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

AECOM <strong>City</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent Local Transport Plan 3 10Capabilities on project:Transportation“I did when I used to live in Clayton, I was working in<strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent], just down the road, it did put me <strong>of</strong>f atthat time because I didn't drive but I actually used to justget buses, they were a pain but I did always get thereon time, I had to get up a lot earlier, you get two buses,which is a bit <strong>of</strong> a pain, but yeah, I went for it.”“I negotiated my working hours because <strong>of</strong> travellingacross Hanley in the morning, well, my work place is atBucknall and I live in May Bank, so between me andBucknall is Hanley and I have to get round it some wayor other to get to work, so I negotiated to start at 8.30,rather than 9, because I’d be leaving at exactly thesame time to get there at the same time.”The women were more likely to consider using public transportwhen in other cities where they felt public transport was muchbetter and much more integrated.“If I’m in Manchester I use the trams all the time or likeoverland trains or the tube in London I’d use all the timeor the buses, they don’t seem to have the same issuesin the cities, they’ve got more money.”“Where I used to live in Madeley, that was sort <strong>of</strong>separate and there was only one bus an hour to andfrom Keele, where I was at university and sometimesthe bus didn't come.”“When I was at university in Leicester, I’d never need acar, there was never an issue, because the buses wereso fantastic, they used to run so regularly and there wasalways room on them, you could always sit down, theywere really well lit, they were nice, it was so differentfrom in <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent] that in fact I didn't learn todrive while I was there because I didn't need to butthere’s no way I could do that living in <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent].”Amongst car drivers it was felt that there was quite a lot <strong>of</strong>congestion. One <strong>of</strong> the worst areas was felt to be Hanley nearthe new Tesco store.“I go through <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent] and go through Hanleyand it is an absolute nightmare, it takes me half an hourto do like a journey that in the day wouldn’t take as long,because <strong>of</strong> traffic but I do think that <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent],they’ve spent a lot <strong>of</strong> money, haven’t they, in the middle<strong>of</strong> <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent] and I think that a lot <strong>of</strong> the thingsthat they’ve spent the money on does seem to keepthings moving a little bit better.”“They’ve changed it with the new Tesco’s, haven’t they,they’ve got like new roads.”“They’ve changed it now so that the middle lane goeson.”“I think there were probably accidents that happenedthere and road rage issues, it was that bad lastweekend.”“They’ve recently put lights on that roundabout, haven’tthey and I travel that way to work in the morning and if Icome <strong>of</strong>f the D road to go round the roundabout, thetraffic queuing on the roundabout to get back onto the Droad heading towards the M6 locks the carriagewaysand it just stops the whole roundabout. So it’s evenworse that you’ve got traffic lights on that roundabout.”Festival Park was also felt to be problematic.“Totally avoiding Festival Park, because you can’t geton and then you can’t get <strong>of</strong>f.”Another problem area was felt to be King Street in Newcastleunder-Lyme,in particular since the building <strong>of</strong> the new sixthform college.“If you’ve got to go down King Street for anything, you’davoid that, wouldn’t you?”“Oh, that’s murder.”“That’s really bad.”“Oh yeah that’s awful down there.”“That’s always worse since the sixth form college.”“When I say where’s such and such a shop, he’ll sayKing Street, we’ll go somewhere else, because it’s sobad.”3.1.4 ParentsParticipants within the ‘parents’ group found most placesspecified easy to travel to. The majority <strong>of</strong> trips made byparents were by car. Of the places that were found to bedifficult to access, all trips were made by car. The mainreasons parents gave for travelling by car in <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trentwere convenience, time, ease and necessity. Congestion inthe city was felt to be problematic and specific roadsmentioned included the A50, A500, junction 13-17 <strong>of</strong> the M6and the A34.