Bloody Roundabouts - seemingly the motorists panacea for everything!
Roundabouts only work if they are big and they are very space hungry - the smallest 'proper' roundabout being 28m in diametre. Try fitting that anywhere in Marple Town Centre. They are also a nightmare for pedestrians - yet again car is king. Mini-roundabouts rarely work well where capacity on all approaches is an issue.
The reason why the swimming bath lights and Hollins lights conflict? Pedestrians using the crossings at the Hollins and taking away 'green time' for traffic at that junction. Ban pedestrians I say, getting in the way of our cars!
Marple is always going to struggle traffic wise. It only has three roads in and out and only one in the direction of where people want to travel to / from at rush hour. A chunk of the town is also quite hilly, making the bike a difficult choice for some. That said, the traffic is not really all that bad outside of peak hours. So my view is, if you want to live here and work miles away then either get in the queue that you are adding to, or try to work from home more regularly, or choose a work destination that can be accessed by train.
No point moaning about problems that we are all creating ourselves. And no point trying to pull up the drawbridge to new housing / development just to those of us who are lucky enough to already live here to carrying on making collectively poor travel choices.
That said - any new travel infrastructure would be welcome, beit Beelines, tram / trains, Brinning curve, etc. Always better to supply the carrots before applying the stick, but unfortunately Westminster doesn't seem to like investing in the north.
Two more thoughts over the last week, again conscious of what would be relatively cheap.
Do we need quite as many sets of traffic lights in the centre or could at least one set be replaced by a roundabout - perhaps the set in the middle near the baths? Wouldn't affect pedestrians per se. as their crossings would remain. I think that the set by Asda might be better but recognise these do allow pedestrians to cross. Just thinking in terms of the effect of stop/ start traffic on the overall flow vs keeping it moving slowly but more regularly which is part of the thinking behind SMART motorways.
If we do get some form of Metrolink will it actually reduce the traffic flow...or will it encourage more people to drive into Marple to pick it up? Just a thought!