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Town parking: Drop the big stick and offer a few carrots instead
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From Peter Moon.
I BELIEVE that the problem of commuter traffic parking in St Helier could be solved, at least in part, quite easily.
However, it would require the TTS to abandon the Island’s long and proud tradition of greed.
The first car park on Victoria Avenue to fill up every morning is the one just past First Tower because at the moment parking there is free.
This is about to change – from 1 April, paycards will be necessary. As a result, most of the people currently parking there might as well park in town and pay to park there.
Were parking to be free in all the car parks on the Avenue I am sure that many more commuters would be happy to walk the last quarter, half, or even mile to work.
Similarly, I am sure that the residents of the north-western parishes, where puffins are more plentiful than buses, would be happy to park free of charge at Goose Green car park and jump on one of the seemingly hundreds of buses that stop at Beaumont to complete their trip to town.
Something along those lines may be happening at the moment, as the car park between Beaumont and La Haule is currently almost full – I expect it to be empty next week.
If this relieves the parking problems in town then perhaps shoppers could be encouraged to return. Free on-street disc parking could be introduced and perhaps off-peak half-price parking in the shopping multi-storeys.
Constable Crowcroft’s traffic scheme for the town seems to me to be a load of bollards and raised pedestrian crossings. Subtle changes to the one-way systems and traffic light sequences have nearly brought the town centre traffic to gridlock, which I am sure is his long term ambition.
Pedestrianisation has already killed retail in New Street and Colomberie, we have a charity shop in Queen Street and there are more shops empty and for longer than ever before.
We also now have a pavement wide enough to grace the Champs Elysées in Gas Place, hardly the busiest shopping street in town, at the cost of half a dozen parking spaces and who knows how many thousands of pounds.
We also have so many pubs, cafes, and coffee bars spilling onto the pavements that soon there will be nowhere for cyclists to ride.
So, Mr Crowcroft, get together with TTS, drop the big stick and start offering the motorists a few carrots both to stay out to park and come in to town to shop.
I am sure any loss of income from parking charges could be countered by reducing the number of aggressively uniformed traffic gestapo deemed necessary at the moment.
Perhaps we could persuade the Airport to re-introduce the half-hour free parking for dropping off and meeting passengers, now that its hourly cost is higher than Gatwick, having increased by 40% in seemingly no time at all.
Still, that is small fry by comparison to the 66% rise in GST in one hit. Greed?
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