Exeter park and ride 3D consultation

By PRSD, on Saturday, January 24, 2009

posted by Cptn

A new park and ride scheme for Exeter has been mapped into virtual reality for the people to cast their skeptical eye over for the public consultation.

Just in case the burghers of Exeter forget what the area looks like, where they live or how a park and ride scheme works, Devon County Council have provided them with ‘highly accurate 3D representations of every building in the locality with detailed aerial photography’ to illustrate the effect of the scheme on the local environment, providing residents with a view of the scheme.

There’s also a number of animated sequences (which we can only guess demonstrate park and ride in process). The films are intended to ‘highlight the proportions of the site in its real world context and it’s impact the surrounding environment’.

The consultation is on the 870-space park and ride site on the outskirts of Alphington – part of a £35 million plan to cut congestion in Exeter, one of the most bunged up city’s in the country.

More lanes, and particularly more bus lanes are also part of the plan. And some councillors are concerned about the ‘blot on the landscape’ issues of the proposed development.

Cllr Margaret Rogers, executive member for environment, told the Express and Echo: “This scheme offers a package of measures that not only aim to ease congestion, but also improve public transport journey times, the reliability of journey times for all, traffic and air quality as well as creating better facilities for cycling and walking.”

• What’s more important – potential blots on the landscape or environmental development?

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Jerry Bushell

Apart from the negative environmental impact of paving over a green field, work associated with the proposed Park & Ride at Alphington Spur will create many problems without resolving any if the proposal goes ahead in its present form.
It is proposed that part of the Alphington Road between Marsh Barton Road junction will be widened (presumably to create the proposed inbound bus lane) and the right turn into Cowick Lane at Alphington Cross will be removed. So reidents of St Thomas & Exwick will no longer be able to get from Marsh Barton Road to Cowick Lane. So how will they get home? 2 options - 1) Grind down the already problematic Alphington Road to the equally problematic Exe Bridges junction, or cut through local residential roads off Alphington Road OR 2) Grind through the whole of the busy Marsh Barton Estate to add to the equally congested Church Road in Alphington & go straight across to Cowick Lane 3) Probably the most practical & least likely to add to congestion & pollution - Ignore the proposed prohibition on turning right into Cowick Lane & turn right anyway or 3a) probaly the quickest legal route - Drive the extra half mile out to the A30 Junction turn round & come back in again to turn left into Cowick lane thereby adding to congestion at the proposed entrance/exit for the park & ride & possibly blocking up the roundabout leading to more tailbacks on the A30.
The proposed road wideneng will do nothing of any use. It will merely create a wider carpark - sorry, queue for traffic attempting to get on to the single carriageway section of Alphington Road leading to Exe Bridges.
Obviously it is impossible to widen this problem section of the road without wholesale demolition of residential properties & temporarily closing the main railway line to widen access to Alphington Street.
Alternatively the £35million could be put towards something useful e.g. subsidising bus fares or maybe investigating the possibility of making better access to Marsh Barton for the 2/3 of its workforce who have to cross the River Exe to get to work by allowing them to avoid Exe Bridges & Alphington Road altogether. The latter is not impossible. It is a relatively short distance to bridge across the railway, river & valley park between Alphin Brook Road and either Barrack Road or Burnthouse Lane. I appreciate there would be some objection to such a proposal but its benefits would almost certainly outweigh the disadvantages.
Either of these proposals would be far preferable to wasting £35 million on making an already abysmal situation even worse, with no likely benefit to anyone.
If the Authorities really want to destroy another green field to create another carpark for a scheme that has failed to attract many users in other parts of the city, fine. But please don't let them make traffic problems even worse for the 1/3 of the Exeter population who live west of the River & have little choice but to use the Alphington Cross junction whenever they enter or leave the city.

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