City of Stoke-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 Focus Groups

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AECOM <strong>City</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 7Capabilities on project:Transportation3 Group Findings3.1 Warm Up (Local Travel)Participants were given a list <strong>of</strong> locations covering a variety <strong>of</strong>places that included their GP surgery, hospital, post <strong>of</strong>fice,leisure centre and work. Participants were then asked toindicate how they travel to these places and then rank howeasy it is for them to get there.Members <strong>of</strong> all groups visited a variety <strong>of</strong> places in a variety <strong>of</strong>different locations. The most popular locations across allgroups included Clayton, Hanley, Hartshill, Newcastle-under-Lyme, <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent, Trent Vale and Wolstanton (for thescoring sheets from the warm-up exercise see Appendix B).Whilst no major problems were reported with travelling in thecity, generally speaking respondents found the city centre to becongested particularly during the AM and PM peak periods andaround The <strong>City</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent 6 th Form College, Tescoand Hanley. If there was an incident on one route in the areaall surrounding routes also tended to grind to a halt; there isperceived to be very little flexibility in route choice. Thecondition <strong>of</strong> the roads was viewed as poor with numerous roadworks and pot holes.Cars are preferred over other modes as they are seen asconvenient. Bus travel amongst non-regular bus users wasseen as unreliable; many journeys required at least onechange as there were few direct routes. Respondents did notlike having to wait and services were seen as expensive. Bususers were more satisfied with the services but most had noalternative and some viewed services as busy. Users wantedgreater connectivity between services to reduce waiting timeand distances walked between services. A lack <strong>of</strong> late nightservices was also raised.One place that was mentioned as difficult to access was thehospital. Bus users felt that multiple services had to be usedand car drivers commented on the lack <strong>of</strong> parking.Respondents felt that cycle lanes did not connect and were notrespected by motorists as vehicles parked in them causingproblems for cyclists.Some residents commented that the city is restricted by its oldinfrastructure.The following section provides more details on each group forthis element <strong>of</strong> the discussion.3.1.1 Young PeopleThe majority <strong>of</strong> trips taken by participants in the ‘young people’group were felt to be very easy. The most popular mode <strong>of</strong>transport for these trips was car which was followed inpopularity by walking. The young people felt that congestionwas a problem during both the AM and PM peaks, in particularin town centres. One <strong>of</strong> the main problem areas mentioned bythe young people was Newcastle-under-Lyme College.“The new college in the centre <strong>of</strong> Newcastle [-under-Lyme], it’s just created such a problem for me.”“They put like green lights in and obviously people aregoing to the college and pressing the buttons for thecrossings, there’s like three on at different intervals, soyou get through one and you get to the next one andsomeone’s pressed it.”“I’m coming from Clayton, so it’s either A500 whereeverything’s coming <strong>of</strong>f the motorway throughNewcastle [-under-Lyme] and then Hanley or it’s goingthrough two town centres or it’s through <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Tent] but since this college, it’s worse coming homethrough <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent] way, because <strong>of</strong> the collegeit’s backing up.”“To the new entrance by the fire station, that backs upall that roundabout there, by the new Sainsbury's, theA34, you’re coming through in the morning.”Participants preferred to travel by car rather than bus due toreliability issues, whilst the only trains used were long-distance/ inter-city trains.“They’re never on time.” [Buses]“Or there’s two going the other way and one going yourway.” [Buses]3.1.2 Older People / DisabilityAlmost all <strong>of</strong> the participants within the ‘older people / disability’group felt that it was either easy or very easy to access theplaces specified. The most popular mode <strong>of</strong> transport amongstparticipants was car and was followed in popularity by bus. Themajority <strong>of</strong> the older people, despite owning bus passes, didnot travel regularly by bus. The main reasons for not travellingby bus were reliability issues, poor weather and theinconvenience associated with having to wait for a bus.
AECOM <strong>City</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 8Capabilities on project:Transportation“If I hadn’t got a car, it’s so easy, isn’t it, when you’vegot your own transport, there would be lots <strong>of</strong> placeshere I wouldn’t’ be able to access easily withoutchanging buses two or three times, even though theymight only be three miles away. I go to my doctor’s atWhite Hill, which is only like three or four miles fromwhere I live, but you’d have to go into Kidsgrove, thenhang around and wait for another bus to take you upthere, so if I hadn’t got the car it would be more difficult.”“I think that some <strong>of</strong> the buses, local buses finish ratherearly in the evening for you getting back home. Somebuses have a bus perhaps 11, 11.30, but there’s quite afew, you know, you’re talking 8 or 9 o’clock.”“I don’t like hanging around waiting to be quite honest.”“From where I live they’re not exactly close to the citycentre, so it’s not very convenient.”“It’s also a bit cold where I live, so if you’re hangingaround waiting.”For those who did travel by bus, the main reason that they didso was either because they had no other options and did notown a car or due to parking issues. Older people who travel bybus felt that the service was “quite good most <strong>of</strong> the time” andenabled them to get to where they want to go.“I use it all the time. Because I haven’t got a car.”“I have used the bus this last week more than normally,but normally I just go into Hanley, it’s a good service.”[Due to the bad weather]“Now that Tesco’s closed, yes, because we used topark on Tesco’s. Now it’s closed I shall use the bus.”Amongst those who did not regularly travel by bus, many didnot know how to.“I haven’t used the bus for years, I wouldn’t know whereto get one from.”“Well, I’ve found if we go to the library and ask for bustimetables, they just point you to the internet, you cango over and do it yourself.”“Bus timetables are in the library.”“I suppose if you phoned PNT they’d send you one.”“I’ve gone online a few times with my daughter becauseshe, depending where she’s working it depends whethershe uses the bus or my car and I’ve gone on to find outthe quickest route, you know put in the postcode andput in where she’s going and it comes up that way and itgives you the stops that it does stop at and the timesand I find that quite good.”Participants were more likely to consider public transport forlonger distance journeys such as those to other cities.“I don’t know about local routes, but I think thealternatives to say go to somewhere like London arebecoming viable now, because the train is soexpensive.”“I’ve used the bus to go to London occasionally, yes.”“I might use it for something like that, well, the trains runright into the city centre, it’s quite expensive to go toLondon on the train unless you’ve booked ten weeks inadvance or something like that.”Congestion was mainly felt to be a problem during the peakhours and tended to be avoided by this group.“Depending on the time <strong>of</strong> day, but rush hour is, I thinkin fairness, I think around here is nowhere near what itis in a lot <strong>of</strong> places, unless you go in and out <strong>of</strong> thedreaded Hanley.”“I’d wait until the rush hour’s over. I mean when youwork you have to go in, but once you don’t, you don’t goand sit in traffic.”“We may use the bus in the new year when the weatherimproves, maybe to Shrewsbury or somewhere like that.Now what sort <strong>of</strong> a journey that is, heaven only knows,because I don’t know where you’d have to change orwhatever, that would be a bit <strong>of</strong> an adventure.”When pressed by the moderator all <strong>of</strong> the participants in theolder people group knew how and where to obtain travelinformation should they want to travel by bus in the future.
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City of Stoke-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 Focus Groups

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