Ask any Bathonian and they’ll tell you that their biggest complaint about the city generally falls under one category: transport! 50,000 cars enter the city every weekday meaning traffic jams, noise and pollution are all on the increase. In fact, according to the latest study, the number of cars on our roads is set to increase by 15% over the next 10 years. Not good for a World Heritage city such as ours. That’s why I welcome some of the announcements coming out of the Guildhall this week in the form of the Bath Transportation Package. Caroline Roberts, Cabinet Member for Transport and her team have developed a number of initiatives to tackle some of the transport problems we face, including:

• Increasing the capacity at our 3 ‘Park & Ride’ sites by 868 spaces
• Better bus routes with raised pavements to help the elderly, disabled and pram pushers
• Variable Message Signs (VMS) providing road users with information including incidents, events, safety messages and car park space availability
• Creating a safer pedestrian experience by introducing traffic restrictions on a number of streetsIncreased number of charging points and free power for electric car users

Finally, a personal favourite of mine is that First West, who run most of the bus services in, out and around the city are offering free wi-fi across on all their buses. As a regular bus user and someone who often breaches his data allowance, this will come in really handy (and if First Group are reading this please can you extend this on to your trains – you will have thousands of extremely grateful passengers!)

So, well done to Caroline and her team. These are genuinely positive moves to help make the experience of getting around our city much easier and much more pleasant.

http://www.chrislucas.org.uk/#!Transportation-Inspiration/cub6/919D257E-9303-4CAE-9E28-59E225AF61F8