Author Topic: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District  (Read 2418 times)


beefy

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #1 on: 08:06:37, 13/11/19 »



There is a parking problem I agree
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Other plans to be considered will include encouraging people to visit the park via boats, buses and electric bikes.


They forgot to mention, park and ride gondolas, pay for parking, then pay for gondola,
And as for using buses, they would have to improve the limited service. :(



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taxino8

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #2 on: 08:54:58, 13/11/19 »
I can’t see how it would work and if it happens I think, over time, it will have a massive impact on visitor numbers as parking in Keswick is pretty poor at peak times already.
That raises the question where do the vehicles banned from Borrowdale park up to allow people to get onto a bus?

Dread

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #3 on: 09:55:19, 13/11/19 »
A better idea would be to make the major routes toll roads and use the cash to improve public transport. Residents could have permits. It might increase traffic on minor roads though. People drive because it's cheaper and more convenient than the alternatives. The only way to cut traffic is the make it more expensive and less convenient. Appealing to drivers consciences doesn't work.

harland

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #4 on: 11:38:50, 13/11/19 »
How about a major car park near Preston and then a network of zipwires to all the towns and villages in the Lakes. ;D

pdstsp

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #5 on: 13:54:30, 13/11/19 »
I can’t see how it would work and if it happens I think, over time, it will have a massive impact on visitor numbers as parking in Keswick is pretty poor at peak times already.
That raises the question where do the vehicles banned from Borrowdale park up to allow people to get onto a bus?


I agree with your sentiment, but I am not sure they are suggesting banning cars from Borrowdale - the article only talks about Seathwaite, which is a small road off the Borrowdale road which has seen a couple of "incidents" in recent years.


Agree with Beefy - when the bus service is as poor as it is, people are going to use cars - Friends of the Lake district and others have expounded the improvement of public transport and the use of electric bikes before, but the LDNPA have studiously closed their ears to such ideas.  Instead they have granted planning permission to the zip wire on Honsiter which will increase the demands on the road up Borrowdale.


Even in Summer you can wait for two hours in Patterdale/Glenridding to get a bus to either Ambleside or Keswick which is hardly going to attract people to use them. LDNPA will argue that there isn't demand for the buses, but it seems to me a chicken and egg argument.


PS Edited because I quoted the wrong person, so my entire post was more nonsensical than normal.


Nick Thynne

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #6 on: 15:02:05, 13/11/19 »
The bus service isn't great, but it also isn't terrible. I never drive to the Lake district and have always managed to get where i need by timing myself to get a bus or...even better - just walking. Getting the bus does require a little pre planning however.


Assuming some kind of ban on cars does go ahead i'm sure the public transport system would get a revamp, the whole area depends on tourism.

vghikers

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #7 on: 15:19:54, 13/11/19 »
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The bus service isn't great, but it also isn't terrible. I never drive to the Lake district and have always managed to get where i need by timing myself to get a bus...

Yes, that has been our position since last year, it's worked pretty well so far. It enables many linear routes that were not feasible with a car. The only downside is the removal of some services in the winter months.

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Assuming some kind of ban on cars does go ahead...

Maybe in a few very small localities such as Seathwaite as mentioned, but the LDNPA will never allow it to happen on any scale.

fernman

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #8 on: 15:28:32, 13/11/19 »
Hopefully the LDNPA might take a good look at central Snowdonia's Sherpa bus system?

pleb

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #9 on: 15:54:47, 13/11/19 »
How about a major car park near Preston and then a network of zipwires to all the towns and villages in the Lakes. ;D
;D ;D ;D
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April

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #10 on: 19:22:22, 13/11/19 »
I think this has been talked about for a few years now. The bus service is ok...ish in the summer but still could be improved. In winter the bus service is pretty bad. Without a car coming from Carlisle you are limited to a very short space of time by the time you arrive in Keswick (10.45) and the time you have to go back unless you want to stand around for an hour in the dark for the 5.30pm bus back. There is a wait for another bus from Keswick to say Borrowdale or Grasmere, the 78 or 555 for more than 30 minutes so by the time you get to start walking you need to be thinking about getting the bus back to Keswick to be able to get home!

The people who do the timetables don't actually do any fell walking, that is the problem, they only think about the tourists who visit the towns and villages.

It seems strange; we have the LDNPA seemingly wanting to increase tourists in cars, zip wire at Honister on an already congested road and a gondola up Whinlatter. Lots more people and lots more cars. Oh, I forgot they have driverless pods in mind  ;)

After using the buses for over six years, I have to say it is wonderful to have a car again. We can actually do longer day walks in the winter this year. Unless the frequency of the bus service is improved I can't see many people giving up their cars regularly.

There is no bus service to Seathwaite anyway, just to Seatoller, that adds 2 miles to any walk. Will they be putting on a shuttle bus?
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pdstsp

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #11 on: 10:10:32, 14/11/19 »
Hopefully the LDNPA might take a good look at central Snowdonia's Sherpa bus system?


I wouldn't hold your breath.

Dyffryn Ardudwy

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #12 on: 17:15:29, 18/11/19 »
For an area of incredible beauty, which relies almost exclusively on tourism, for most of its residents.
To ban cars, because the area simply cannot cope with the bulk of summer traffic, seems a bit pointless.

Businesses will suffer, when visitors are denied access to the area, and how many shuttle bus services will be required, when thousands of visitors descend on the hot spots all at once.

The sherpa bus system, here in Snowdonia, does not cater for as many visitors as does the Lakes.

On the rare occasions when i have been to Cumbria, the sheer bulk of traffic and number of visitors, takes my breath away, no where here in Snowdonia gets that much footfall, not even llanberis.

Snowdonia is busy in the Summer, but i recon the number of visitors to Windermere, Keswick and the other popular areas, who are not there to walk the fells, far out numbers that of Snowdonia.

Trying to ban cars, to the most popular spots, will destroy the tourism in the long term, and like Gwynedd in North Wales, Cumbria needs the tourist to survive.

mountaingal

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Re: Possible Car Ban in the Lake District
« Reply #13 on: 17:38:15, 20/01/20 »
I want the other campaign appears in the article succeed first:
https://www.itv.com/news/border/2018-10-08/petition-to-ban-4x4s-from-lake-district-area-reaches-230-000-signatures/
It's 4x4 spoiling Little Langdale. And the authority publicly allowing them >:(  because they bring lots of money?  The article is from 2018, but the campaign is still going for which I have signed on change.org;


http://chng.it/vXNzpjjLWx

As for the cars, they should provide good bus services to convince public. I must say though, Lake District was the only place I could go round reasonably well with public transport when I didn't have a car. So, with  improvements on public transport, we can get to Scafell Pike and other wonderful places while keeping the traffic manageable.
« Last Edit: 10:07:02, 21/01/20 by mountaingal »

 

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