LRcardiff wrote:While it’s exciting to see the plans I think it’s a disaster to cut Bute Street off from Bute Terrace. From what I can see by the plans there’s lots of new green space being created in the existing Callaghan’s Square (which is genuinely great) and some kind of structure is being placed in the middle of where the road could still continue alongside the cycle lane.
It means all traffic from Cardiff Bay (and anyone who’s travel from West Wales on A4323) who want to get into town or use the John Lewis and St Davids Car Park will have to use the central link and add more congestion to the frequently gridlocked Adams Street past the University of South Wales. This situation is made especially worse as traffic from Splott (and South East Wales on the A4323) won’t be able to use Tyndall street either to access town, more pressure is going to be put on Newport Road and the already slow traffic lights at Fitzalan Place.
Another solution would be to make Custom House Street two way accessible to all traffic and allow drivers to turn right from lower St Mary Street between the Clayton and new Premier Inn but doubt that would happen either!
I have to agree. This was the only major issue I found with the project. Even as someone who generally supports closing streets off to through traffic this one doesn't add up. The diversion required to get between Bute Terrace and Callaghan Square would require going via Tyndall Street and Windsor Rd, both of which would massively degrade the local areas if subjected to significantly increased traffic volumes on a regular basis.
Additionally, while we should be encouraging people to travel to town by public transport and bike etc. I do not feel that it is in the interest of the city to make access to the major carparks significantly more complicated. All this will do is discourage patronage of the city centre. Slowing down traffic and improving walking and cycling routes will make the city more pleasant to walk and cycle around without prohibiting vehicle movements. Closing off streets that do not have active frontages and low pedestrian footfalls should not be a priority of the scheme when the potential consequences for the city centre outweigh any potential benefits.
Closing off a street like Castle Street to private vehicles would at least bring benefits to businesses and pedestrians on a high footfall route, even if there are negatives for other areas of the city. I struggle to see who benefits from closing the top of Bute Street. There are no businesses, low footfall, and pedestrians are already separated from car traffic. The only way I can rationalise this decision is that it was cut off to avoid further complicating the junction between Tyndall St, Bute St, and the tram. I hope that this junction will have tram priority so that trams don't have to wait at traffic lights. This would result in only car drivers suffering the consequences of extra cycles being added to the traffic lights, a consequence I imagine most would prefer over any longer route to city centre car parks. There are 3 lanes of traffic under the railway at the top of Bute St and it is completely feasible to convert one to a two way bike lane to keep the improved cycling infrastructure without closing the road off completely.
Sat Mar 16, 2024 1:22 pm