Further to the Manchester Congestion charge..........

[10ClarionSt]

..........I've lived in Manchester all my life, originally quite near the City Centre, just off Oldham Road. As the traffic has increased over the years, the council has done the best/worst, it can, to slow it down under varying descriptions, e.g. traffic calming, safety systems etc. They've done this by road narrowing, bus lanes, speed bumps, traffic islands, small roundabouts, restrictive lane markings etc. They've done this on lots of roads in Manchester that were originally built for the horse and cart and have never been widened. The result of all that is congestion, and the council will blame motorists and other road users when it's actually been caused by dreamers in the council with a Utopian outlook. What should happen is that all of the above should be removed completely. Under-used, wide pavements should be narrowed, as there are far less pedestrians now. Councils should be catering for transport, not opposing it. As you might have guessed, I voted NO!

[adrenochrome]

Is there a question in there somewhere?
This is a site for asking questions, not a blog!

[rov1200]

I suppose if you lived in Clarion Street it would have affected you a lot.

[dot.hawkes]

adrenochrome that was a very intolerant and rude response, have you not had your tea yet?

[dan no1]

i voted NO too! live new moston and wortk in south manchester i'm not getting 4 buses a day there and back or even 6 trams to get there! especially in this weather!

[delboy3]

Couldn't agree more, 10C

I work in Trafford Park and wouldn't have had to pay the CC (initially), but I still voted 'no'.

What a rip. You only have to look at the stupid set-up in Chorlton to see what causes congestion.

[tazmac25]

I also voted no as I live in new moston and couldnt find out what they were going to do for residents as every time we would take out the car we would have been charged!!!

My sister has lived thro the congestion charging in London and there is no difference to the congestion and no improvement in the public transport either

[123everton]

Public transport is a private industry so why should it be publicly funded?

[New Judge]

Not strictly true.

Although most transport companies are private concerns many of them receive huge amounts of public funding. This is particularly true of the railways.

The reason why this should be so is that they could not run a decent level of service without this support unless fares were raised to even more ridiculously high levels.

[Gromit]

Most businesses rely on roads to either transport goods or so their employees can get to work. Non of these businesses build their own roads, they are built by the state from public taxes.

A lot of fuss has been made of the �9bn cost of upgrading the West Coast rail line over the past five years. The amount spent on roads during the same period was �30bn.

The reason why roads and rail lines are subsidised by the state (using our taxes) is because both infrastructure are vital to our economy.

Road congestion in our towns and cities is a problem that needs fixing. Manchester residents have voted not to mend it by reducing demand by charging for it. However, the problem will not go away and it will get worse.

[VHG]

>Under-used, wide pavements should be narrowed,

Maybe get rid of pavements completely and force everyone to drive :-)

We as a nation HAVE to do something stop this stupid lemming like support of the roads at the expense of everything else.

For years we have removed housing from the centre of cities, and replaced them with offices.

As many areas around city centres became slum-like more and more people moved out the suburbs.

So all the business is in the centre of cities, and all the people live on the edge of cities, what a stupid situation.

We need a long term plan of joined up thinking where industry and business is built nearby rail and bus services.

If we dont then we are going to continue this stupid situation of people spending a hour in their car getting to work and an hour in their car coming home from work.

I dont blame any council bringing in measures to slow traffic down, if it encourages people to use more public transport.

Things HAVE to change, but the direction has to come from the top, from Government.

[New Judge]

Things do not have to change if the electorate does not want them to.

The idea of democracy is that elected representatives represent and promote the wishes of the majority of their constituents - not the wishes of their political leaders or of their own personal ideology. The sooner that idea is resurrected the better.

The people of Manchester have had a rare opportunity to state their preference on a specific issue. Thay have spoken and their decision should be respected.

[New Judge]

You are quite right, birdie. I did not suggest that things were as they should be - very far from it.

Political leaders need to listen to their masters (the electorate) sooner rather than later or things are going to go very awry indeed.