Transport

•     Introduction
•     Survey Questions
•     Transport Usage & Concerns
•     Issues
•     Priorities
•     Action Plan

Introduction

Transport in the context of the Parish Plan covers access to day to day household needs such as food shopping, employment and healthcare and mobility in terms of travel choices available. It also covers the general environment for people travelling. Finally it encompasses the impact transport has on householders and the built and natural environment.

The village has generally good main (B1508) and minor road connections to the A12, Colchester town centre, the rail station, Tollgate retail area and towards Sudbury and the rural Essex-Suffolk border area. Bus services are provided by two companies, Chambers, an hourly service to Colchester and Sudbury, and First Bus that operates a 30 minute frequency peak and daytime service to the town centre. School buses serve the main secondary schools whilst the Care Network and Community bus services offer a bookable service for those unable to use conventional public transport easily. Footways are generally provided adjacent to the majority of roads and the area is covered by 30mph speed restrictions

<<top>>

Survey Questions

All the surveys conducted sought to understand travel habits in terms of the modes of travel used and also asked about specific areas of concern relating to the mode of travel used or the local traffic environment.

<<top>>

Household Transport Usage & Areas of Concern

a. Transport Usage

Parallel surveys established the following:

•     General accessibility to a car: 92% have driving licences and 81% have access to a car
•     Typical usage of different modes of transport

More detailed questions from the household questionnaire established the following usage on a weekly basis or better. Buses proved to be well used with 50% of households using certain services at least weekly. As might be expected, buses are overwhelmingly used to travel towards Colchester rather than towards Sudbury and Bury St Edmunds. Rail is used on a weekly or more frequent basis by just 13% of households while 75% of households walked and just below 30% cycled (again on at least a weekly basis).

a. Transport Concerns

Householders expressed most concern (40%) about bus services towards the town and were relatively unconcerned (70%) about bus services towards other parts of the county. It should be noted that this survey was undertaken before the reduction in the 66 service to the town from three per hour to just two per hour.

In terms of the traffic environment households declared themselves to be concerned or very concerned about road safety (70%), traffic speed (85%), traffic volumes (71%), parking (58%) and conditions for pedestrians and cyclists (48% and 53% respectively).

<<top>>

Transport issues emerging from all surveys

Transport issues were raised in all the surveys undertaken and the general findings are presented below:

a. Household Survey

45% of households put forward specific concerns regarding transport and altogether 100 comments were registered regarding transport. Most popular comments covered Speeding (27%), Parking (24%), road safety (13%), traffic calming (10%) bus operation (15%), pedestrian and cycle routes (11%).

Many very specific issues and suggestions emerged of which the ideas below are a reasonable snapshot:

•     20 mph zones outside Coop and along New Church Road along with better parking arrangements and village gateway signing;
•     Speed cameras, speed indicator devices and more speed checks on Colchester Road, Lexden Road and Chapel Road;
•     Improved evening and weekend bus services;
•     Real time information at bus stops and cheaper bus fares;
•     Some cycle paths.

b. Business Survey

Whilst West Bergholt is well placed to take advantage of strategic road access to the A12 and rail access to London, Cambridge and Norwich, the following issues were raised: frequency of bus service and fare levels, parking at the Co-op, improved road connections for lorries accessing the A12 and improvements to remove bottleneck at north Station bridge.

b. Young People's Survey

All transport comments were levelled at the provision of public transport.  84% of young people felt that the bus service was either good or satisfactory but the following improvements are needed: reliability, costs, timetable information, and better information about service changes.

b. Organisational Survey

The general consensus was that the bus service is excellent but over-priced, walking is well provided for but cycling facilities are poor.  Parking around the Co-op is problematic and there are safety concerns around the school.

<<top>>

Establishing Priorities

The top areas to take forward from this area of the plan were established through the survey of priorities held in spring 2008:

•     Bus routes and services;
•     Cycling environments;
•     Pedestrian environments;
•     Traffic Management and Traffic Calming;
•     Parking;
•     Other areas which emerged less frequently: Maintenance issues, environmental aspects, school run.

<<top>>

Action Plan

<<top>>

Send mail to webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2007 West Bergholt Parish Council
Last modified: 01-Dec-2008