York plan to ban cars from city centre.

[mjr]

The waves of rising sea levels will be lapping at their doorsteps and some people will still be thinking about driving a single digit length journey.

Yes, the Nene Valley is badly flooded this winter, isn't it? The meadows and then some!

I think I know what single digit those drivers are showing us!

 

[BoldonLad]

It must have been a while since you used it, its £1.10 now, it was £1 for a long time, you don't need the ticket for coming back your concession pass is OK. this is using The Askham Bar P&R

It is two years since we visited York with the car, and stayed in hotel. Since then, we have visited twice in Motorhome, January 2019, and July 2019.

When visiting with Motorhome we used P&R, to travel into centre, without actually parking there, using Concessionary Pass.

One of the P&R we used was Askham Bar, the other, was on South side of York, I forget the name, but there was a large "Designer Outlet Centre" there.

When in Motorhome, we also had bicycles with us, and cycled into York, to Selby, and just generally around the area.

 

[Pale Rider]

According to the rules you can't, but I don't know how its policed, do they tow your car or just lock it in ?

https://www.itravelyork.info/park-and-ride

You may be right, I did not try it, just added to the city centre congestion by driving in.

However, the helpful young lady on the "help" desk, told me, if I parked overnight, at the P&R, my car would be clamped.

Being beyond my first flush of youth, I don't even have to pay the bus fare at the P&R

It does looks like parking overnight is forbidden.

My guess is it is to prevent overnight camping in motorhomes, or people kipping in their cars.

I would still have an ask on the day if I wanted to do it, they can only say yes or no.

 

[Randomnerd]

York is my home. Clean air strategy is more complex than banning traffic. We are fast becoming a theme park, and the local authority allows itself to be seduced by developers who steadily turn this historic place into a coffee-drowned budget hotel room.
Air quality is worst at taxi ranks and bus stops.
The peripheral roads to go round the city north to south by car are choked.
A tourist levy should be introduced to help fund clean taxis, buses and to encourage sustainable local trade back into the city centre.

 

[BoldonLad]

York is my home. Clean air strategy is more complex than banning traffic. We are fast becoming a theme park, and the local authority allows itself to be seduced by developers who steadily turn this historic place into a coffee-drowned budget hotel room.
Air quality is worst at taxi ranks and bus stops.
The peripheral roads to go round the city north to south by car are choked.
A tourist levy should be introduced to help fund clean taxis, buses and to encourage sustainable local trade back into the city centre.

Don't all of the coffee shops, budget hotels, etc pay Business Rates?, which will be passed on the "user" be they local or Tourist. A portion of the Business Rates (as I understand it, York Council may retain upto 50% of the business rates income), should be used to fund necessary improvements.

 

[tom73]

It is two years since we visited York with the car, and stayed in hotel. Since then, we have visited twice in Motorhome, January 2019, and July 2019.

When visiting with Motorhome we used P&R, to travel into centre, without actually parking there, using Concessionary Pass.

One of the P&R we used was Askham Bar, the other, was on South side of York, I forget the name, but there was a large "Designer Outlet Centre" there.

When in Motorhome, we also had bicycles with us, and cycled into York, to Selby, and just generally around the area.

if your looking for some place to stay over night for free when in that part of the world. Helmsley let you stay over night in the big carpark near the castle. Great place to spend a few hours in not to mention one or two nice pubs

 

[Drago]

York is my home. Clean air strategy is more complex than banning traffic. We are fast becoming a theme park, and the local authority allows itself to be seduced by developers who steadily turn this historic place into a coffee-drowned budget hotel room.
Air quality is worst at taxi ranks and bus stops.
The peripheral roads to go round the city north to south by car are choked.
A tourist levy should be introduced to help fund clean taxis, buses and to encourage sustainable local trade back into the city centre.

Every penny the tourists spend is already taxed. If your local authority and the government don't then spend any of that income improving things locally then that's hardly the fault of the tourists.

 

[Randomnerd]

Every penny the tourists spend is already taxed. If your local authority and the government don't then spend any of that income improving things locally then that's hardly the fault of the tourists.

Of course it’s down to the LA to spend right. i understand how taxation works, and don’t mean to sell tickets to the place.
York CC raised around £36m in business rates last year, and spent £1m on their Chief Exec team. Museums and heritage have to fight to stay alive, and have until recently been punished by rates.
Good cities balance tourism, localism, trade and so forth toward a wellbeing economy. York continues to struggle with the balance. IMHO places are made distinctive and interesting by their people: I suppose global forces are at work...

 

[Andy in Germany]

We work inside the bar walls, I cycle in but as a business we need vehicles to pick up broken down motorcycles etc,

York Council seem to be hell bent on stripping any business that is not a Coffee Shop, Pub or Hotel out of the Centre.

That's why they are talking about removing private cars, not all vehicles. Your business would actually benefit because when you had to do a pickup you wouldn't get stuck behind half a dozen lost tourists in hire cars.

What does one bloke driving a vintage Mustang once a month, in summer, make? I do hope the rules are sensible.

Why do you need to drive through central York? Arguably, if you only drive there about six times a year, then it isn't an essential journey.

The one issue with the York proposal is that it presumably takes all such vehicles off Station Road beyond the railway station so taking away a crossing of the Ouse hence forcing traffic on the north side of the city centre either further out to Clifton or to the south on Skeldergate Bridge near Clifford's Tower. Both potentially cause serious congestion issues on top of the existing in those locations. Or is the banning of such vehicles from within the city walls a headline that the details will show something different?

This comes under Induced Demand, the observed phenomenon that (applied to this situation) as more space is given to private cars, more journeys are made by private car, so you end up with a vicious cycle, or as one planner put it: "You sow roads, you reap traffic".

It is gradually being recognised, in the face of much screaming from the car lobby, that the reverse, called Reduced Demand, is also true, and the best way to reduce congestion is to reduce the space given to cars, or make it more expensive to use. When this happens people reduce the number of journeys made by car and switch to other forms of transport.

York is my home. Clean air strategy is more complex than banning traffic. We are fast becoming a theme park, and the local authority allows itself to be seduced by developers who steadily turn this historic place into a coffee-drowned budget hotel room.
Air quality is worst at taxi ranks and bus stops.
The peripheral roads to go round the city north to south by car are choked.
A tourist levy should be introduced to help fund clean taxis, buses and to encourage sustainable local trade back into the city centre.

We have those in some places in Germany. The Black Forest levy costs about two euro and includes a train ticket for the entire Black Forest, which saved me about fifteen euro last time I was there. A levy in York that gives free use of the buses would be a great way to back up the ban on cars.

Incidentally, whenever a city has banned or reduced private cars in their centre they've found that local businesses profit because it is more pleasant for people to visit, so they have increased footfall, and those people stay longer and spend more.

Stop talking common sense, all the Tourists and Hen Parties will love it, why take York residents into account .

In practice people living within the city walls will most likely have an exemption: that's how we regulate this locally. This means that residents have the best of both worlds: they live in a city with low congestion, that is easy to get around without a car, but they still can use their car when they need it and won't get clogged up by tourists pootling about.

The car lobby uses the idea of a blanket ban as a bogeyman to get people to vote against it because they think, probably correctly, that once these things become successful it will be the beginning of the end of unfettered car use in the UK and Europe. Once one city manages to push this plan through and it is clearly successful, others will follow.

It is also noticeable here that whenever a city plans a 'car free' neighbourhood where a condition of moving there is to not own a car, there's usually a waiting list a mile long.

The basic problem facing local governments is that by definition everything you do which helps motorised traffic hinders pedestrians and residents, and vice versa. Therefore we can make towns and cities suitable for cars, or we can make them pleasant places to live and work: we can't have both.

 

[BoldonLad]

I don't see a problem with banning, and/or restricting (private) car use in any city, provided good quality public transport is made available, at an acceptable price.

The Socialist in me would prefer to see any "exceptions" based on need, rather than how deep the drivers pockets are.

 

[gavroche]

Great idea, good on them. Up here, Edinburgh are talking about introducing a charge and Glasgow are bringing in low emissions from 2022 effectively banning the big polluters. Hopefully banning them altogether will be the next step.

Does that include lorries and buses too?

 

[keithmac]

Theres at least 2 more Hotels planned and the monstrosity that has been built in place of Hudson House, maybe banning the plebs from the City Centre was always part of the plan?.

Took this photo last year, it's just another 5 story tower block there now.

 

[mjr]

Theres at least 2 more Hotels planned and the monstrosity that has been built in place of Hudson House, maybe banning the plebs from the City Centre was always part of the plan?

On average, the ban will affect plebs less than the old men in limos!

 

[Slick]

Does that include lorries and buses too?

No point going in half-cocked. I don't know what the buses are like in York, but if they are anything like the buses in Glasgow, they would be the first thing I'd ban. Obviously alternatives would need to be in place first, same with trucks, but then I'm probably biased there as I do hate those things.

 

[mickle]

It's starting to look like my idea to start bicycle based plumbing service in York was a good one.



Fixing the stinky drain at my hairdresser's.