Earlier this month, Bristol City Council announced plans to change one of the city’s most famous streets by installing a bus gate at one end, and a bus lane at the other, which would see a city centre road become inaccessible to through traffic, such as cars and vans. It would mean that Park Street, one of the main routes into the city centre, would no longer exist as a route.
This is a trend which has become more common across the city centre and slightly beyond. Bus gates have been installed on Baldwin Street, Cumberland Road and Bristol Bridge, closing off what once were traffic-heavy routes to instead divert traffic in a different way across the city.
Add into the mix the planned changes to Broadmead, which would see Union Street becoming a two-way bus gate and the shopping area closed off to traffic, and there is a danger that the city centre of Bristol is being closed off to Bristolians and visitors alike. It’s not just in Broadmead and the Centre, as it’s called, Redcliffe and Temple Way are also set for major changes over the coming years.
Whilst the changes are aimed at reducing congestion and reducing pollution, an argument can be made that traffic will be pushed to other areas of the city, such as outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary. The hospital sits on Upper Maudlin Street and the council admitted that the road, known as the B4051, is already at capacity before Park Street is converted into a bus-only zone.
In principle, this sounds like a great idea to improve the feel of the city centre and get more people to take public transport to access work, shopping and leisure. In practice, however, this could actually be a problem.
The roads around the city centre, including the aforementioned B4051, will become even more congested if the efforts to improve bus facilities are realised and not managed in the correct way. The likes of Old Market are already problematic for drivers so any scheme to remove access to roads for vehicles could have a negative impact, and a large one at that.
Transport is also just not good enough. I appreciate that the Park Street plans, which will cost £15 million as part of a £37.5 million to improve the number 2 bus route (Stockwood to Cribbs Causeway), is aimed at removing a pinchpoint for buses going from Whiteladies Road to the city centre and it should, in theory, improve the state of buses.
However, whilst buses and wider transport in Bristol is poor, forcing the public to use these buses will result in more overcrowding and less buses available as a whole. Would the waiting times for additional buses be as long, for example, or would buses run more frequently? Buses running a bit faster is a benefit, sure, whether it will benefit more people in Bristol is another thing.
I believe that the city centre is slowly being closed off. I remember over a decade ago when the Centre was a roundabout of sorts, connecting roads leading to Redcliffe, Hotwells and Broadmead together, before the implementation of the Baldwin Street bus gate we see today. There are fewer routes available to drivers now and it is becoming harder and harder to navigate from point A to point B in a direct way.
I believe that the long-term future does look bright for the city centre, if it becomes a more welcoming space for all. Bristol, however, is not future-proof for these changes and there remains a lot to do to improve the infrastructure before the bus gates and pedestrianisation efforts actually do help the city.