- Transport Minister reacts after long delay on Victoria Avenue
- Eddie Noel said various solutions are being looked at as Island’s roads are ‘at capacity’ at peak times
- Drivers faced hours of delay on Tuesday morning when Liberation Day flags came loose in high winds
- Would you be prepared to car share with a colleague on your journey to work? Take part in our poll below
JERSEY’S roads are ‘at capacity’ at peak times and commuters may need to be ‘forced’ into using alternative methods of travelling to work to ease congestion, according to the Transport Minister.
Deputy Eddie Noel said he agreed with St Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft that essential routes into town at peak times were saturated and that the slightest disruption caused major tailbacks.
Mr Crowcroft made the comments yesterday after drivers faced hours of delay on Tuesday morning when Liberation Day flags put up along Victoria Avenue came loose in high winds, forcing the eastbound carriageway to be closed for four hours.
In responding to the comments, the Transport Minister yesterday said that Mr Crowcroft, who also called for the States to take action over the congestion problem, was ‘not wrong’ and that there were various solutions being looked at.
However, he admitted it was difficult to change the ‘culture and habit’ of car use.
Deputy Noel said: ‘There are many methods we are currently trying.
‘We are expanding the bus network and the cycle path network and are providing incentives to switch to public transport.
‘The public need to make a decision about whether they want to sit in congestion. They could even switch to using a scooter or car-share.
‘A park and ride system was trialled in St John two years ago but there was not much uptake.
‘We are now looking at providing this in St Peter, either using the Airport car park or one nearby, but we need to find a location for this.’
Deputy Noel said that changing Islanders’ behaviour was problematic.
‘At peak times, when we are pretty much at capacity, there are not many levers the States can pull to change people’s behaviour,’ he said.
‘First of all we have to encourage them to change, and second of all, we force them to change.’
Deputy Noel said the congestion caused by the flags coming loose was a ‘good example’ which showed that Jersey was at capacity at peak times.
‘We can’t of course plan for unforeseen accidents or incidents,’ he said.
‘The police have to decide on a case-by-case basis what appropriate action to take.
‘The alternative would be to take a risk with people’s lives.’
He said the targets of the Sustainable Transport Policy, voted for by States Members in 2010 with an aim of reducing traffic by 15 per cent during peak times by 2015, had not been met because ‘half of it was stopped in its tracks’.
Deputy Noel said: ‘At that time we had Connex as bus operators who were operating a completely different service.
‘There has been a substantial improvement with the switch to Liberty Bus. We continue to increase capacity on the service.’
He said that taxpayers are currently subsidising the bus service by around £4 million a year, but suggested that this could instead be raised through higher car parking charges.
