Hertford Is Choking

Your views on traffic and parking in the town
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Steve
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Hertford Is Choking

Post by Steve » Sun 08 May, 2016 2:29 am

Nice to see that someone is highlighting the increasing congestion in town

http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/C ... story.html

SloopJohnB
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Re: Hertford Is Choking

Post by SloopJohnB » Sun 08 May, 2016 12:06 pm

I would comment on this Steve if I had the first clue what the Mercury were on about. I gave up trying to read their on-line pages as they kept increasing the side ads, the pop ups, pop unders, videos and all the other intrusions of modern media life. In the interests of fairness I gave them a second chance the other week and found that I had to complete a survey. I just want to read the news. Don't mind ads but I refuse to be assaulted in every direction by Local World's obsession with increasing revenue. Now it is owned by Trinity Mirror will it go the same way as New Day?

As for traffic congestion see the Vision and Strategy document as written by Tibbalds. The issues they have raised were argued month after month, year after year to the point of death at the Hertford Transport Forum. No solution was ever found which I tried to tell Tibbalds and by default East Herts but I've been there many times before. Hertford is an ancient, market town built for horse and cart and not Henry Ford.

Each survey has come up with the same answer: Gascoyne Way was intended as relief road, it has failed. Fore Street has become a rat run and only about twenty per cent of drivers had any business in town. There was a chance to relieve some problems many years ago when it was suggested to reverse the traffic flow on Folly Island by stopping cars at the Barge or earlier, pedestrianise Bull Plain and open up Hartham Lane for local traffic. It got so far but decriminalisation took over and it was forgotten. There was a chance with Sainsburys who had the money but that is a very different story which I think the laws of libel may prevent me from explaining it here.

Anyway if you get a chance Steve please precis the Mercury report here. I might need cheering up this afternoon if Spurs fail to win!

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Steve
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Re: Hertford Is Choking

Post by Steve » Sun 08 May, 2016 2:07 pm

SloopJohnB wrote:I gave up trying to read their on-line pages as they kept increasing the side ads, the pop ups, pop unders, videos and all the other intrusions of modern media life.
I use AdBlock and I can see that a visit to their Hertford & Ware news page blocks 22 adverts! I really don't understand why organisations don't realise that loading a page with so many ads is counterproductive and drives people away - people who may never come back. You just have to look at The Mercury's outdated website and print edition to realise that their business model hasn't really kept up with the times.

IMHO.

Anywho, this is veering off topic.

As far as I know, the County Council still don't have traffic modelling software capable of understanding current and future traffic flows (just one of the things holding up the District Plan). It's going to end up like airport expansion, continually kicking the can down the road whilst the problem just gets worse and worse.

SloopJohnB
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Re: Hertford Is Choking

Post by SloopJohnB » Mon 09 May, 2016 10:43 am

Thanks Steve. It seems very little has changed then. I do have sympathy with anyone who tries to resolve the problem of traffic around and inside Hertford.

I have not been so involved in recent years but the issue of the southern bypass was always being mentioned. I don't think it was ever a definite issue or funds allocated for a consultation but it was always in the background. Various people from different organisations claim to have seen draft plans and I had no reason to disbelieve them.

More recent road improvements have also given some credibility to this. The road would start at Cole Green where there is a new large roundabout and go south around Letty Green, Bayfordbury, Hertford Heath and join up with the roundabout at Stanstead Abbotts. This would cause no little cause for concern to those in the area and it was only a thought but ..... :shock:

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