The Living Heart for Bristol has responded to this consultation, supporting the removal of general traffic from Bristol Bridge and Baldwin Street for the following reasons:
- Most cities did this years ago – before this trial Bristol was the only one of England’s 8 Core Cities where cars and lorries could drive through the city centre. See the: Maps of the Core City Centres of England
- Bristol City Centre has been suffering from illegal air pollution for many years. This measure removes traffic from some of the worst affected streets (Baldwin Street) and will help to reduce traffic volumes over a wider area.
- COVID-19 has damaged public transport. We need to support the recovery of buses when this is all over. This protected route across the city centre gives a big advantage to buses (and taxis).
- Transport causes over a third of greenhouse gases in the UK. If the Council is serious about its declaration of climate emergency then it must act to constrain the growth in traffic, which is likely to follow the end of the pandemic.
- Bristol’s population is still expanding. The City Council is under pressure to build more housing. We cannot keep adding more cars every time we increase the population. We need to give the advantage to walking, cycling and public transport and to constrain the growth of traffic across the city. This measure will help to do that.
- City centres are changing – the road layouts of the past are no longer appropriate – the area around Bristol Bridge is rapidly changing from a purely commercial to a high-density residential area (over 1500 flats currently under construction within a few hundred yards of Bristol Bridge)
All change is controversial, but the benefits of this change are so clear that the Mayor and councillors must stand firm to retain the benefits of this bold change.
