Reduce traffic without tunnel
WITH tongue firmly in cheek, someone has proposed a tunnel to carry heavy traffic away from, well underneath, the quaysides and North Esplanade. I assume it would be deep enough to avoid the mass of services which must be underneath that road, or would it go beneath the harbour itself?
It is a good idea until one considers the disruption to the areas at each end during the build. When creating its excellent tunnel, Jersey had wide roads to allow traffic to continue either side of the work, but what room is available at the Albert Pier to commence this excavation? Even moving Albert would not be enough.
Furthermore, the question of cost has not even been mentioned. To bring in a tunnelling firm and all the equipment necessary to build a tunnel 20ft wide and high carrying two lanes of traffic and the attendant services would, I suggest, eclipse the Health and Education budgets of the States for many a year. On reflection perhaps it was an April 1st joke.
But I believe there is an alternative plan which could help. I would like to propose, yet again, a way to greatly reduce traffic along those roads and Fountain Street and the Bordage by moving almost all the parking (except disabled parking) from the Albert and Crown piers to Salerie and North Beach car parks and a new multi-storey car park in La Charroterie.
A large area in States ownership west of Sir Charles Frossard House is presently used as a car park but its potential to house many hundreds of cars should be investigated. I understand that the two- level parking there was built strong enough to take extra floors. A five-level car park would be large enough to take all the cars presently parked on the Crown and Albert Piers and probably the staff at Frossard House too.
Commuters from the north and west would use Salerie and North Beach car parks and from the west and south La Charroterie.
Three airport-style buses, able to assist those with a mobility impairment, would run continually in a loop and without charge between La Charroterie and Salerie.
Passengers in both directions would alight and descend at Marina Court, Weighbridge, Information Bureau, Town Church, Upper Market and Trinity Square. By using this park-and-ride service they would probably arrive closer to their destination and have spent much less time and fuel looking for parking. Perhaps they would not need to leave home so early either. Passengers using the existing bus services would be unaffected.
I think it very likely that Guernsey is the only place in the UK which does not charge for parking but this is a nettle that we will have to grasp sooner or later. These three large car parks would make modest charges and the income from them would in time pay for the multi-storey and the buses.
The benefits would be a great reduction in traffic pollution in those congested streets and the beautifying and opening up of the piers to recreational uses.
I hope these suggestions might help with solving the problems of a vital section of this eastern seaboard.
B MAUGER
St Peter Port