(14 Oct 2014, 7:45 pm)NEBCD Malarkey wrote As I was dying with Boredom on the 8 coming home this evening, I decided to see how long it would take to go from the top of Bank to the Roundabout on Chester Road in Rush Hour Traffic, so I set up the Stop Clock on My Phone and off it went for a Grand Total of.................... 11 Minutes (Top to Bottom), Safe to say I was rather shocked as I was expecting it to be around 6/7 Minutes at the most.
Furthermore I took a close look at the Road Layout, if you were to take out the Traffic Lights at the top of Bank along with Crossing half way down, and perhaps replace them with Zebra Crossing you'd then be able with great ease make a Dual Carriage Way down to the Roundabout in Both Directions, On top of that I looked where Residents Parked there Cars and the Vast Majority have more than one Car, so they Park on the Extended Pavement, but what if on either side of the Road that Pavement wasn't there, I think you could yet have another Lane on each side of the Road, Resulting in 6 Lanes in Total.
A thought I had whilst on the 8 was why not make a Residential Car Park at the Top of the Bank on the Green next to the Bus Stop, and again at the Bottom opposite the Petrol Garage, this would allow for the Extra Lane to come into play thus widening the Road.
Just an opinion from my Observations, Think it's time the Council started paying Attention to how Serious this issue on Chester Road actually is, rather than ignoring it.
I remember the last time I got the bus to Sunderland (must have been 4-5 months ago now!) I was on a 78. While I don't have such good geographical skills of Sunderland like I do Chester, I have to admit, I must have been on Chester Road about 8-10 minutes, and we stopped quite a few times due to traffic.