The impact of traffic, severing Gateshead Town Centre from its surroundings, is clear. It is also clear that the volume of through traffic – traffic not accessing Gateshead Town Centre – is making a significant contribution to this. Any reduction in these traffic levels will have a positive effect on the local environment, and assist in achieving the vision of the Town Centre being accessible and well connected for sustainable transport modes.
Many tools are currently available, for either directly or indirectly managing traffic levels. The majority of these tools seek to control and restrict traffic, to make driving less attractive. The result of these policies, if successful, should be to encourage drivers to reroute or switch mode, or possibly switch the time of their journey. In some cases, they can affect the choice of origin or destination. In Gateshead’s case, where maintaining the attractiveness of the centre for commerce is important, very stringent measures can discourage businesses and may be seen as unsuitable. Justification of such measures would need to show that the potential ‘benefits’ outweigh the potential ‘costs’.
Opportunities to remove the impact of traffic by hiding it underground, or re-routing the road, have been considered. However, the combination of land requirements, cost, disruption to build and adverse side effects of the scheme has meant that these are currently not being considered as viable.
Any significant travel restraint measures need to be undertaken in conjunction with the provision or promotion of a viable, alternative way to travel. In this context, this principally means improvements to the Metro and bus offer, and highway measures to encourage walking and cycling. Other ‘softer’ initiatives also have a part to play, such as effective policing, better information and Safer Routes to Schools programmes.
It is worth bearing in mind that a very powerful tool for managing traffic demand is parking policy. Even without considering a Workplace Parking Levy, management of publicly-controlled parking, whether on or off-street, is often one of the most effective means of reducing car-borne demand – provided that a viable alternative exists. This is because, say, increasing the cost of long-stay parking can help to correct any imbalance in the perceived cost of choosing car or public transport to get to work. Clearly, in Gateshead’s situation, a common policy or memorandum of understanding is required with Newcastle City Council, to provide an equitable situation. The level of parking specified by the Council, or available to new developments, must also be carefully considered to ensure that travel demand by car is minimised. In this respect, harmonisation with Newcastle is also considered to be key.
