Thursday 11 October 2012

Bus Lane Madness

Me and local campaigner Kevin Staples at the White Tree Roundabout bus lane: Now you don't see it. Now you do. Now you do, er but only a bit of it... (they're busy taking up a small stretch of it in the background)

 Ok, so whose brilliant idea was the White Tree Roundabout bus lane?

It's one of those decisions that was obviously always going to be a disaster to anyone who knows the area, but it went ahead anyway as part of the Greater Bristol Bus Network.

The result? As anyone in the lines of snarling traffic queuing up to the roundabout and sometimes extending way down Falcondale Road, could have told you,  it has been an expensive way of making things worse. Buses couldn't even get to their bus-lane because, yes, they're snarled up in the traffic!

Our Councillor, Geoff Gollop set up a PETITION - and a campaign took place on  FACEBOOK as well.

I went on BBC Radio Bristol during the summer,  live from the White Tree Roundabout, in front of lines of traffic queuing and hooting, and heard a statement from the Council implying it was all working just fine, thank you. The ultimate example of the council-house inhabiting a different planet from the rest of us. Really frustrating.

Finally the Council couldn't hide from reality any more and conceeded - and took up just some of the bus lane. A triumph for people-power and common sense. If only they'd listened to common sense in the first place. What a waste of money.