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 16Capabilities on project:TransportationTrent Vale end where I live or whether it’s moreNewcastle [-under-Lyme] end or whether it’s sort <strong>of</strong> likegoing towards Stafford, if you’re going that way alongthe A34, then I think the A34 with it being the main bitthrough the city.”“The A34 is like, one minute it’s like a dual carriagewayand the next minute it’s got cars parked on it and thenit’s 30 miles an hour, it’s crazy.”“It’s surprising that we can actually have parked cars onthe A34. I know it’s only sort <strong>of</strong> either 30 or 40 miles anhour generally on most <strong>of</strong> it through the city, butespecially down by Tesco’s, near where I live, there’sparked cars along there, so there’s no point it being adual carriageway, because you can’t actually utilise bothways.”Some participants in the group felt that more parking wasneeded.“I’d like parking just where I work, I don’t know if it’ssomething to do with the government, but I work up atVodafone Hanley and they aren’t apparently allowed tohave more than so many parking spaces, so there’s somany <strong>of</strong> us Vodafone workers have to kind <strong>of</strong> find, well,first <strong>of</strong> all we’re all parking along the road, so thenthey’ve made that double yellows, it’s like where the hell…, I’ve got a daughter, I don’t want to be walking,finishing sometimes at 8 o’clock at night having to walkin the dark to my car. So really I probably should thinkmore about getting buses but then again it’s like timeconsuming to get back to pick my daughter up.”Several ideas to ease congestion were put forward by thegroup. These included park and ride sites, car share schemesand investment in the local bus services.“I know the hospital had shuttle buses as well, when Iused to work at the hospital, they were always reallygood from site to site, so they should do something likethat, shouldn’t they?”Several participants felt that provisions for cyclists in the areaneeded improving in order to encourage people to get out <strong>of</strong>their cars.“But they also need more cycle paths round here,because my husband works in Burslem and we live inNewcastle [-under-Lyme] and he’s recently bought a£200 bike and he’s ridden it to work twice and he nearlygot run over by lorries both times and he’s just totallyput <strong>of</strong>f, he says you can’t breathe it’s that smoggy, heused one <strong>of</strong> them masks like Japanese people wear intowork and he said it’s really dangerous, because at timesthe cycle path disappears, they only put it to go so farand then it disappears for a while and you’re like oh,where does it go.”“Yes, I go to work on my bike and it’s all right if I wantto get on the canal but getting to the canal.”3.2.4 ParentsIn terms <strong>of</strong> issues that needed to be included in the LTP, theparents focussed on improvements to the bus services. It wasfelt that routes should be improved so that they are quicker andeasier to use and take people to where they need to go.“Actually making the bus stop in <strong>Stoke</strong> [-on-Trent] onthe way to Hanley would help, instead <strong>of</strong> doing a directroute.”“Just probably ease <strong>of</strong> access to where it’s going, like ifyou’re going to be on a bus you want to be able to getthere quicker than the rest <strong>of</strong> the cars that are sat thereto encourage you to use the bus. Else you’ll just jumpin your car, won’t you, why spend £3 to go on the buswhen you can spend 50p on petrol.”It was also thought that buses should be made more reliableand cheaper. Parents were especially concerned about theprice <strong>of</strong> child fares and thought that these needed to be eitherreduced or scrapped altogether. Participants looked to Londonas an example.“That’s what I felt last time I caught the bus, the taxididn't turn up and that’s the reason I got on the bus andhe went completely the wrong way, because I think Iwent from Basford, Newcastle [-under-Lyme] to likeHanley, but it went all the way through the Festival Parkand I thought where’s it going, it’s like a magicalmystery tour, this is and it was more money than thetaxi would have charged me, probably.”“It’s cheaper for me to get a taxi than a bus with mykids.”“There isn’t enough discount for children.”“Children should be free on the bus.”