So I live in Marple near Rose Hill station and I'd like to go to Morrison's in Bredbury for my weekly shop. Whilst I'm over there I'll call at the new Screwfix and pick up some new guttering for my house renovations.
Simple option: get both delivered. Then it’s only another stop on two single vans probably passing through the area anyway.
It’s exactly these kinds of relatively pointless, very local journeys we need to reduce being done by car - people driving the school run over tiny distances, going all the way into Stockport for a single item, ferrying themselves around the local area in a space-hogging metal box for no good reason and thinking they’ve a god given right to do so at the expense of
causing traffic jams and turning local neighbourhoods into noisy, unpleasant mini hell on earths.
It never ceases to amaze me people moaning about driving somewhere and getting stuck in traffic: YOU are the traffic! At the same time, they’re taking roadspace from people who might need to drive a journey that genuinely can’t be catered for by transport, home delivery or using your own legs.
However, I can sadly agree that the A6-M60 road is needed and has been for decades (in fact far more than the relatively pointless A6-MARR), mostly just to remove the hell trailing through all local neighbourhoods to the M60 from the south east. I feel for the Goyt Valley SOS campaigners but equally think it selfish to expect Bredbury and Overton should continue being decimated as places by this traffic. The absolute key issue will be making sure the new road is somehow not used as a wider through north east/south west route avoiding the whole southern belt of the M60. All the traffic light junctions on the A6MARR might help put people off, but it could still easily be standstill from day one.
Finally, it’s also pretty bloody obvious that what should be funded before anything else as part of this “refresh” are improved public transport options. A tram/train to Stockport AND onward west to Manchester Airport. More frequent, new, 21st century trains to Manchester with more carriages. A Greater Manchester Oyster ticket system that actually works. Better bus services WITH integrated tickets so you can use ONE ticket or pay one fair price for a journey no matter who’s running it. And simple, cheap single fares of just something like £1.50 like in London, not the absolute rip-off of double that price we pay. It’s no wonder why buses are actually seen as a real transport choice down there unlike our Stagecoach profits-creaming monopoly.
If the A6-M60 road plan has been neglected, heck our local public transport hasn’t been touched for DECADES. Maybe it’s time we actually tried sorting that out and see how much roadspace can suddenly be freed up. So do all that, and then maybe get back onto the roads.
