(01 Feb 2025, 11:43 am)Storx wrote Yeah that's some fair points, see I don't actually agree with putting jackhammer on cars but arguably they shouldn't be where some of them are like personally North of the Tyne I'd be looking at a major network that works something like this:


Which is designed for cars to be using the red roads to get around the bus priority and punishments are in the purple areas. Yes, cars would have travel a little bit further in some cases but if you designed the roads well then it'd be quicker anyway. The big problem is the car routes are an absolute shambles with serious bottlenecks on the all X's which then results in people rat running through the likes of Gosforth.

If you had a network like that and everyone hypothetically was driving from further out the way suburbs would it really be an issue? The bigger problem imo is people in the likes of the Great Park driving into Newcastle via Gosforth punishing everyone when there's no excuse for it. imo there's absolutely no reason why anyone needs to drive on the purple corridors, providing the red routes were free flowing and well ran.

Low Fell is much of the same really and similar for the likes of Shields Road etc.

Why would cars go the long way round to get to a central point? 
I'd argue the majority probably won't bother and would find something or somewhere else to go.

To go back to my point about bus lanes not working, I'd love someone to be able to answer and provide evidence that:
A) passenger numbers increase as a result of priority measures being introduced (correlation between them being introduced in the early 90s in Gateshead vs declining passenger numbers would prove otherwise). 
B) journeys are now quicker as a result (again, purely anecdotal evidence would say otherwise - check out timetables in the bygone section vs current timetables).
C) There's a return on investment for the LA funding the changes.
D) Car usage is decreasing because of the inconvenience.