Motorists Could Pay To Travel Into Douglas....

[localyokel]

Error

[localyokel]

Especially if the buses for commuter use from properly run park and rides were skipper type and electric.

 

If we had a 50 mph speed limit over the mountain, 40 elsewhere outside built up areas and 20 in towns on main arteries and 15 in residential areas along with fewer parked cars on the streets there would be no need for many traffic calming measures, chance for children to play out more safely and fewer less expensive accidents. We could get rid of most sets of traffic lights and all the new roundabouts. All junctions could be 4 way or 3 way give way with zippering, ie alternate vehicles pulling off.

 

What would we save

 

environment, fuel, safety, injuries, accidents, lives

 

Millions each year in real terms

 

This is the sort of tosh that every sandal wearing idiot dishes up when talking about transport policy ... what if ... what if ... what if ...

 

Maybe we could all then dance around maypoles at village fetes held on roundabouts, and bash each other on the head with big sticks whilst wearing shorts.

 

Fewer cars parked in streets? What are you on about? Would the cars parked there now just disappear given most in central Douglas have no garages? Or should the government just compulsary purchase every car and give everyone a rusty dutch-style bicycle?

 

At those speeds cars would use more fuel not less either.

 

Plus is there any road in Douglas wide enough to put a 3 or 4 way junction on? No. So why don't we just knock Douglas down to build these wonderful things so a few clueless hippies like you can drift around at 15 mph to buy their organic milk.

[manxchatterbox]

since Govt needs more money to spend on the Queens Pier Ramsey and a better class of tea and buns for the new members in the new offices it could raise the money by introducing a tax on parking spaces being provided as a benefit in kind.....

[The Agitator]

its a rediculous idea. bruce hannay was on the radio saying anything like that is a long way off and would need tynwald approval - that would be liek turkeys voting for xmas

[When Skies Are Grey]

its a rediculous idea. bruce hannay was on the radio saying anything like that is a long way off and would need tynwald approval - that would be liek turkeys voting for xmas

 

Are you Phil Kermode...you have a similar penchant for spelling!!

[Flash]

Looks like there's loads of 'shiney box' lovers replying.

 

If you want to slow down Climate Change you'd better be thinking about more than fuel economy and tackling CO2 emissions from your beloved cars.

 

Why not knock down Douglas and turn it into a multi-storey car park!?

 

Time will tell whether 'the sandal wearers' are right or not.

[When Skies Are Grey]

Oh come on climate change is a myth....the earth is going through a warming cycle as it has done for millions and millions of years before now....

[John Wright]

But is that not the point.

 

There would be very few journeys in town at low speeed because we would be using the public transport. The journeys out of town would be at near optimum speeds for fuel efficiency and tyre wear. Vehicles would last longer despite manufacturers built in obsolesence

 

The fossil fuel to power one electric bus with 30 passengers would be less than 5 cars with one passenger each, with consequent greenhouse gas savings. It would be quieter

 

4 way junctions are cross roads, three way are T junctions. No road widening just different rule of road. It works in Jersey and Guernsey

 

I played in the streets when I was a kid, bet most of you did. What has changed, volume and speed of traffic. Cut that down and streets are safer

 

Fewer cars in Douglas because of charging and abolition of on street parking other than for residents would mean fewer cars parked on the streets.

 

I have spent the last 25 years dealing with road traffic defence work in criminal law and consequential personal injury accident claims. I have represented fanilies and drivers at inquests. Almost all involved speed to some extent and would have either not have happened or been made less serious if speed had not been involved.

 

We live on a small Island, why do some people feel the need to drive at speeds which are, frankly dangerous.

 

What do you lose. Nothing except a perceived right to sit in a weapon of mass destruction and attempt to use it as such. Strangely that is not a human right.

 

We need all the other safety devices as well.

 

I haven't suggested speed limiters. Off Island you can drive as fast as you are allowed. I'm not a sandal and hippy type. I enjoy good cars, fast cars and speed, in the right context, the track or a clear motorway.

 

And if it encourages Smarts, Ligiers, Aixams etc at 70+mpg that is greener still.

[Albert Tatlock]

Oh come on climate change is a myth....the earth is going through a warming cycle as it has done for millions and millions of years before now....

I read in the Independent today (the UK one) that scientists have 'proved' that the entire UK population died out seven times due to adverse weather in the past, and that everyone comes from stock <12000 years old.

 

Here we are busily trying to link temperature changes to within decades - when history shows they actually take place over thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.

[stookie]

There would be very few journeys in town at low speeed because we would be using the public transport.

 

So nobody lives in towns any more?

 

The journeys out of town would be at near optimum speeds for fuel efficiency and tyre wear. Vehicles would last longer despite manufacturers built in obsolesence

 

No they wouldn't, because there would be some dozy tw*t in front doing 35 and nobody could legally overtake!

The fossil fuel to power one electric bus with 30 passengers would be less than 5 cars with one passenger each, with consequent greenhouse gas savings. It would be quieter

 

Depends how they're driven. Most cars wouldn't stop every 100 yds or so to let someone in/out and would take a direct route to where they are going rather than going all around the houses. Any evidence to support this or are we supposed to take your word for it?

 

I played in the streets when I was a kid, bet most of you did. What has changed, volume and speed of traffic. Cut that down and streets are safer

 

Streets are paid for by the road users. For sure there is more volume of traffic, but that's what streets are there for, not to be used as playgrounds.

 

Fewer cars in Douglas because of charging and abolition of on street parking other than for residents would mean fewer cars parked on the streets.

 

I have spent the last 25 years dealing with road traffic defence work in criminal law and consequential personal injury accident claims. I have represented fanilies and drivers at inquests. Almost all involved speed to some extent and would have either not have happened or been made less serious if speed had not been involved.

 

Ambulance chaser

 

We live on a small Island, why do some people feel the need to drive at speeds which are, frankly dangerous.

 

So you've never seen what 'in your opinion' is poor driving that wasn't related to speed? Why do some people feel the need to drive at 'inappropriate' speed - too fast or too slowly? I don't know.

What do you lose. Nothing except a perceived right to sit in a weapon of mass destruction and attempt to use it as such. Strangely that is not a human right.

 

LOL - haven't seen many cases of attempted murder by use of a motor car

 

I haven't suggested speed limiters. Off Island you can drive as fast as you are allowed. I'm not a sandal and hippy type. I enjoy good cars, fast cars and speed, in the right context, the track or a clear motorway.

 

Sounds like it. Who would bother producing 'good cars' and all the R&D that goes into them, in your utopia?

 

Smart cars are silly, very expensive and dangerous - if you've been involved with personal liability cases as you say, you will know that travelling in a little box like that makes you extremely vulnerable to being marmalised by another vehicle in a collision. I've been in an accident where someone ploughed into the rear of the car and I'm glad it had a boot and wasn't a hatchback. And when a bus driver is over the limit on the job, that kind of thing can happen, I'm sure

[GD4ELI]

Here we are busily trying to link temperature changes to within decades - when history shows they actually take place over thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.

Please keep up - what's happening now is at a faster rate than at any time in history.

 

You are referring to natural climate change, not man-made. You're not living in denial like the Langness man?

[Lonan3]

For their first term at infant school, my wife or I drove the kids to school and picked them up at the end of the day.

For the rest of that year, and the next one, we walked them down to the bus stop and met them there after school.

By the third year we were letting them make their own way to the bus stop in the morning, but meeting them there after school because they had to cross a busy main road.

By the fourth year they were able to be responsible for themselves (although there are always parents of younger children at the bus stop who will soon let us know if ours are misbehaving.

The school bus service is excellent and there really is no need to continue taking kids all the way to school and pick them up throughout their school careers.

 

On the other subject, I've long been an advocate of taking things out of Douglas and 'spreading the load' a bit. Many government departments, for example, could be moved to 'brownfield' sites, especially the parts of them that don't normally need to provide direct access to the public. As communication is so easy, all that many of them need is a small 'enquiry' office in the capital.

It might not provide an immediately visible change to the number of cars requiring parking spaces in Douglas - although the numbers would be reduced - but eventually those who live in outlying areas might see the sense in applying to work in a department that doesn't require them to travel far every day.

 

Finally, the government ought to be providing incentives to private businesses that make it genuinely attractive to set up in place such as Ramsey, Peel, Castletown etc in order to reduce the commuter traffic and provide opportunities that are not simply centred on the one place.

[Dunner]

I doubt that congestion charging will be brought in. The news story is just a lift from a DoT report, typically lazy journalism.

 

I've read most of the comments here and so far mojomonkey seems to be the only one making any real sense. It's one of numerous proposals and ideas that were touted in a memo from what I read. Is it likely to come in? Of course not but if the DoT didn't look at all the options before making a decision - no matter how initally foolish they may seem - then people would bitch twice as much.

 

It is nothing more than lazy journalism. "Oooooh that's not likely to happen but it sounds really controversial let's slap it on the front page and make a big deal of it so we can shift an extra few copies."

[Albert Tatlock]

Of course not but if the DoT didn't look at all the options before making a decision - no matter how initally foolish they may seem - then people would bitch twice as much.

I particularly liked the idea of the Monorail and the 'escalator to nowhere' in that memo.

[Mr Crabster]

If people lived near to where they work it would be better.

Then you could walk to work and drive hell for leather at weekends.

 

I'll guess most of the speed limit people don't live near to where they work. No Douglas terrace for them, no sir.