Castle Street

Option 1 for me.

I would also go for option 1. When the shops reopen and traffic levels build up, we will once again see congestion in Grangetown and Riverside if Castle Street remains closed. At present it is still a vital part of the road network; if the metro turns out as promised, and if there is a sustained long term increase in cycling, we could look at the issue again.

Having said that, I would have no objection to another temporary closure in the summer - perhaps June to September, when traffic tends to be lower. Many people really enjoyed the outdoor dining, and there are all sorts of summer activities that could make use of that space.

Castle Street is the only northern city centre passage from one side of the centre to the other. To permanently close access would mean cutting off vehicle access to half the city centre from the other half, and shunting traffic, comuters, etc north of Bute Park. Not to mention the presumed loss of office space currently in situ on Castle Street like Castle Bridge and Portcullis House which each have basement car parks.

Point taken about NO2 levels, though. Perhaps there could eventually be a stop to internal combustion engine traffic and only permit private traffic from electric vehicles?

I have always thought about something simple. In the polish city of Sopot they have done something similar on a small scale. They have dropped the road for about 100 meters to make a large public area. I think this between the park and the canal would be good.

Reminds me slightly of the original Centreplan 70 proposal to sink the road outside the castle:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... t-20378799

On the Wales Online survey, 55% voted in favour to reopen to cars from a total of 3,694 responses.

These sorts of things aren't surveys, they are pointless self-selecting polls of readers, which aren't indicative of anything.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wale ... s-20797041

53.8% have voted in favour of reopening the road to cars...

Big step backwards I feel. I know its annoying its closed but opening it up again is not a long term answer I dont think.
Interesting to see majority of over 55 year old voted to open it whilst younger lot voted to keep as it is.

Does anyone else think this is a little odd? The council seemed to be fully behind this policy and I find it strange that they’ve done an about turn based on an opinion survey. I’m now wondering if they weren’t as convinced about it after all and weren’t prepared to go ahead with out a direct mandate to do so. This isn’t how they usually operate though - they don’t typically base controversial decision on the results of a survey e.g. the military medicine museum is a hugely unpopular development that they could stop simply by not selling/leasing the land, yet they’ve shown no sign of budging on that one.

The problem is, against it or not, closing off Castle Street did alter traffic through other areas of Cardiff that typically has more housing. I wouldn't be surprised if the council used this as an opportunity to push forward their congestion charge plan and maybe even increasing the proposed fee slightly because clearly there needs to be a serious effort to change behaviour and as we know they are liable for CO2 levels int he city. Those heavily in favour of cars may think they have won here but we'll see...