Devon and Torbay LPT4
The Society is interested in both proposals for Exeter and for its travel to work area, which the draft points out is one of the largest in England. Our understanding is that about 30,000 people commute to the city every day, mostly by single occupancy vehicle. This is our starting point for our response, the details of which you can follow up in our response (see document area).
Whilst this Plan may be high level and dependent upon government funding, we are concerned that it is devoid of any success measures to reduce congestion and provide active travel options for commuters. These could include:
that the number of cars on our roads should not increase despite a growing
population;
that air quality should reduce well below safe limits;
that journey times in Exeter at peak times will reduce due to less congestion;
that the number of people cycling to work should double.
The only target included is of course that 50% of people in Exeter should travel by active means. To help give the Plan more focus, we would also like to see the use of SMART monitoring added.
Countywide LCWIP
The Council’s two proposals for the Boniface Trail are a route alongside the A377 and an alternative trail through lanes largely to the north of the A377. The route alongside the A377 is difficult and potentially expensive in particular for the half between Newton St Cyres and Cowley Bridge. This route is also potentially dangerous and people using it will breathe vehicle exhaust fumes. The route through the lanes would be much less expensive and quicker to implement however it is considered by the Society to be unsafe and in parts unreasonably hilly. The alternative route through lanes to the North of the rail line and A377 road is not safe and can becomevery narrow in places, as these lanes are used by a lot of traffic particularly when, as is often the case, there are road works or accidents on the A377. We outlined for these reasons an alternative route along the rail line, details can be found in our response.
Our conclusion comes to these points:
- The ‘Lanes option’ is unsafe.
- The best option is a trail alongside the rail line.
- If the rail line option is not feasible then an adaptation of the ‘A377 option’
should be pursued. - Regardless of the Boniface Trail, foot and cycle bridges are urgently needed at
Cowley Bridge