there are more people travelling to work and taking their kids to school. In my opinion the most people will be travelling to in and from Wigan will be alone and will also be mostly driving cars.

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